Pretence won’t work, Canadian envoy tells Suu Kyi

Amid widespread international criticism for failing to address the issue of displaced Rohingya refugees, Canada's newly-appointed special envoy has said Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi's "pretence" will not help to resolve the ongoing crisis.

"… I will tell her (Suu Kyi) that it isn't going to work to just pretend that it didn't happen and it isn't going to work to say that two sides fighting and that's too bad," Bob Rae, also the former Ontario premier and prominent Liberal politician of Canada, said in an interview with CTV News while visiting Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh.

Since August 25, over 607,000 Rohingya refugees were forced to leave their home and several thousands were killed in the violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

READ more: Responsibility lies with Myanmar

Thousands still are crossing the border and taking refuge in Bangladesh on a daily basis.

"These people all have been forced to leave their homes and many more are left behind in Myanmar and its clear now many have also died, so we need to talk about that, get more and more evidence and information," said Rae in the interview.

He said it is quite "hard" and "overwhelming" for him as what he has witnesses and experienced in his visit to the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, adding that "it will take quite a lot of time to really digest the full impact of what we have seen".      

       

CTV News, a Canada-based news agency, published a video of the interview on its website yesterday. 

"People are so deeply traumatised and hurt by what's happened," said Rae, who was appointed special envoy to Myanmar on October 23.

Without cameras and staff present, Rae met with 12 Rohingya women who shared their experiences in Myanmar's Rakhine state. He says the refugees detailed horrific violence including sexual assault, aerial bombings, beheadings and attacks on children with machetes. Rae says the nature of these harrowing stories has been consistent, CTV News reports.