Bob Rae, special envoy to Myanmar, to release report on Rohingya crisis

Bob Rae, Canada’s special envoy on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, will release a report outlining what he recommends the government do about the humanitarian and security conflict.

In a tweet Monday morning, Rae – who was formerly the premier of Ontario and a Liberal MP – announced he will present his recommendations to the government and hold a press conference to discuss his findings with media on Tuesday morning.

READ MORE: Canada sanctions Myanmar general over Rohingya brutality

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Rae as special envoy in October, roughly three months after security forces in Myanmar began attacking villages of the Rohingya ethnic minority in what has been labelled by the United Nations as a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

When he was appointed, Rae said his task would be to try and hear from all sides of the violence and to gather facts to shape a plan for how Canada and other countries should work to end the violence that has now displaced half a million Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh, with many of the women who have fled reporting rape and sexual violence by security forces.

WATCH BELOW: Rohingya women tell of Myanmar military’s alleged rape

1:03 Rohingya women tell of Myanmar military’s alleged rape

In his interim report presented in December, Rae drew particular attention to those accounts of women who had experienced sexual violence, as well as to the “deplorably overcrowded” refugee camps housing the Rohingya in Bangladesh.

In February, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland slapped new sanctions on one of the top generals in the Myanmar military over his role in the brutality.

The leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, is an honourary Canadian citizen and has done little to condemn the violence since it began.

That prompted some to call for the Canadian government to revoke her honourary citizenship, but the government has refused to do so.

Rae has said previously that focusing on whether her citizenship should be revoked is not the most pressing question in the crisis, and that it is more important to focus on the quality of life in refugee camps and who will ultimately be held accountable for the attacks.