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* Graphic-A menacing monsoon - tmsnrt.rs/2DepYHD

By Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall 
March 11, 2018

CHAKMAKUL REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh -- The Rohingya refugees who live in shacks clinging to these steep, denuded hills in southern Bangladesh pray that the sandbags fortifying the slopes will survive the upcoming monsoon. 

“They make it safer, but they won’t hold if the rain is really heavy,” said Mohammed Hares, 18. Cracks have already formed in the packed mud on which his shack is built.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since last August to escape a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar. Most now live in flimsy, bamboo-and-plastic structures perched on what were once forested hills. 

Bangladesh is lashed by typhoons, and the Rohingya camps are clustered in a part of the country that records the highest rainfall. Computer modelling by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) shows that more than 100,000 refugees will be threatened by landslides and floods in the coming monsoon. 

The rains typically begin in April and peak in July, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. 

In Kutupalong-Balukhali, the biggest of the makeshift camps, up to a third of the land could be flooded, leaving more than 85,000 refugees homeless, according to the UNHCR. Another 23,000 refugees live on slopes at risk of landslide. 

The UNHCR, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and World Food Programme are using bulldozers to level 123 acres in northern Kutupalong-Balukhali camp in an effort to make the area safer, said UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline Gluck. 

IOM is putting debris-removal equipment and work crews throughout the camps, it said, and trying to improve roads and stabilise slopes. It is also setting up emergency diarrhoea treatment centres and providing search and rescue and first aid training. 

Bangladesh Disaster Management Secretary Shah Kamal said the government was working with the UN to relocate 133,000 people living in high-risk areas. It is also launching a Rohingya-language radio station that will act as a natural disaster warning system, he said. 

Bangladesh government officials have also previously told Reuters they are pushing ahead with a controversial plan to turn an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal into a temporary home for the Rohingya and move 100,000 refugees there ahead of the monsoon. 

Flooding increases the risk of disease outbreaks. It could also threaten access to medical facilities, making them difficult to reach and restock, the modelling shows. Latrines, washrooms and tube wells may also be flooded. 

The risk of landslides has been exacerbated by refugee families needing firewood to cook. Trees were cut down to make way for the refugees, who also dug up the roots for firewood, making the slopes even weaker and prone to collapse. 

“This was a forest when I first arrived,” said Arafa Begum, 40, who lives with her three children in a shack on a barren, vertiginous slope in Chakmakul camp. She said she wanted to move before the monsoon but must await the instructions of the majhi, or block leader. 

The majhi’s name is Jahid Hussain. “I don’t know what I’ll do when the rain comes,” he told Reuters. “It depends on Allah.” 

Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall in CHAKMAKUL REFUGEE CAMP Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in DHAKA Editing by Alex Richardson

In this Sept. 15, 2017 file photo, Rohingya Muslims carry food items across from Bangladesh towards no man's land where they have set up a refugee camp, as smoke rise from fire across the border in Myanmar, in Tombru. Some 6,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled attacks in Myanmar last year live at the cloudiest edges of the border with Bangladesh, in a no man’s land that seems to be neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh. Many stay in these places because they are from nearby villages, and can see the wreckage of their former homes. But the Myanmar government insists no man’s land doesn’t exist, and the 6,000 refugees are living inside Myanmar. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

By Tofayel Ahmad
March 9, 2018

From their home, a tent hastily erected in a grassy field, the young Muslim Rohingya couple can see the village they left behind last year, fleeing attacks by Buddhist mobs and Myanmar security forces.

They arrived in a no man's land, one of the small, ill-defined areas that exist at the cloudiest edges of the borderlands, places that seem to be neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh. While nearly every other Rohingya refugee who crossed the border has sought protection in the immense camps a few miles deeper into Bangladesh, these people say they will go no farther.

"My ancestors' graves are there," said Abdul Naser, gesturing toward his village, less than 100 meters (yards) away. "Sometimes, I walk close to the barbed wire fence and touch my land, and I cry in the dark."

But a few weeks ago things changed. Myanmar deployed more soldiers to the border, some of whom began coming to within 10 meters (yards) of the refugees' homes. They shout insults at the Rohingya, the refugees say, they throw empty whiskey bottles. They have set up speakers that blare announcements, insisting people go further into Bangladesh.

Because to Myanmar, no man's land doesn't exist at all.

