Rohingya Refugees Seek to Return Home to Myanmar

Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge in Bangladesh say they are desperate to stop living as refugees and return to their homeland in Myanmar.

“The Rohingyas have been seeking temporary shelter in Bangladesh only to save their lives from a genocide-like situation in Myanmar. For most of us, life as refugees is very hard in Bangladesh. Arakan (Rakhine), where our Rohingya community has lived for centuries, is our ancestral homeland. We want to go back to Arakan,” said Mohammad Shaker, a Rohingya leader in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.

Nurul Islam, a Britain-based Rohingya rights activist and community leader, said whenever anti-Rohingya violence erupts in Myanmar, the international community has taken a keen interest to see that they get safe passage to other countries. But he alleges outside powers do not follow up to help the refugees return to their homeland. (Courtesy of voanews.com)

Myanmar Rohingya abuse may be 'crimes against humanity': UN

Myanmar's Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity, the UN's rights agency said, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in the country for a visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine.

The army has carried out a bloody crackdown in the western state and thousands of the Muslim minority have flooded over the border into Bangladesh this month, making horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of security forces.

Some 30,000 have fled their homes and analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed. (Courtesy of au.news.yahoo.com)

Bernicat lauds Bangladesh over handling of Rohingya issue

US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat has praised Bangladesh for “skillfully handling” the Rohingya issue and said Washington is closely monitoring the situation.

“I truly admire Bangladesh government for providing support and home to some Rohingyas that are here,” she said at a meeting with Diplomatic Correspondents Association Bangladesh in Dhaka on Monday.

“Bangladesh government has very patiently and skillfully been working on the Rohingya issue with the government of Burma,” she said.

Rohingya activists say more than 100 Rohingyas have been killed since Myanmar began its anti-insurgency operations in the Rakhine state in early October after attacks on border outposts that killed several policemen.

The latest crackdown has rendered an estimated 30,000 Rohingyas homeless.

Bernicat said: “We have been putting pressure on Burma both before and after the election to respect all the people living in the country including Rohingyas.” (Courtesy of dhakatribune.com)

Re-impose sanctions on Myanmar?

Rakhine is burning. The hapless Rohingyas are being butchered, children are thrown into fire, women are disrobed in public before being gang-raped and houses are looted, torched and razed. In the process Rohingya neighbourhoods are destroyed. 

In the past, extremist members of the majority Buddhist community carried out such dastardly acts while the security forces looked the other way. Denial was the order of the day and little punitive measures were taken against the perpetrators. Over the last several weeks the situation has taken a turn for the worse. The law enforcement agencies, including the armed forces, have actively unleashed violence. The attack on the security forces allegedly by radicalised Rohingyas was a flimsy pretext for a violent crackdown on this marginalised community. There is a strong body of evidence to argue that such an assault on the Rohingyas was part of a well-prepared strategy involving non-state actors and state agencies. In October 2016, mainstream international media began reporting distribution of lethal weapons among a section of the population in the Rakhine state. This was soon followed by gruesome acts of violence against the Rohingya minority that is now being aptly described as 'planned genocide'. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)