The last few days have brought with it a barrage of media coverage documenting the carnage and genocide being committed against the Rohingya in Burma. But even though the atrocities have now gotten the world’s attention, the oppression of this ethnic minority is not new.

From what is being published and widely shared, many may assume this state-sponsored violence and crisis began on Aug. 25. In reality, for more than four decades, the stateless Rohingya have been brutally persecuted at the hands of the Burmese military and government.

Though the Rohingya are indigenous to Burma, living in their ancestral land, they were stripped of their citizenship in 1982. Until that time, the Rohingya were recognized as citizens, voted in elections, and were elected into government positions.

Since 1982, the Rohingya have fled in several waves to Bangladesh after being banned from access to work and education and stripped of many basic human rights. The Burmese government has been calling them illegal Bengali immigrants.

In early August the NGO I work with, Burma Task Force, alerted the international community to increasing acts of violence being perpetrated against the Rohingya. We anticipated the crisis we now see before us, given the military buildup in Rohingya areas and its blockade of villages.

We were also alarmed by Bangladesh’s decision to close its borders and India’s planned expulsion of 40,000 refugees. In the weeks leading up to Aug. 25, the UN, U.S. Congress, the Pope, Amnesty International, and Burma Task Force were expressing concern.

The recommendations in the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, led by Kofi Annan, are being deeply undermined. Released hours before the state violence erupted that led to the mass exodus of the Rohingya, this report called for concrete structural change that could help eliminate the barriers for impeding the peace and coexistence in Rakhine State.

Critical areas identified for change include citizenship, socio-economic development, freedom of movement, and recommendations on how to rectify the historical exclusion of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs), amongst others. Although the commission did not have a mandate to hold perpetrators accountable, it at least laid an outline for safety for the Rohingya and stabilize the regime, yet even that was too much for Burma to accept.

The worst atrocities have been committed in areas in which the government has, or plans to have, significant economic development projects. There were massacres in Sittwe in 2012 at the starting point of the Shwe oil/gas pipeline to China, and violence connected to the Kyaukphyu special economic zone (SEZ), and now amidst the current military operations the government announced the planned development of a new SEZ in Maungdaw once the situation has “calmed down.”

This is why a campaign has started called #WeAreAllRohingya now, urging multinational corporations to use their power and speak up against genocide.

While the media may pick up on the Rohingya genocide for a brief moment in time, given the multitude of tragedies and disasters facing our world today, we must not forget that this has gone on for the last 40 years and will need years of dedicated support, awareness building and international participation to restore the Rohingya as legally recognized citizens and residents of Burma. The importance of Canada’s pressure on the Burma government cannot be understated.

The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights calls this a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” and with the International Day of Peace having just passed on Friday, it is time for Canada to stand up for its diversity and demonstrate its commitment to all the communities that make up this great country.

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There is also a responsibility on the media to start calling the Rohingya crisis what it is, a “genocide.” While there may be reluctance for governments to use that term, there should be no reason that media cannot describe it what seven Nobel Peace Prize laureates, London’s Queen Mary University, Yale University, and other NGOs have called a genocide.

We have been in touch with, and will be sharing our agenda for action with the federal government in the coming days.

Ahmed Ramadan is outreach co-ordinator for the Burma Task Force. ahmed.r@justiceforall.org.