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Newly arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, near Teknaf, Bangladesh, November 26, 2017. REUTERS/Susana Vera

By Stephanie Nebehay
November 28, 2017

GENEVA -- The U.N. Human Rights Council is expected to hold a special session on killings, rapes and other crimes committed against Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar that have driven more than 600,000 into Bangladesh since August, U.N. sources said on Monday.

“There will be a special session on December 5,” a senior United Nations source told Reuters. 

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez could not confirm the date but said: “There are moves to convene a special session to address the human rights situation in the country.”

At least 16 of the 47 member states must request holding a special session of the Council, which are rare. Bangladesh and Muslim-majority countries were expected to back the call. 

In March, the Council already set up a fact-finding team. The investigators reported after their first mission to Bangladesh last month that Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar had testified that a “consistent, methodical pattern of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place”. 

The latest Rohingya exodus from Rakhine state to Bangladesh’s southern tip began at the end of August, when Rohingya militants attacked security posts and the Myanmar army launched a counter-offensive. 

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein has described the army’s crackdown in Rakhine state as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. The military has denied the accusations of murder, rape, torture and forced displacement. 

Amnesty International and other activist groups, in an open letter sent last week to member states, said that a special session was “imperative to launch decisive action and ensure international scrutiny and monitoring of the situation”. 

Pope Francis arrived in Myanmar on Monday on a diplomatically delicate visit for the leader of the Roman Catholic church to the majority-Buddhist country. 

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Gareth Jones

By Ben Westcott, Kocha Olarn and Rebecca Wright
November 28, 2017

Details have been revealed of the agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate potentially hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to their homes in Rakhine State.

At least 623,000 Muslim-majority Rohingya have fled across the border into Bangladesh since August when a new round of violence broken out in Myanmar's west.

Under the agreement, the two countries would work together to solve the huge refugee crisis and repatriate Rohingya who wanted to return to Rakhine State.



The refugees have brought stories of mass killings and destruction in their former home state at the hands of the Myanmar military, which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson labeled "ethnic cleansing" in the past week.

But the Myanmar government has repeatedly denied attacking Rohingya civilians, saying it was waging a campaign against a militant insurgency.

In the signed memorandum of understanding, distributed to journalists by the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry, Myanmar agreed there would be no restrictions on the number of Rohingya allowed to return, contradicting previous public statements by the head of the country's military.

It also said there would be no legal consequences for refugees who voluntarily decided to return, unless they had been involved with terrorists. All refugees would only return if they wished it, both countries agreed.

News of the deal broke on Thursday when a spokesman for State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi announced that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Myanmar's announcement was very short on details, however.

It's unclear how many refugees actually would want to return after fleeing what the United States and United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing.

Mistrust is also a huge issue. 

Europe-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin told CNN his major concern about the text of the agreement was how long repatriated refugees would be kept in temporary camps. 

The agreement says "Myanmar will take all possible measures to see that the returnees will not be settled in temporary places for a long period of time and their freedom of movement in the Rakhine State will be allowed in conformity with the existing laws and regulations."

But some refugees who chose to return to Myanmar after fleeing a previous outbreak of violence in Rakhine State years ago are still in camps for internally displaced people.

"We can't trust the government and military at all. No one should go back if they have to stay in a camp, if they are not allowed to live back in their original village," he said. "Myanmar government must restore their citizenship once they are repatriated."

The memorandum also says Myanmar will verify them for return and the eventual issuing of identity cards will be based on "evidence of past residence in Myanmar." 

But Lwin said a lot of Rohingya documents were confiscated prior to August 25 or burned in their houses during the ongoing attacks in recent months. "I am not sure whether half of the refugees will be repatriated," he said.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told CNN Monday her organization has not been consulted about the agreement by the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh. The memorandum calls for significant involvement of the UNHCR.

CNN's Bex Wright and Ben Westcott reported and wrote from Hong Kong, while Kocha Olarn reported from Bangkok. Joshua Berlinger and Farid Ahmed contributed to this report.

Maung Zarni poses with a Rohingya gentleman and a former leader in the Ruling Burma Socialist Party.

By Matthew Gindin 
November 28, 2017

Burmese Buddhist and pro-democracy activist Maung Zarni recounts two days he spent in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in early November.

"A young boy showed me his gunshot wound,” Maung Zarni tells me over the telephone. “Everyone had lost a loved one.”

Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist and academic, recently came back from spending two days in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in early November, where he met with about two dozen survivors of the ethnic cleansing campaign against them by the Myanmar government. It is a campaign some are calling genocide. “I call them survivors, not displaced persons or refugees,” Zarni says.

The horrors Zarni heard of there have been thoroughly documented by others. According to an interview that researcher Skye Wheeler gave to Human Rights Watch, following a report she wrote on the systematic use of sexual violence against the Rohingya for the same organization, “People said their villages were surrounded, and then the shooting started, with soldiers launching what we think were some kind of rocket-propelled grenades and setting roofs on fire. Soldiers shot villagers as they fled. They pushed others into burning houses. In other villages, people were gathered together, and then women were raped, and men were shot or beaten. Almost all the rapes I documented were gang rapes.” The report continues, outlining the emotional and physical pain of women walking tens of miles into Bangladesh with swollen and torn genitals.

A young Rohingya girl in a displaced person’s camp demonstrates how her hands were tied behind her while she was raped; one of her fingers was cut off for resisting.

Zarni, who has dedicated the last several years to drawing international attention to the plight of the Rohingya, pointed to two interviews in particular that filled him both with grief and a renewed commitment to international activism on behalf of the Rohingya.

“I spoke to one Rohingya man who had been made a village administrator in Myanmar due to his eighth-grade education. In Myanmar 80 percent of adult Rohingya are illiterate. The Burmese government deprives them of nutrients for the intellect, medicine for health, food for the body. He answered to Rakhine Buddhist overseers, who in turn answered to the Burmese military. In 2016 when the military attacked the villages, they had focused on maiming and killing the men, so this time when the military came the men were prepared, and they fled into hiding as much as they could. The Tatmadaw (Burmese military) had changed their strategy, however. This time they employed systematic violence against women and children and the burning of villages to the ground, so that when the men fled it did no good. First, they raped, killed, or expelled the women and children. Then they hunted down the men.

“So when this man fled into the forest,” said Zarni, “the military set fire to his home, where his wife and infant son were inside, hoping to wait out the violence. While he hid in the bushes, he saw his home burn down with his loved ones inside it. He was so angry and in so much pain when he spoke to me. He walked for two hours to come to be heard.”

“The second interview was with a Rohingya woman,” Zarni said. “She told me that her younger sister, who is 16 years old, was dragged into a hut by a group of Burmese soldiers wearing red scarves around their necks while she watched from a hiding place, clutching her baby. They tied up the sister with her hands above her head. Any woman who was captured was stripped naked and raped, and this in a culture where modesty is to a fault. The sister had beautiful long hair. She saw the soldiers cutting her sister’s hair with a knife as they were raping her. Their father, an old man, realized that his younger daughter was in the house being attacked, so he attempted to run to the house. She saw her father shot dead from behind as he ran; they shot him in the head. One of the soldiers came over and stuck his fingers into the broken skull, then tossed bits of brain to the chickens free-ranging in the yard.” 

The Rohingya, who have been called “the world’s most persecuted minority,” have fled Myanmar in large numbers several times in the last decades. Starting in late August, at least 600,000 fled Myanmar after the military began a ruthlessly violent campaign against Rohingya civilians in reprisal for an attack against Burmese security forces by a small band of Rohingya militants. The attack followed decades of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where they have lived under oppressive conditions since the government passed a citizenship act in the 1980s that left most Rohingya stateless and without civil rights. 

“We anticipated it was going to be a very emotional trip,” said Zarni, who was accompanied by his wife, Natalie, and younger daughter, Nilah. “I didn’t anticipate that the first thing I felt when I met with a group of women was a sense of deep guilt. These were the people that my own had wronged so horribly. Although I have committed myself to speaking out on this issue for the last six years or so, every day I still feel that I too am responsible and that I have failed. I couldn’t bring myself to say more through the Rohingya interpreter than ‘can you please tell them I am Burmese, I am Buddhist, and I am really sorry.’ All of the sudden I was unable to speak I was so choked up inside.”

“The stories I heard, they were from maybe 25 people,” Zarni said. “There are 600,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh with stories like that.”

A native of Myanmar and the founder of the pro-democracy Free Burma Coalition, Zarni is now based in the UK, where he has left academia to work full-time on human rights issues. Zarni has been in exile from Myanmar for 29 years, with the exception of a three-year period when he was working on negotiations to end the military-ruled country’s international isolation. Zarni’s own story is heartwrenching.