"We cannot accept the term 'no man's land' because that is our land," said Nyan Myint Kyaw, Myanmar's deputy commander of the border police. Shifting rivers may have washed away some border markers, he says, and fences may not have been erected everywhere. But he insists the 6,000 or so Rohingya who think they live between the two countries are actually living inside Myanmar.

It is easy to get confused on the border, where many areas are not marked at all and where it's sometimes unclear if a fence marks someone's personal land, or if it demarcates the frontier. Making things more complicated, Myanmar places its border fences 150 feet from the actual boundary line.

While Myanmar insists all the hazy territory is their land, its security forces — as well as Bangladesh security forces — are also very careful to avoid entering places seen as a no man's land, presumably fearing accidental clashes and diplomatic trouble.

Myanmar says the additional soldiers were deployed to stop possible cross-border attacks by Rohingya militants, though no such attacks are known to have occurred. When Bangladesh protested the deployments, Myanmar dismissed their complaints.

"This is not like we are trying to invade Bangladesh," Myanmar spokesman Zaw Htay said in early March. "These are only actions taken against the terrorist groups."

The Rohingya have long lived at the ragged fringes of life in Myanmar, denied citizenship and many of the most basic rights. They are derided as "Bengalis" and many in Myanmar believe they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, most live in poverty in Myanmar's Rakhine state, next to Bangladesh.

The most recent problems began in August, when Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on Myanmar security posts. Myanmar responded with overwhelming force, burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, raping women, looting homes and carrying out massacres. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the attacks into Bangladesh. Aid groups say more than 6,700 people were killed.

The UN refugee agency has appealed for protection for the borderland Rohingya.

The agency "is concerned about the safety of a group of vulnerable Rohingya women, men and children from Myanmar, who have been living in a so-called 'no man's land,'" it said in a statement. "People who have fled violence in their country must be granted safety and protection."

But is the no man's land inside Myanmar? Even the Rohingya say some of it probably is, though there are plenty of places where even border guards aren't sure where to find the dividing line.

A Rohingya community leader says most of the 6,000 in the borderlands are from nearby villages.

"They do not want to leave the place or enter Bangladesh, hoping that they will go back one day and it will be easier to move from here," Dil Mohammed said.

The young Rohingya couple agreed with him. They want to keep their village in sight. Or at least what's left of it.

"My trees are still there," said Naser's wife, 20-year-old Ruksana Begum. "It's spring now. I can see the green leaves of my mango trees. They have burned our homes but my trees are still growing."

———

AP writers Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Esther Htusan contributed to this report.

More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since August [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

March 9, 2018

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein also calls on Myanmar to allow monitors in to investigate suspected 'acts of genocide'.

The UN human rights chief has called for all atrocities committed against Myanmar's Rohingyato be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, who has previously described Myanmar's campaign against the Rohingya as a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing", also urged the country to allow monitors into restricted areas to investigate what he called suspected "acts of genocide".

If they want to disprove the allegations of serious violations against the Rohingya, "invite us in" to Rakhine State, Zeid told a news conference on Friday in Geneva.

"We are saying there are strong suspicions that, yes, acts of genocide may have taken place. But only a court can confirm this," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights added.

Al-Hussein's comments come after Myanmar National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said on Thursday that "if it was genocide, they [Rohingya] would all be driven out".

He added: "We have often heard many accusations that there is ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Myanmar. And I've said it before and I'll say it again - it is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you. Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence." 

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said the UN's announcement was "long overdue."

"It is very important to prosecute Myanmar leaders at the ICC and to end this ongoing genocide," Lwin told Al Jazeera.

"More than a million Rohingya are seeking justice. The Myanmar military and government have been committing crimes against humanity and genocide for over 40 years. Not only against the Rohingya, but also against Kachin, Karen, Shan and other ethnic minorities.

"As a Rohingya activist, we want to see Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in court at the Hague," he added.

Nearly 700,000 have fled

The Rohingya, viewed by the UN and the US as one of the most persecuted communities in the world, have face widespread discrimination from Myanmar authorities.

Since August, more than 650,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the country's military cracked down on the minority in northern Rakhine State.

Those fleeing have brought with them accounts of rape, torture, arson and killings by Burmese soldiers and vigilante gangs.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has estimated that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the crackdown alone.

