Sharmin Nahar Nipa :
Thousands of Rohingya refugees died and over 700,000 fled their homes in Rakhine State of Myanmar to Bangladesh after a brutal crackdown on them by the military of Myanmar in 2017. Renewed violence including rape, murder and arson by the Tatmadaw of Myanmar triggered the unprecedented exodus of Rohingya from Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh.
Muslim Rohingya continues to flee their homes since the late 1970s due to discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government. Majority of them have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have reached Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand through sea routes.
Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya Muslims is not new. Such waves of emigration were recorded in 1978, 1992, and most recently in 2017.
Before the military campaign in 2017, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar.
The international community condemned such brutal crackdown on Rohingya population by Myanmar army and the rights groups accused the Myanmar government of committing genocide against the Muslim ethnic minority group of Rohingya. The United Nations (UN) branded Myanmar’s treatment of its Muslim Rohingya population a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing.
Fled from their country, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are now living as refugees in the world’s largest refugee camp in Teknaf and Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar, a district in south eastern Bangladesh, in dire conditions. August 25 has made their fifth year of forced exile from their home country, Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country.
The refugees who are now living in sprawling camps made by bamboo and tarpaulin remain completely aid-dependent as Bangladesh has limited resources to feed such a huge number of refugees. To ease pressure on host communities, almost 30,000 Rohingya have been relocated to Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal. The government of Bangladesh has already spent millions of dollars for building shelters to host up to 100,000 refugees there. In fact, Rohingya refugees added immense pressure on host communities, environment, and economy.
They also created security risk for local community as well as for Bangladesh as several Rohingya terror groups already engaged in killings in camps and a section of refugees involved in drug trading and robbery. The terror groups emerged in the limelight following the murder of the prominent Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah in September 2021. On the night of 9 August, two more community leaders were shot dead in the Jamtali camp.
According to police and the Rohingya community leaders, a dozen armed terror groups become active in the camps at night, as law enforcement officials only remain on vigil during the day, the groups often clash with one another to establish supremacy in the camps and take control of legal and illegal businesses. It was reported that members of extremist groups, like the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) have been active in the camps and carrying criminal activities there. They have reportedly been involved in abduction, extortion and drug trafficking for a long time.
The persecuted Rohingya populations wish to return to their homes in Rakhine State, but there has been no meaningful progress for their return home. To date, not a single refugee has returned to Rakhine State through Bangladesh and Myanmar set up the formal repatriation mechanism in November 2017, soon after the exodus started.
There were two attempts of refugee repatriation in 2018 and 2019. But the efforts were failed as those refugees selected to return declined to join the process because of Myanmar government’s apathy in ensuring their security, access to citizenship and livelihood opportunities upon return.
However, process and prospects for return of Rohingya refugees have become almost uncertain following the Myanmar coup in February 2021.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law. There are also restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to state education and civil service jobs. The mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017 led the International Criminal Court investigating crimes against humanity, and led to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) investigating genocide.
On 11 November 2019, The Gambia lodged a 35-page application with the ICJ against Myanmar, initiating the case on the basis of the erga omnes character of the obligations enshrined in the Genocide Convention.
Now, the lack of progress on repatriation of Rohingyas has left both the host communities and the government increasingly frustrated. Bangladesh cannot afford managing over one million Rohingya refugees indefinitely as she itself has high levels of poverty, unemployment and resource constraints. In fact, hosting such a big number of refugees is a big challenge for Bangladesh when Myanmar government remained unmoved to address the crisis for which it is solely responsible.
The international community also did not take responsibility to protect these Myanmar people from atrocities, carried out by the country’s army personnel over the years. Pressure from Western governments, several Muslim countries appears to have had little impact in this.
Analysts said taught economic sanctions may be an effective tool to force the Myanmar government to stop genocide, abuses and violence in the country as well as create a conducive and safe environment for Rohingya repatriation.
(The writer is a Senior News and Programme Presenter, Bangla TV).