“I became a pro-democracy activist while at school in the United States,” he explains, “and after that, I could not safely return to Myanmar. I cut off all ties with my family there for many years to protect them.”

When Zarni’s father became ill, Zarni offered to get him to Thailand to receive better treatment. “I don’t need better medical treatment,” his father said. “I need to see you before I die. That will make me feel better.” His father died nine days later without seeing his son.

“I fought for Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom,” said Zarni, ”but when I saw, years ago, that she was not truly committed to human rights for all I began openly criticizing her. I had hoped when she came into power I could return to Myanmar, but now that she has failed to do anything for the Rohingya and has even actively aided their persecution, I have become a critic of the current administration as well, and so again I am persona non grata in Myanmar.”

September 2017 article on Maung Zarni

Zarni is not exaggerating. Major Burmese newspapers have run front page headlines calling him an “enemy of the state,” and Burmese social media sites are awash with claims that he is a terrorist sympathizer and an academic fraud who holds a fake Ph.D.

Zarni grew up in a military family and says that he himself absorbed his country’s ethnic nationalism and racism as a child. “Undoing my racism has been a long process,” said Zarni, who credits his wife, Natalie, for introducing him to the plight of the Rohingya and challenging his untreated Burmese chauvinism. “I am still rewiring myself as a Buddhist.”

Meanwhile, the plight of the Rohingya continues. On November 23, a deal was reached between Myanmar and Bangladesh for the repatriation of several hundred thousand refugees. Despite calling for significant involvement from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UN, which was not consulted in the making of the agreement, has expressed opposition to the deal. 

“At present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm. Some have witnessed the deaths of family members and friends. Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed. And humanitarian access in northern Rakhine State remains negligible,” said Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at a press briefing on Friday. 

Several activists have expressed concern that those Rohingya who choose to return may be interned in Myanmar camps in a repetition of the fate of many Rohingya who were repatriated in 2012 following a similar crisis, despite assurances from the government that such internment would be “temporary.”

Zarni, speaking to Tricycle after the signing of the deal, was unimpressed. 

Pointing to the waves of “genocidal activity” against the Rohingya since 1978, Zarni said, “Repatriation is simply a tactical move to get the world off its back.”

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist and educator who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. A former Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest tradition, he has taught meditation in various contexts for over a decade. He is the author of Everyone In Love: The Beautiful Theology of Rav Yehuda Ashlag.


Dhaka Conference on Ending the Slow Burning Genocide of Rohingyas by Myanmar 
The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 29 Nov 2017

Over the last three months, the world has witnessed Myanmar’s full fledged genocidal campaign against the most vulnerable and unarmed Rohingya population in northern Arakan or Rakhine State across the borders from Chittagong, Bangladesh. As a significant and welcome departure from the past, Bangladesh society and the government have shown remarkable empathy towards Rohingya survivors, estimated to be 700,000, reaching the rate of 100,000 per week in the first six weeks. As a nation, Bangladesh has been praised worldwide as a humane country that has shown compassion, official and societal, in the face of this massive burden of feeding and sheltering Rohingya survivors of genocide from next door. 

Myanmar government led by Aung San Suu Kyi justifies the violence as a national self-defense against a small band of what they fallaciously call “Bengali extremist terrorists”, namely Arakan National Salvation Army (ARSA). 

Much of the world including governments that have waged the “war on terror” such as USA and UK do not accept the Burmese official narrative that the State of Myanmar is exercising its sovereign responsibility to defend itself. 

Instead, USA, UK, Canada and France have joined the chorus of credible UN officials and genocide scholars who apply the international state crimes perspective that Myanmar as a signatory to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is committing “ethnic cleansing”, a euphemism for genocide, as the renowned genocide expert Gregory Stanton put it. 

Whatever the name of the crime, Myanmar is emerging as a neighbour that has committed well-documented crime against Rohingya population, the world’s largest stateless people, who have been stripped of the right to citizenship, a nationality and the right to self-identity. 

This international conference is aimed at generating public discussions among relevant stakeholders, including Rohingya survivors themselves, in terms of the difficult road ahead. One of the objectives of the conference is to shed light on the root causes, behind the recurring waves of Rohingya exodus since 1978 which the Prime Minister from Bangladesh rightly pointed out, “lies in Myanmar”. 