According to recent satellite imagery, more than 360 Rohingya villages had been partially or completely destroyed since August, with at least 55 villages completely bulldozed, removing all traces of buildings, wells and vegetation.

Myanmar's military says the crackdown was needed to root out Rohingya armed rebels who attacked border police posts in August, killing about a dozen people.

In January, Myanmar and Bangladesh announced a repatriation deal, but rights groups and Rohingya have raised concerns about the agreement, saying it does not guarantee full citizenship, or safety, for those who return.

Prior to the current exodus, tens of thousands of Rohingya had already been living as refugees in several neighbouring countries.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have blamed each other for delays to the repatriation of Rohingya refugees. (Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour)

By AFP
March 7, 2018

DHAKA: A senior Bangladesh cabinet minister has accused Myanmar of obstructing efforts to repatriate roughly 750,000 Rohingya refugees, saying it was unlikely the displaced Muslims would ever return to their homeland.

Finance minister A M A Muhith said the repatriation deal signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh in November would likely fail despite his government's official stance that the refugees must eventually go back.

"I do not believe the Rohingya can be sent back," Muhith, an outspoken minister from the ruling party, told reporters late on Tuesday (Mar 6) in Dhaka after meeting with a British charity.

"You can speculate that very few will return to Burma. The first reason is that Burma will only take a few and secondly is that the refugees will never return if they fear persecution," he added, using another name for Myanmar.

Bangladesh insists the repatriation process will go ahead, last month submitting to Myanmar the names of 8,000 refugees expected to return to Rakhine state where the Muslim minority has been persecuted for generations.

But the plan has courted controversy from the outset.

Rights groups and the UN have warned that conditions for their return are not close to being in place.

Refugees living in camps in southeastern Bangladesh have also resisted the idea, fearing they will not be safe if they return to Rakhine.

Close to one million refugees from the persecuted Muslim minority live in squalid camps in Cox's Bazar, having fled successive waves of violence in Myanmar's westernmost region.

Under the agreement, the first of a proposed 750,000 returnees were scheduled to begin crossing the border in late January.

But the process stalled, with Myanmar and Bangladesh blaming the other for a lack of preparedness for the huge undertaking.

Muhith said Myanmar would "take 15 a day when there is one million", referring to the Rohingya in camps strung along the border.

"They (Myanmar) are absolute evil," he added.

A UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday that Myanmar was continuing its "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya with a "campaign of terror and forced starvation" in Rakhine state.

Rohingya are still streaming across the border from Rakhine state more than six months after a Myanmar army crackdown sparked a massive refugee crisis.

Some Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, are protesting against the community's repatriation to Myanmar, carrying a festoon on which their demands for repatriation are written.

By Maaz Hussain
March 6, 2018

Bangladesh handed over a list of more than 8,000 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar last week to kick-start their repatriation. But Rohingya community members in Bangladesh say they are not willing to return to Myanmar because the situation for them is still hostile in Rakhine, where they lived. 

“Persecution of the Rohingyas is still going on and they are still fleeing Myanmar every day. The soldiers killed my wife and son. No action has been taken against those who raped and murdered so many Rohingyas. With all perpetrators still at large there we will not feel safe in Rakhine at all,” Abdur Rahman, a Rohingya refugee in Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, said. “We cannot return to Rakhine in this situation.”

Ko Ko Linn, a Rohingya refugee community leader in Bangladesh, said that Rohingya would not return to Myanmar because the government seems to have decided to force them into some new settlements away from the villages where they lived.

“Almost all of the around 300 villages of Rakhine, from where the Rohingyas were driven away, have been set on fire in the past months. At least 48 of those villages were completely flattened using bulldozers in the past weeks. It’s clear they do not want the Rohingyas to return to the villages where they lived,” he told VOA. “None from our community wants to enter Myanmar’s new settlements, which are nothing but open air prisons.”

Following a military crackdown in August, in which Myanmar’s soldiers were accused of rape, murder and arson in Rohingya villages, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya began crossing over to neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar has strongly and consistently denied the allegations of abuses and atrocities. 

Late last year, Bangladesh signed a deal with Myanmar to repatriate some 700,000 Rohingya refugees. Last month, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal handed over a list of 8,032 Rohingya refugees to his Myanmar counterpart, Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe, following a meeting in Dhaka.

