In blatant denial to the reality in the ground, Bangladesh and Myanmar on Tuesday set up a high-powered Joint Working Group (JWG) to start “safe and voluntary” repatriation of Rohingya refugees within the next one month time. They struck the arrangement at a time when violence in the Rakhine State is still forcing people to flee instead of showing any sign of improvement that the refugees will feel free to go back. The Bangladesh side is living in fool’s paradise if they believe they will be able to assure security of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Bangladesh should have threatened action against Myanmar for calling Rohingyas as Bengalis and forcing them to take shelter in Bangladesh.
The fact is that the deal says repatriation will be voluntary in full safety and dignity but in the prevailing situation no Rohingya will fell free from fear to go back only to be killed because of any agreement with Bangladesh. Bangladesh will look foolish by pretending Myanmar takes Bangladesh as a force to reckon with.
The working group formed in the light of the MoU signed between the two countries on November 23 has called for repatriation to start from January 23 but in the truest sense of the term it betrays the reality by all accounts.
The Foreign Ministry people including its Secretary is anxious to prove that the deal with Myanmar has importance in solving the Rohingya crisis bilaterally while lacking the understanding that the crisis of ethnic cleansing and throwing out a states’ own people is an international problem and has to be solved internationally.
Crawling of Bangladesh government before Myanmar government means nothing
to Myanmar government. Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch (HRW) shows over 40 villages were torched in October and November to force people to flee when Myanmar claimed the violence has stopped and normalcy restored in the troubled areas. Our government should have asked the question why it is still forcing people to flee when its representatives in Dhaka are working out the repatriation arrangement.
Over 650,000 Rohingya refugees have taken shelter in Bangladesh since August 25 but it appears the new arrangement for repatriation will go nowhere. There is hardly any hope of meaningful repatriation and it is almost certain the fate of Rohingyas will remain hanging without the UN involvement in the process. The government of Myanmar is using Bangladesh to weaken international pressure.
HRW has already warned the process is bound to face deadlock and it can only work by rewriting the deal taking the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a third party in the deal to force Myanmar to accept the realities.
In fact Rohingya refugees is an international problem and UNHCR is the right body to carry out the repatriation with all international standards. International human right organizations also must have a role to monitor the repatriation and make sure refugees are properly rehabilitated in their abandoned homes and villages. They can’t be left to the mercy of Myanmar government to disappear at the end.
We have always said Bangladesh is not in a position to secure safety of Rohingyas after repatriation. Past agreements with Myanmar have proved futile. Rohingya refugees are an international problem and Bangladesh must join international efforts to compel Myanmar government to create safe situation within the country for their return. Bangladesh must not appear foolish before the international community.