In the light of the repatriation arrangement signed by Dhaka and Naypyidaw, the conference is perfectly set to mobilize ideas and energy among eminent genocide scholars, Dhaka-based Bangladeshi academics and public intellectuals, researchers in the region with relevant expertise, and prominent Burmese activists and scholars who have spoken out in support of the Rohingya people, in the face of scathing attacks on them by Myanmar as “traitors”, “enemies of the State” and so on. 

Finally, the conference intends to generate ideas and networks of individuals who can contribute to the efforts of Dhaka and other concerned international actors such as the UN who seek to find durable and viable end to both genocide and resultant displacement of up to 1 million Rohingya survivors on Bangladeshi soil.

Pope Francis kisses the foot of a refugee during the foot washing ritual at the Castelnuovo di Porto refugees center near Rome, Italy, March 24, 2016. (Photo: OSSERVATORE ROMANO / REUTERS)

Dear Pope, 

Hope you are in good health and peace of mind. 

First of all, a heartiest welcome to you to Myanmar, my country. It is a deep boast of my country receiving a pontiff for first time. 

I'm Ro Mayyu Ali, a peace-loving Rohingya. Now, I become a refugee sheltering in neighbouring Bangladesh since September 6.

I believe in love, peace and kindness. Definitely these beautiful things in human hearts can lighten 

the values of dignity for human family. 

"When you experience bitterness, put your faith in all those who still work for good: in their humility lies the seed of a new world" once I came to read your tweet. Of course, being a Rohingya in Myanmar, I have lost my boyhood. I have lost my dreams. I have lost my hopes for Aung San Suu Kyi, my childhood hero. And recently I have lost even my birth place. I therefore, have been experiencing the worst bitterness in my life since childhood. 

But the hope I have in my heart for love and peace is still intact. The faith I put in all those who still work for good is still fresh. And you are one of those whom I put my faith in being a member of the world's most persecuted people. And I truly believe in your humility, there it lies the seed of a new change for my Rohingya people. 

"Our Rohingya brothers and sisters" is still echoing into my ears again and again. It directly submerges into the depth of my heart. And it always bestows me a light to keep hopes on you. 

Since then we, the Rohingya people feel have been always the brothers and sisters of the holy pontiff like you. The brothers and sisters of your papacy to champion peace and reconciliation and to speak up for the persecuted people suffering all over the world. 

We, the human family shall never forget the moment that you stopped your white Popemobile at the barrier between Palestine and Israel and kissed the separation wall during your visit to Bethlehem in 2014. It gave us the example of a famously independent move for the truth and human dignity. 

Moreover, my heart beats in joys coming to know that you will visit to meet with 620,000 Rohingya refugees who have the stories of gang rape, mass killing, mass grave and infants throwing into fire. Since then, we, the Rohingya refugees lose our breath to receive you, the one who treats us as brothers and sisters and embrace you, the one whose heart has the truth and love for human family. 

Can you hear us again "Our Rohingya brothers and sisters", please? It is the drops of remedy for our decade-long depressed souls. 

Can't wait to hear from you more!


Your sincerely,


Ro Mayyu Ali
(a Rohingya refugee) 
Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh

Mohammed Ayub (TU)
RB Opinion
November 27, 2017

We have waited eagerly for the positive outcome of the bilateral meeting between Myanmar and Bangladesh last November 22, 2017. To dismay, the deal was full of dubious texts and ulterior motives. Here is how, based on the deal signed by both parties on November 23, 2017.

Fig.1 The deal inked by both Parties (Photo credit to Poppy McPherson Twitter)

The deal has categorically divided between the Rohingyas who arrived after 9th October,2016, 25th August 2017, and Rohingyas who have been living registered and unregistered camps since 1978. There is no urgency to differentiate between the two as all are Rohingyas who took shelter from Burmese brutalities in various points of times. Definitely, there may be some hidden propagandas from the side of Myanmarese to accept the early-come group not with the fresh ones. See the extract below(Fig.2). 

Fig.2 Extract from Page #2 Paragraph 3 


And in the paragraph number of 5 of same page (See Fig. 3), it was mention that “return of Myanmar residents in earlier phases” will be based of 1992 Joint Statement signed by MoFA of Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the discussion held on November 22, 2017. Here, series of confusion arises from the texts of this paragraph. And more specifically, it is ambiguously texted on which return of Myanmar residents will be based on 1992 MoU? What does it mean by “earlier phases”? 

And Bangladesh was saying before that the repatriation deal will be based on modified 1992 MoU, and on also Bangladesh PM’s five points proposal made at the 72nd UNGA session on September 21 of this year. The five points proposals are; 

(1) Myanmar must unconditionally stop the violence and the practice of ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine State immediately and forever.