Samsun Nahar, a Rohingya widow, along with her 9 children at her bamboo-and-plastic shack in a refugee colony in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Myanmar Social Welfare, Relief & Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye told VOA’s Burmese Service in a recent interview that Myanmar’s immigration ministry was trying to verify the list received from Bangladeshi authorities. 

“It’s now under verification in accordance with the agreement. This verification process already took actions for two days now. I think it will take about a week to finish the verification work and will send it to the Bangladesh authorities,” the Myanmar minister said. “We can accept 300 refugees per day through two border crossing points.”

An unsafe return

But Rohingya refugee community leaders accuse the Myanmar government of being insincere about the issue of repatriation. 

Linn said with the Rohingyas still being targeted violently in Rakhine, the conditions are not good for them to return to Myanmar.

“Last week the authorities in Burma said they were verifying the list of the Rohingyas for repatriation. But, even this week we saw the Rakhine militants loot many Rohingya households and the security forces set alight their houses. On March 1, Burmese forces violently threatened around 6,000 displaced Rohingyas living in no man’s land and fired at them, forcing half of them to cross over to Bangladesh,” he said. 

Since the talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar, Rohingya at the main refugee camp in Cox's Bazar have held several demonstrations to protest the repatriation process. Many said that while they would be happy to return to their homeland in Myanmar, but only if the country agrees to “return” them their citizenship and guarantees their safety.

Noor Ankis at her Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, along with her husband and five children, after she fled Myanmar in September.

“They must keep U.N. peacekeeping forces ready in Arakan for our security before we return. Burma (Myanmar) must accept us as ethnic Rohingya and return our citizenship and related basic rights. They must allow us to return to our villages where we lived and return our confiscated lands and compensate for our losses because of the military crackdown,” said Mohammad Islam, a Rohingya community leader in Cox’s Bazar. 

Most Rohingya do not possess citizenship in Myanmar, where the government says they must accept the label Bengali, a term rejected by most Rohingya leaders. 

The whole bi-lateral repatriation scheme has been fundamentally flawed right from the start because both Myanmar and Bangladesh did not involve the Rohingya in the negotiations, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

“No wonder the Rohingya are wholly unsatisfied with Burma’s promises for ‘security’ if they return because there are no real guarantees for protection, no international monitors, no accountability for past rights abuses, and no way to prevent a Burmese soldier from turning on them again,” he said. 

He added that the refugees should not be returned to camps guarded by the very same forces who forced them to flee massacres and gang rapes.

Myanmar border guard police officers patrol along a beach near a makeshift camp at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Photograph: Hein Htet/EPA

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen
March 5, 2018

Arrest seen as military sending signal to Rohingya community that they are under threat from further attacks

A former Rohingya MP has been arrested in Myanmar, in move that has been condemned as a further escalation of the attacks on the Rohingya community. 

Aung Zaw Win, a major property tycoon and former MP for the Union Solidarity and Development party, was arrested at Yangon international airport on Wednesday as he was about to leave on a business trip to Bangkok. 

A government statement said he has been accused of financing the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Rohingya military group.

Aung Zaw Win remains in custody in Mingaladon police station, near Yangon airport, but despite being held for five days has undergone no questioning.

Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin said “the government and military [is] sending a signal to all of the Rohingya living and working in Yangon that they are also under threat, that they want to destroy the whole Rohingya community, not just those in Rahkine”.

Since August 2017, thousands of Rohingya have been killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a military-led campaign of violence which Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, recently said had the “hallmarks of genocide”.

Aung Zaw Win is one of the most prominent Rohingya businessmen in Myanmar, with a vast property empire which includes hotels in Yangon and and Naypyidaw, as well as numerous construction companies. He was also MP for Maungdaw in Rahkine until 2015.

Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said: “It’s extremely worrying that he has been arrested like this. This is just how the old military dictatorship acted.”

Aung Zaw Win’s arrest has come as a surprise to many, for he is well known for his close ties to the military and is a divisive figure among the Rohingya. His involvement in politics was mainly for business purposes and he steered clear of making any political statement regarding the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

As an MP he was even among those who pressured the Rohingya community to accept Bengali identity, a proposal which reinforced the idea that they are not native to Myanmar but immigrants from Bangladesh.

