ACCORDING to Cox’s Bazar police, a total of 19 Rohingyas, including two community leaders, were murdered in the last six months. Fifty-five Rohingyas have been arrested in connection with all those murders. Yet the police are still to find any reasonable answer. The first of the murders was of a community leader back in January. Another murder of yet another community leader is still fresh in the minds of the Rohingyas happened less than a month ago.
On the evening of June 18, 40-year-old Arifullah, a well-educated Rohingya community leader, was murdered by a group of knife-wielding men, in the middle of a busy pathway in Balukhali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. The spate of murders has left the Rohingyas insecure in their own refuge.
Bangladesh authorities have planned to deploy around 2,000 policemen to guard the refugees. This will be in addition to the 700 policemen currently working in the camps. Police said internal conflicts between Rohingyas stem for establishing supremacy and previous enmity may be the causes behind the murders. The enmity is said to have developed back in Myanmar. Others claim that being provided their necessities and having nothing to do are reasons behind the rise in crime. Many also point to believe that the ghettoisation of the camps is aggravating the situation.
A total of 231 cases were filed against the Rohingya people and 451 were arrested so far. The other crimes committed in the camps include rape, abduction, smuggling, drug peddling, and attempted robbery. Five police camps were set up in various points inside the Rohingya camp four months ago to maintain law and order.
We have promised the Rohingyas a safe and hospitable climate for the near future while their repatriation starts. But our administration has problems of its own to be able to deal with the safety issue of such a huge number of refugees. Discipline among the refugees is in a very vulnerable position.
The international agencies working for the refugees must know how bad the safety and security situation in the camps is. Please help them live in safety. Our administration is unable to provide them real safety and security. Therefore we would request the UN and other international agencies to send UN Police (UNPOL) to Bangladesh to ensure the safety and security of the Rohingyas while we try our best to figure out the perpetrators behind the main killings. The world should provide us this support as we are unable by ourselves to manage the security for such a huge number of refugees. Other nations like the US and UK can also try to send their security agencies like the FBI and Scotland Yard to help us solve the security problems.