(2) Secretary General of the United Nations should immediately send a Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar.

(3) All civilians irrespective of religion and ethnicity must be protected in Myanmar. For that "safe zones" could be created inside Myanmar under UN supervision.

(4) Ensure sustainable return of all forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh to their homes in Myanmar.

(5) The recommendations of Kofi Annan Commission Report must be immediately implemented unconditionally and in its entirety.

From the above five points, only point number (4) is seen in this deal and proposal number (5) is put in the last part of deal as a show piece. The current deal shows Bangladesh’s stance on Rohingya repatriation is flexible and is not met with practicality. And till on the very day of signing the deal, the torching of the villages, killing and looting of the belongings of Rohingya are continuing in Arakan. 

In the general guiding principles (Fig.4), paragraph 2 mentioned that returnees will be allowed to their original place or safety and secure place near it of their choice. Why dubious? This leaves a serious loop hole for Myanmarese to manipulate the deal, meaning some will be allowed to their original places and some will be not. Those Rohingya’s places(Lands) will be for China as a gift for protecting her from UNSC against vote. And it is also mentioned that returnees will not be kept longer but shorter period in temporary shelter. That means Myanmar has plan to keep returnees in IDP camps with false promise of settling to original place in a very short course of time. One cannot forget that thousands of Rohingyas are suffering in IDP Sittwe since 2012 with no concrete reasons of why not settling in the original places. 

Fig.4 General Guiding Principles 


Fig.3 Paragraph 5 of page # 2

And it was emphasized that freedom of movement for Rohingya will be only within Rakhine(fig.4) and not throughout all Burma as has been restricted for Rohingyas since 1990s. Even in Rakhine state, it must be inconformity to the existing laws and regulations. Form these points, one can easily conclude that Myanmar does not want to recognize Rohingya as citizens, and does have ulterior motives of confining Rohingya within Arakan. Anywhere in the world, is there any law which prescribes to its citizens the rules and regulations for the freedom of movement with the country? Till date, Rohingyas have to hold temporary travel permit even to visit one’s parents’ house. It is clear that Myanmar wants Rohingya to keep in those same restrictions. At the end of the paragraph, the deal exposes that all returnees will be issued NVC. NVC is a mechanism that was targeted Rohingya to making them foreigners though Rohingyas had identifications card as other nationals of Myanmar. NVC was introduced after 2012 violence and very few Rohingyas were forcibly made to accept those cards. 

And in Paragraph 5, it was expressed that returnees who have cases in the involvement of terrorism or criminal activities will punished. As the whole world know, Myanmar’s rule of law is discriminatory towards Rohingyas and therefore, Rohingyas have no trust Myanmar’s rule of law. The returnees will be criminalized on false grounds as have been done in 2012, 2016 and 2017 majority of whom are still serving their jail terms. 

Fig.5 Discriminatory policy 

In Paragraph 16(Fig.5), it stated that both Governments will refrain from conceiving and implementing any policy that is discriminatory to any particular community that violates universally agreed principles on human rights. To what extend you understand these phrases? Myanmar has been labeling Rohingyas as Bengali since long. Is not that implementing discriminatory policy towards Rohingya and Bengali people? Universally, any race or community has the right to give their names as they wish. They have the right to be called them as other people want themselves to be called by other.

In the final part of the deal, it talked about implementing Annan’s commission report. Very pretty move from the side of Myanmarese Government. If you (Myanmar) are(is) not going to place all the returnees at their original places, to issue NVC cards, to strict freedom of Movement, then what use of implementing Annan’s report in which all the mention points are not favorable?

Conclusion 

Strictly speaking, Myanmar surpass Bangladesh in this deal because the points in the deal are impractical to accept from the side of Rohingyas. And Myanmar just was successful for another few weeks to weaken international pressures. All the Rohingyas who took shelter in Bangladesh are seriously denying the repatriation according to this deal signed on 23rd November, 2017. And from the right groups also are alarming voices that the deal did not meet international standard and repatriation need to be monitored by the outside world. 

Remarks: The full text of the deal is from Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) Twitter 

Visiting UK Secretary for International Development Penny Mordaunt and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official Ganabhaban residence on November 26, 2017. Photo: STAR

November 26, 2017

The United Kingdom along with other countries would continue to put pressure on Myanmar so that condition is created for early repatriation of the Rohingya people.