Nay San Lwin said that the timing of the arrest, against the backdrop of the attacks against the Rohingya, was “a clear threat to all the Rohingya in Yangon. That no one is safe from arrest, even if you have big business or are close links to the military.”

He said it was “extremely unlikely” that Aung Zaw Win was involved in funding ARSA because “he has never been an activist and as a businessman with billions in property, he would never engage in this kind of activity – he only cared about his business”. 

Some have controversially suggested that ARSA was in fact a proxy of the Myanmar military, created to give them a legitimate reason to step up their attacks on the Rohingya. “He is the military’s man and if he did finance ARSA, it’s my view it would only have been because of pressure from them,” added Nay San Lwin. 

Another source who preferred to be unnamed for security reasons, echoed the view that “average Rohingya have long distrusted [Aung Zaw Win]. Many believe he’s connected to the military, and some believe he was instrumental in fomenting violence in 2012, after which he was rewarded land in Yangon and Naypyidaw.

“Some believe he worked with the military to create and instigate Al Yaqin [ARSA], creating the conditions for a military takedown of all civilians. And now they’re taking him down.”



March 2, 2018

Myanmar troops want Rohingya to leave border region, drawing sharp response from Bangladesh which hosts most refugees.

Myanmar on Friday defended deployment of its troops near the Bangladesh border, where thousands of Rohingya refugees have taken shelter, calling it an "anti-terrorism operation".

The move has drawn criticism from Bangladesh, which summoned Myanmar's ambassador on Thursday, while the UN refugee agency raised their concerns at the military build-up.

Some 200 troops were deployed to the border on Thursday, close to a nearby strip of land between Myanmar and Bangladesh that is home to makeshift camps housing some 6,000 Rohingya refugees.

The strip of land is officially designated as Myanmar territory but is widely referred to as "no man's land" because it lies beyond the country's border fence.

"We acted this way based on the information we got regarding terrorism, especially the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) movement," Zaw Htay, a spokesperson for the Myanmar government, told AFP news agency on Friday.

"It was not aimed at antagonising Bangladesh," Htay said.

Bangladesh has called for an immediate pullback of Myanmar security forces - who have reportedly issued warnings using loudspeakers for Rohingya to leave the "no man's land" - from the area.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August following a government crackdown, which was launched in the wake of deadly attacks on military posts by the ARSA.

It is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world, according to the United Nations, with the majority of the displaced seeking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya, one of the most persecuted communities in the world, are not recognised as citizens of Myanmar and face widespread discrimination from the authorities. Prior to the current exodus, tens of thousands of Rohingya have already been living as refugees in several neighbouring countries.

The prospects for repatriation

Myanmar and Bangladesh announced a repatriation deal in January, but rights groups and Rohingya have raised concerns about the agreement, saying it does not guarantee full citizenship, or safety, for those who return.

Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said last month conditions in Myanmar are "not yet conducive" for the Rohingya to go back.

"The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship," Grandi told the UN Security Council on February 13.

Rights group Amnesty International said last month Myanmar's history of discrimination and segregation of the Rohingya were early "warning signs" of the ongoing crisis.

"This episode will stand in history as yet another testament to the world's catastrophic failure to address conditions that provide fertile ground for mass atrocity crimes," Secretary-General Salil Shetty said on February 22.

"The transformation of discrimination and demonisation into mass violence is tragically familiar, and its ruinous consequences cannot be easily undone," he added.

The UN has said the abuses by Myanmar's military may amount to genocide.






EU foreign policy chief meets Bangladeshi FM to discuss safe return of Rohingya refugees

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet
March 2, 2018

ANKARA -- The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday that the safe return of Rohingya refugees to their home country should be made possible.

In a meeting with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmoud Ali in Brussels, she said the UN Refugee Agency should be involved in the repatriation process, according to a statement from Mogherini's office. 

Mogherini appreciated the generous and humane role of the government and the people of Bangladesh, where thousands of Rohingya refugees currently reside.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal for the refugees earlier this year, but authorities in Myanmar have refused to allow any international body including the UN to oversee the process.

More than 750,000 refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, when Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to the Amnesty International.

The refugees are fleeing a military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24 last year, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published on December 12, 2017, the global humanitarian organization said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of five.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

A man cooks a meal in his makeshift restaurant on the island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh February 14, 2018. Picture taken February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

By Ruma Paul
March 1, 2018

DHAKA -- Bangladesh will send a protest note to Myanmar over an increased security presence near a portion of their border where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been sheltering just inside Myanmar, a Bangladesh border guard official said on Thursday.

