Envoy Bob Rae says Rohingya genocide prosecution faces legal hurdles
OTTAWA — Bob Rae, Canada’s special envoy to the Rohingya crisis, says the international community faces tough legal challenges if it hopes to prosecute Myanmar’s military leaders for genocide against the country’s ethnic Muslim minority.
Rae offered that assessment after a United Nations human rights report released Monday that named six individuals as being responsible for the planned crimes against Rohingya Muslims and marked the UN’s most stinging denunciation of the crisis that erupted last August.
The UN estimates more than 700,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh in a bloody crackdown by Myanmar’s military.
Rae, in his report released earlier this year, said the prosecution of crimes against humanity needed to be pursued and urged Canada to play a leading role.