Visiting UK Secretary for International Development Penny Mordaunt, MP, said this when she called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official Ganabhaban residence here this evening.

After the meeting, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.

The UK minister said her country fully endorses Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's five-point proposal that she placed in the last UN General Assembly for solution to the protracted Rohingya crisis.

She highly appreciated Bangladesh's humanitarian gesture by sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya people.

The press secretary said the rehabilitation and repatriation of the Rohingya people also came up for discussion.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has given shelter to the Rohingya people on the humanitarian grounds.

She, however said, it would not be possible for Bangladesh to keep them here for a long time.

Sheikh Hasina expressed satisfaction as the Myanmar government has agreed to take back their nationals from Bangladesh.

Pointing out the MoU signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar in this regard, she said a joint working group would be formed to deal with the repatriation of the Myanmar nationals from Bangladesh.

Recalling the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) peace accord, the prime minister said the decades-long insurgency problem in the CHT was solved peacefully without any third-party involvement.

Sheikh Hasina said the government is issuing identity cards to the Rohingyas with their Myanmar address.

PM's International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi and PMO Secretary Suraiya Begum were present on the occasion.
Prime Time interview called Channel i X-clusive Interview with Dr Maung Zarni, Bangladesh, 26 Nov 2017

Dr Zarni: "I had supported both Suu Kyi and the generals, in good faith. But they've crossed the line."




Can peaceful repatriation be a reality for the Rohingya? (Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain)

By Asif Showkat Kallol
November 26, 2017

According to sources from the Finance Division, it has already disbursed Tk10 Crore for developing roads and another helipad at the Bhasan Char island, as part of the government’s plan to relocate the displaced Rohingya there

The government is planning to allocate additional funds in the revised budget, for supporting more than 620,000 Rohingya refugees that could stay in Bangladesh for an indefinite period of time.

An official from the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance confirmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune.

“We will prepare funds for several projects aimed at supporting the Rohingya refugee population, despite the recent repatriation agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, the official said.

The official added that different ministries and divisions have already spent Tk60 crore as of last week of November.

The insider said most of the funds were spent on providing refugees with sanitation, shelter, healthcare facilities and on special ID cards distributed to Rohingya living in the camps, amid concerns that the asylum seekers will spread throughout the country.

“We have already started building a fund from government exchequers and from foreign and domestic NGOs, to add it to the revised outlay of the current fiscal year budget,” said the official.

A recent letter issued by Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Ali Hossain revealed that a total of 42 NGOs have announced to pledge Tk200 crore for food, shelter, healthcare and sanitation as part of several programmes, under four cluster projects in Ukhiya and Teknaf.

According to sources from the Finance Division, it has also disbursed Tk10 Crore for developing roads and another helipad at the Bhasan Char island, as part of the government’s plan to relocate the displaced Rohingya there.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently contacted ten government agencies and divisions, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Division, Bangladesh Armed Forces, and the Finance Division, asking them to disclose the funds spent on supporting the Rohingya so far.

“A large portion of the fund might be allotted from the revised budget for future infrastructure development to support the displaced Rohingya. However, the total figure is yet to be finalised, as negotiations between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar are still underway,” Acting Finance Secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune.

Commenting on the issue last month, Finance Minister AMA Muhith stated: “The Rohingya refugee crisis will not put a significant pressure on the current fiscal year budget. I hope that the development partners will lend their support to Bangladesh in resolving the crisis.”

The minister also added that some ministries and divisions have asked for funds up to Tk10 crore ($1.2 million) for supporting the Rohingya people, but the national budget has not been affected much due to donations from other countries and humanitarian agencies.

According to the United Nations, more than 620,000 Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh since August 25, following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military.

It could be noted, the Ministry of Home Affairs had sent the proposal for Bhasan Char’s development to the Planning Ministry in the wake of the ongoing refugee crisis, despite Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s unfavorable attitude towards the project.

According to the Finance Division, the development of Bhasan Char will cost Bangladesh around Tk 2,300 crore.

(Photo: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU)

By Mahadi Al Hasnat, Afrose Jahan Chaity
November 25, 2017

'The MoU is nothing but an eyewash … The repatriation has to be voluntary, meaning if they want to go back, we can send them back [and] if they do not feel safe going back home, we cannot forcibly repatriate them'

Describing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over Rohingya repatriation as vague, security analysts and journalists said the instrument signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar would not serve any useful purpose.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar’s Minister for State Counsellor’s Office Kyauw Tint Swe signed the MoU on Thursday, in which it has been mentioned that the repatriation process will begin within two months.