The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern that thousands of people staying on the strip of land, dubbed “no man’s land” because it is beyond Myanmar’s border fence but on Myanmar’s side of a creek that marks the international border, would be forcibly returned without sufficient consideration for their safety. 

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after insurgent attacks on Aug. 25 sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounted to ethnic cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape. 

About 5,300 people had been staying in a makeshift camp on the border line since late August, but roughly half moved to camps inside Bangladesh after the two countries met to discuss possible repatriation on Feb. 20. 

Several hundred of them have been moved back to the border line, two border guards said. 

On Thursday, Myanmar armed soldiers and police, estimated to number more than 200, came to the border fence and appeared to be moving heavy weapons including mortars to the area, said a Bangladesh army official and the two guards, all three of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Dil Mohammed, a community leader among the roughly 950 Rohingya families still staying at the border, told Reuters that Myanmar officials used loudspeakers to tell them to move from the area. 

The movement of troops so close to the border violated international norms, an official of Bangladesh’s border guard, Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman, told Reuters. 

“We are sending them a protest note. We have already asked for a flag meeting,” said Rahman, the force’s additional director general in charge of operations, referring to a meeting of border guards of both countries. 

“They have removed heavy weapons, such as machine guns and mortars, from the area after our verbal protests.” 

Myanmar military spokesman Myat Min Oo said he could not confirm there was any troop activity, and declined to comment further, citing a public holiday in Myanmar. 

A spokesman for the country’s home affairs ministry, Myo Thu Soe, said he was unaware of the troop movements. 

Myanmar’s main government spokesman, Zaw Htay, declined to comment on Thursday’s activity. 

On Wednesday, he had told Reuters that “terrorists” with links to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which had attacked 30 Myanmar police posts and an army base in August, were sheltering in the border area. 

Zaw Htay added that he believed people were staying there to put political pressure on Myanmar’s government and “create a situation where Myanmar security forces and government officials will remove them”. 

Additional reporting by Thu Thu Aung and Simon Lewis in YANGON; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

A satellite image shows evidence of bulldozed homes in the village of Myin Hlut [DigitalGlobe/AP]

February 23, 2018

Satellite imagery released by HRW shows Rohingya dwellings razed between late December and February.

Myanmar's government has razed at least 55 villages once populated by Rohingya, destroying with them evidence of crimes against the persecuted minority, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Satellite images released by the rights group on Friday show that, between December 2017 and mid-February, areas that were once full of buildings and greenery had been completely cleared.

HRW described the actions by Burmese security forces as an "ethnic cleansing campaign" and called on the UN and Myanmar's donors to demand an end to the demolitions.



A total of 362 villages have been destroyed either completely or partially since Myanmar's military began a campaign against the Rohingya in August last year, according to HRW.

Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said the deliberate destruction of villages to hide evidence of "grave crimes" was obstruction of justice.

"The government's clearing of dozens of villages only heightens concerns about Rohingya families being able to return home," he said.

"Donor governments should ensure they don't provide any direct or indirect support that would hamper justice or assist those responsible for ethnic cleansing in their efforts to pretend the Rohingya do not have the right to return to their villages in northern Rakhine state."

Reports about village demolitions have been filtering through from members of the Rohingya community long before satellite images appeared seemingly confirming the accounts.

Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin told Al Jazeera that he had heard reports of villages being razed from people on the ground.

"I have been hearing about bulldozing the villages since the beginning of January," he said, adding: "There were many houses, mosques and Islamic schools which remained intact in ... Maungdaw but those all were demolished and bulldozed.

"First Rakhine vigilantes enter the houses and take the things they want ... Then the authorities demolish and bulldoze."

Since August more than 650,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh where they live in camps on near the border.

Those fleeing bring with them accounts of rape, killing, and the destruction of homes by Burmese soldiers and vigilante gangs.

The UN has described their plight as textbook genocide, but little action has been taken by the international community to halt the Burmese government's campaign.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed on a deal to send Rohingya refugees back.

As part of the repatriation deal, Rohingya will be held in holding centres, which Rohingya activists have called "concentration camps".


    • Rohingya Exodus