For three hours Bob Rae spoke with officials in Yangon, Burma, about how to reintegrate one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

The way forward became apparent when he walked into a small space with a large table.

Gathered in the room were people from the Rohingya community and members of the non-Rohingya community, two sides of an inter-communal conflict, which became increasingly violent almost three months ago.

The Rohingya are a minority community of Muslims who have been refused citizenship by the government of the majority Buddhist country.

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The two groups spoke to each other candidly.

Thirty years ago, people from both communities had gone to school together. They had done business together. They lived side by side in the state of Rakhine, which for all of them was still their home, their part of their world, their community.

“Over a significant period of time all these relationships were allowed to deteriorate and fester,” said Rae, who listened to both sides of the table expressed their frustrations and tried to figure out what the path forward might look like.

“We have to work at that,” he said, “to help those dialogues take place, help those peace processes to take place in informal ways.”

Rae returned from his first trip to the region as Canada’s special envoy to Burma (also known as Myanmar) last weekend. There, he spoke with Burmese officials, Bangladeshi officials, NGOs working in both countries, and civil society groups.

He visited the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, and met with members of the Rohingya people who have fled persecution. These number more than a million.

He wasn’t, however, allowed to visit Rakhine state, where the violence has taken place.

Rae has pieced together a narrative of the conflict through the many varying accounts he heard. On August 25, a series of attacks took place in northern Rakhine state. The attack was coordinated by ARSA, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which Rae describes as “an insurgency group that represents the militant side of the conflict.” This was the second major attack to occur in the area; the previous one occurred in October 2015.

The August attack was followed by a brutal counter attack, led initially by the army but involving vigilantes from non-Rohingya people, said Rae, and that’s what led to a mass exodus.

Ninety percent of northern Rakhine has been evacuated.

Rae has been to refugee camps in Lebanon and the West Bank. He’s visited the Syrian camp in northern Jordan.

But Cox’s Bazaar is different.

“It’s very fast-growing,” he said.

More than 620,000 people have arrived since Aug. 25.

Almost half are children under the age of 15.

But the balance of the population in the camp has started to shift in the last weeks, as Rohingya men have started to arrive. It seems, said Rae, that women and children were sent ahead first.

The horizon of this hilly region is an endless sea of make-do bamboo and tarpaulin huts. There are no roads in this camp, no space for toilets. It’s loud, the air full of the music of children singing, laughing, playing games. People are being inoculated for cholera and measles. Diarrhea is a constant problem.

Everyone has harrowing memories of death, or rape, or fire.

“Other camps very quickly become communities in which people can live and do things,” said Rae.

“This is, right now, very much a stop-gap measure.

“And we have to recognize it’s not a stop-gap problem.”

“This is an emergency, but it’s more than an emergency,” he said.

“It’s a serious, serious, humanitarian and political issue.”

Rae believes that things can be fixed, but he recognizes that this is a difficult issue that can go very wrong, very quickly, if the right steps aren’t taken.

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He sees three critical aspects of the crisis that need to be addressed:

First, Rae wants there to be a greater understanding of the plural make-up of Burma, a country which has a number of ethnic conflicts, including the Rohingya crisis. It’s a country where the military retains control of 25 percent of parliament and three key ministries, including defence and interior.

Last week, the Burmese army released the results of an internal investigation in which it exonerated itself of blame regarding the Rohingya crisis. This is contrary to reports from aid agencies and the United Nations, who called it “a textbook example of ethnic-cleansing.”

“It’s really important to figure out how to engage the civilian and military leadership,” said Rae. “We expect the walk and the talk to match, and right now they don’t match.”

Second, the humanitarian crisis needs the world’s attention.

This requires money and access.

Right now, there are enough funds and programs available until February 2018.

“That’s only three months away,” said Rae.

“We have to look to medium and longer term plans.”

This includes education, clean water, and healthcare.

Third, “There has to be an independent investigation into the allegations of abuse and violence and intimidation,” said Rae. “We can’t just let something like this happen with impunity.”

Canada needs to be a part of the engagement of all three issues, says Rae, and it is. He’s met dozens of young Canadians working on the ground who are very involved with improving living conditions in the refugee camp. And, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development, will be travelling to the region next week.

“We need to try something different,” said Rae, when asked about economic sanctions, or the popular demand to revoke Burmese state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship.

Past sanctions, said Rae, have only further impoverished the country and created deep suspicion and repression inside Burma.

And calls for revoking Suu Kyi’s citizenship, who Rae met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the APEC summit in Manila, ignore the fact that it was a symbolic gesture to commemorate her leadership in leading the country to general elections.

Revoking the gesture will not resolve the deep humanitarian and political issue, said Rae.

“This is a stateless population, and now largely a homeless population,” said Rae.

Around 400,000 Rohingya people remain in central Rakhine as internally displaced people. No one knows if they’re going to stay, remarked Rae, or if they’re going to be pushed out to become part of the exodus.

“The question for the government of Myanmar, for the government of Bangladesh, for the world, is what are we going to do about that?

“How are we going to respond to this?”