However, analysts claimed that the MoU is nothing but an eyewash and trick from the Myanmar side to lessen the international pressure facing the country.

They stressed that citizenship and other basic rights of the Rohingya must be guaranteed before the repatriation.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, M Shahiduzzaman, a noted security analyst and a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said: “We do not know the precise details of the MoU … The issues of how many Rohingya people will be repatriated and the repatriation timeline have not been fixed in the MoU. No agreement has been signed as yet. The MoU dictates only how things should go forward.”

Veteran journalist Afsan Chowdhury said: “We do not know what we will be able to achieve through the MoU. The instrument cannot guarantee the repartition until it is implemented.

“In the previous agreements signed in 1977 and 1992, they [Myanmar authorities] said they would take the Rohingya refugees back. Why were the Rohingya forced to flee [to Bangladesh] in 1992, 2014 and this year if the problem was really solved then according to the deals?” Afsan said.

“The MoU is nothing but an eyewash … The repatriation has to be voluntary, meaning if they want to go back, we can send them back [and] if they do not feel safe going back home, we cannot forcibly repatriate them,” he stated.

Imtiaz Ahmed, a professor of international relations at DU, said: “It is unclear why this MoU is focused on an arrangement instead of an agreement. It is said that the repatriation will start within two months, but when it will conclude has not been specified in the MoU.

“Whether the Rohingya people will be able to go back to Myanmar as citizens of the country is an important issue to think about, because they went back in the ’70s and ’90s, but they were not given citizenship. Instead, whatever rights they had were taken away.”

“We should wait for our foreign minister’s press conference [to be held today] as he could say very well the nitti-gritty of the arrangement. He could explain how practical this arrangement is,” he added.

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Europe, said the Myanmar government must give Rohingya people the national identity cards acknowledging their full citizenship.

“They must be able to go back to their original villages. Their confiscated lands must be given back and all burnt houses must be rebuilt before they go back home,” San Lwin demanded.

Rohingya refugee children stand by a bonfire in a field at Jamtoli refugee settlement near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Susana Vera

By Ruma Paul
November 25, 2017

DHAKA -- Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to take help from the U.N. refugee agency to safely repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled violence in Myanmar, Bangladesh said on Saturday.

More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after the military in mostly Buddhist Myanmar launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation in their villages across the northern parts of Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25. 

Faced with a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, the two governments signed a pact on Thursday agreeing that the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar should start within two months.

Uncertainty over whether the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would have a role had prompted rights groups to insist that outside monitors were needed to safeguard the Rohingya’s return. 

Addressing a news conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali gave assurances that the UNHCR would play some part. 

“Both countries agreed to take help from the UNHCR in the Rohingya repatriation process,” Ali said. “Myanmar will take its assistance as per their requirement.” 

The diplomatic breakthrough came just ahead of a visit by Pope Francis to Myanmar and Bangladesh from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 that is aimed at promoting “reconciliation, forgiveness and peace”. 

While the violence in Rakhine has mostly ceased, Rohingya have continued to stream out of Myanmar, saying they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets. 

Thousands of Rohingya, most of them old people, women and children, remain stranded on beaches near the border, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh.

FROM CAMP TO CAMP 

Ali said a joint working group, to be formed within three weeks, will fix the final terms to start the repatriation process. 

After leaving the refugee camps in Bangladesh, Rohingya who opt to be voluntarily repatriated will be moved to camps in Myanmar, the minister said. 

“Most houses were burnt down. Where they will live after going back? So, it is not possible to physically return to their homes,” Ali said. 

Myanmar officials have said returnees will be moved to camps only temporarily while so-called “model villages” are constructed near their former homes. 

Win Myat Aye, the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement who heads a Myanmar government panel on rehabilitation in Rakhine, said India and China had offered to provide “modular houses” for returnees. 

The U.N. and the United States have described the Myanmar military’s actions as “ethnic cleansing”, and rights groups have accused the security forces of committing atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings. 

The United States also warned it could impose sanctions on individuals responsible for alleged abuses. 

Led by Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar is in the early stages of a transition to democracy after decades of military rule. But civilian government is less than two years old, and still shares power with the generals, who retain autonomy over matters of defence, security and borders. 

The commander of Myanmar’s armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has denied that soldiers committed any atrocities. 

