Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis Summary Burma In the face of the ethnic cleansing, some argue genocide, of the Rohingya by the Burmese authorities—and with a return to attacks against ethnic groups in the North East of Burma—it is time for the DFID once again to review its engagement with Burma. The UK Government should adopt a frame of reference for relating to Burma that reflects that country’s deliberate, state-sanctioned long-term, ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people which has resulted in huge costs, of all kinds, for the Rohingya, Bangladesh and the international community as well as potentially protracted and intractable displacement challenge on a huge scale. The UK needs to build an effective alliance across the international community whereby relations with Burma are consistently imbued with an expectancy of accountability and conditionality. Burma has created huge human, moral, financial and economic debts. A bill should be coming for what the Burmese army has done and what elements of Burmese government and society have become accessories to. And it is not limited to the Rohingya. Recent reports and evidence of Burmese military offensives in Northern Shan, Kachin and Karen states, inevitably give rise to the very grave concern of whether a perceived lack of accountability or consequence has emboldened the perpetrators. The UK and allies should gather support for the UN Security Council to refer Burma to the International Criminal Court and to apply targeted financial sanctions at all identifiable key figures. There needs to be a realisation and acknowledgement by the Government of Burma that there are consequences for such human rights violations. There also needs to be a recognition by the UK Government that State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi herself is now becoming part of the problem. The result of this is a need to re-frame the UK’s aid and development programmes in Burma. Our predecessors recommended that DFID Burma needed to maintain flexibility in case of a situation change. The main DFID programme and policies were drafted at a time of high optimism: democracy appeared to be opening up, a Nobel Peace Prize winner was de facto President. Since then there has been ethnic cleansing, the breaking of ceasefires, a closing of civil society space, including restrictions on media freedoms and the persecution of journalists, and a reduction in religious freedom. The situation has now dramatically changed and as a result we need to see dramatic change in our engagement with Burma. Unfortunately, the only change we have been made aware of so far by the UK government, nine months after the start of the Rohingya crisis is the end to training of the Tatmadaw, the Burmese army, by UK military forces. British tax payers must be assured that none of their money is being used to prop up a government accused of crimes against humanity. In response to our report, DFID must clearly outline all of the UK’s on-going financial commitments in Burma, including those through multinational organisations, identifying in each case, the justification 3