Media reports said Myanmar Minister for the office of the State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi while speaking at UN General Assembly last month hit out at Bangladesh for harboring terrorists in the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps and blamed Dhaka’s failure to crack down on two militant groups for sabotaging the Rohingya repatriation process. A recent report in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy daily named Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Arakan Army (AA) saying their activities in refugee camps are poising security risks to Myanmar and stalling the repatriation of the refugees. Need mention that closer to one million Rohingyas fled Myanmar in 2017.
Bangladesh’s diplomat however quickly dismissed Myanmar’s complaint as yet “another blatant demonstration of falsehoods” rejecting allegations that Bangladesh is harboring any such terrorists groups. He reiterated the country’s commitment to secure a peaceful repatriation pointing at various blame games. Myanmar is using to hide its unwillingness to the repatriation.
Sarcastically Myanmar military has recently increased security patrols along Bangladesh border to create its own stories of terrorists’ threats from Bangladesh side. We apprehend it is part of a new smoke screen to cover its failure to start repatriation at a time when International pressure is growing on the country to take back the refugees. The recent verdict of International Criminal Court (ICC) holding Myanmar responsible for war crime has almost marginalized the country’s stance and the idea that the ICC may shift the court to Bangladesh to take hearing on charges of genocide may be yet a bigger blow. So Myanmar is making senseless accusations.
Indeed we feel pity for Myanmar’s murderous military regime to which people’s life, liberty or human dignity have no place while killing people of minority communities, burning their children, raping their women and destroying villages seem to be the only weapon to achieve ethnic cleansing. An ideology of Buddhist supremacy is now the driving force of Myanmar politics forcing over a half dozen ethnic minority communities to take up arms to fight the regime. ARSA or AA is part of such rebellious communities fighting from within for their existence.
If Bangladesh arms Rohingya refugees Myanmar will know what terrorism means.
