Canadian PM Trudeau tasks special envoy to press Myanmar on refugees

OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a special envoy to Myanmar on Monday tasked with pressing its leadership to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Trudeau also announced in a statement that Canada would be doubling its contribution this year for humanitarian aid for the refugees to Can$12 million (US$9.5 million).

Former senior MP Bob Rae will “reinforce the urgent need to resolve the humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar and to address the situation affecting vulnerable populations, including the Rohingya Muslim community,” read the statement, released as an international donor conference opened in Geneva.

Rae will also advise Trudeau on how best to support “those affected and displaced by the recent violence.”

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Trudeau said he is “deeply concerned about the urgent humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, particularly the brutal persecution of the Rohingya Muslim people.”

More than 600,000 people from the Muslim minority group have fled violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state since August.

Rohingyas have been systematically deprived of basic rights over decades in majority Buddhist Myanmar.

In the latest crackdown, Myanmar’s security forces have fired indiscriminately on unarmed civilians, including children, and committed widespread sexual violence, according to UN investigators.

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Trudeau called Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi last month to urge her to end the violence.

Suu Kyi, an honorary citizen of Canada and Nobel laureate, has been criticized for her ambiguous position on the Rohingya crisis.