Prof. M Zahidul Haque :
Jordan Queen Rania’s recent visit to the Kutupalang Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar Ukhiya Upazila has added to the efforts of Bangladesh and the International community to help Rohingya refugees who were forced to flee to Bangladesh escaping Myanmar army’s brutality. As a representative of the International Rescue Committee (ICR) and an advocate of UN humanitarian agencies, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah came to Bangladesh to see for herself the situation and to arrange for a swift increase in emergency aid for the Rohingyas. Majority of the Rohingya refugees are children. The Queen met the children at the refugee camp and freely talked to them. She listened to the sad stories of terrified Rohingya women and men who came to Bangladesh to save their lives escaping murder, rape and brutal torture initiated by the violent Myanmar army and their collaborators.
The International Community together with UN agencies has been providing humanitarian aids to Rohingys. They are also working on the issue of returning the Rohingyas to their homeland, that is, Rakhine state in Myanmar and to ensuring their safe and secure living there.
In this civilized world, Myanmar army and their disciples without caring to human and moral or international codes are mercilessly killing innocent Rohingya people. The way they are killing men, women and particularly the children have surpassed all the previous records of crime against humanity. This is no doubt a planned ‘ethnic cleansing’. People all over the world including world leaders, Head of States and Governments while condemning the Myanmar army’s brutality have called upon the Myanmar Government to stop this ethnic cleansing operation and to take back their Rohingya citizens immediately. Queen Rania during her visit to Rohingya refugee camp has also urged the world to speak out against the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingyas.
Meanwhile Rohingyas are not in a healthy living condition in different refugee camps due to lack of proper shelter, sanitation, health care facilities. After her visit to Rohingya refugee camp, Queen said in a tweeter message-“The suffering I have seen and the stories I have heard from #Rohingya #refugees at Kutupalong Camp are harrowing and heartbreaking”. The Bangladesh Government and people are trying their best to help the distressed Rakhine Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina recently expressed her firm determination to help the Rohingyas on humanitarian ground and she is doing everything possible for the welfare of the Rohingya refugees including allotment of 2000 acres of land for building shelter for the Rohingya refugees. However Bangladesh being a poor country with limited lands and resources is facing a great challenge to providing all sorts of humanitarian help to the Rohingyas.
Perhaps it is now become indispensible on the part of the United Nations to take some stern actions compelling the Myanmar Government to take back their Rohingya citizens with honor and dignity without any delay. Like many others, this writer also strongly believe that the United Nations should deploy peace-keeping forces to supervise repatriation of Rohingyas and to protect their lives against any sort of torture and brutality in Myanmar.
(Prof. M Zahidul Haque is a faculty at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka)
