A candlelight vigil gets underway on Parliament Hill in less than an hour for what organizers are calling the "forgotten ones."
The silent protest is in support of the nearly half million Rohingya who have fled their home country of Myanmar. Parliament Hill is a symbolic place for this protest. Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded an honorary Canadian citizenship a few years ago, the same leader now being accused by some of genocide.
If you had asked any Canadian a couple of weeks ago, they had probably never heard of the Rohingya.
But the world's attention is now focussed on this small ethnic group that the United Nations calls "the most persecuted minority in the world."
The frustration, the helplessness is clear in Raees Ahmed's voice.
“It is ethnic cleansing. It is clear but what are we going to do about it. That's my big question.”
Ahmed, who lives in Ottawa now, is a member of that Rohingya minority, came to Canada with his parents in 2001. He was born in Bangladesh and lived across from the refugee camps and has watched in horror as his people have been slaughtered in Myanmar; their villages burned, their women raped and entire families killed.
The Myanmar government, however, has denied it.
“There is no ethnic cleansing, there is no genocide,” Hau Do Suan, Myanmar’s UN Ambassador said.
“This is unjustifiable, this is ethnic cleansning,” countered Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Ahmed says Canada's condemnation of the Myanmar government is a strong step but he's urging the Liberals to help coordinate a peacekeeping mission to save his people.
“I would like for our government to spearhead this, to take a leadership role on the world stage. This is our time to show leadership.”
No one from the Mynmar Embassy in Ottawa would agree to an interview today but in an email said that
"Myanmar objects in the strongest terms the use of such words as atrocities and ethnic cleansing."
Fareed Khan is helping organize tonight's candlelight vigil on Parliament Hill.
“These are a people that are powerless and voiceless.
He says Canadians can do so much to provide a voice to the Rohingya minority. More than 400-thousand are now living in cramped and dangerous conditions along the Bangladesh border.
“This is a man-made disaster and one that has not gotten attention for decades,” Khan said, “and I think we're finally giving it attention and needs to be kept at high level until we can help people who are suffering.”
“It is forgotten,” added Raees Ahmed, “People don't take interest. Is there no oil there? Is it too far? Are they not human beings?”