On Friday he met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing having been told earlier in the week by a top Chinese general that China wanted stronger ties with Myanmar’s military. 

Under the deal struck with Bangladesh, Myanmar agreed to take measures to see that the returnees will not be settled in temporary places for a long time. 

Myanmar plans to issue them an identity card on their return, although most Rohingya have so far rejected a scheme to give them “national verification cards”. 

While the agreement says Bangladesh would seek the U.N. refugee agency’s assistance on the process, Myanmar - which has largely blocked aid agencies from working in northern Rakhine since August - only agreed “that the services of the UNHCR could be drawn upon as needed and at the appropriate time”. 

Win Myat Aye told Reuters on Saturday that Myanmar would discuss “technical assistance” with the UNHCR, but had not reached a formal agreement with the agency. 

There were already hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, and the Bangladesh minister said they could also be considered for the repatriation, under the terms of the agreement. 

The agreement, however, says they will be ”considered separately on the conclusion of the present agreement.” 

Some independent estimates suggest there are still a few hundred thousand Rohingya remaining in Rakhine. 

Reporting by Ruma Paul in DHAKA and Thu Thu Aung in YANGON; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Stephen Powell

More than 800,000 stateless Rohingya are living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]

By Joseph Stepansky 
November 25, 2017

Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Rohingya refugees tuned in on handheld, nine-band radios to the news that the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar had signed a preliminary deal for their return. 

The news slowly made its way throughout the labyrinthine alleyways of tarpaulin and bamboo shelters that more than 800,000 stateless Rohingya now call home. For those living in the camps, the development was frustratingly light on details, but the first repatriations could start in two months.

More than 620,000 Rohingya, a minority Muslim group, have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since August 25 amid allegations of murder, mass rape, and coordinated arson carried out by the Myanmar military, in what the United States and United Nations have called "ethnic cleansing". The violence came after attacks on Myanmar police stations by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

A 1982 law prohibits Rohingya from becoming citizens of Myanmar. For decades, smaller groups of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution from the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar. The most recent repatriation agreement was in 1992.

Rights groups have called for international monitors to oversee the latest repatriation, noting that Rohingya must be promised safety, the right to return to their land, equal rights and citizenship. Amnesty International has called the deal premature, as thousands of Rohingya continue to flee to Bangladesh every week.

Al Jazeera spoke with Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp about the prospects of returning to Myanmar.

Abdul Jabar, 65, former community chairman from Tung Bazar Village

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

The military started firing at us as we were fleeing our village when they started the attacks [in August]. My son was killed and two of my daughters were taken away by the military. I have five other children who made it to Bangladesh … I am educated. When I was younger, it was better for us. I was educated by a Muslim government teacher.

But education is not so easy for Rohingya any more. I did not get a job, despite being educated, because I was Rohingya. Rather, other non-Rohingya got the job, even though I was better educated.

I heard the news about the repatriation agreement from the radio. We don't want the 1992 agreement. We want that no violence will happen to us, that people will get an education, that people will freely move and not have to bribe the military to get around. If we do not get more rights, I will die here in Bangladesh. 

Nur Kamal, 18, farmer from Maungdaw Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I came to the camps in the beginning of October. Our mosques and madrasas were closed by the government in 2012. The government has been pressuring us, and the situation got gradually more difficult. Our clerics were jailed.

If a Rohingya is well educated, he cannot get any job like Rakhine people. We cannot live freely. I'm extremely eager to go back to my homeland, but the first and main thing we need is citizenship. If we are not given citizenship, I would die rather than go back.

After the repatriation in 1992, Rohingya continued to be repressed. They would say, "Why are you here? You are Bengali." We're afraid this repatriation agreement will be the same as in 1992. We want a different agreement. In the 1992 agreement, you needed to show Myanmar identity papers to return. Most people don't have Myanmar identification cards. I have one and my grandfather has one, but my father does not. Families will be separated.

I will also only go back if we can return to our land. We really miss our land in Myanmar; it is too crowded here in the camps. We are in hardship here. We don't have fuel to cook food. First, we want citizenship status; that is our main demand. We want all people to be treated equally. 

Nur Bahar, 35, mother of five from Buthidaung Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I will never go back to Myanmar as things are now. The Myanmar government disregarded our dignity. Women were raped and oppressed by them. The military surrounded our village and began firing on us. We ran. My aunt's child and husband were killed.

We tried to hide in the woods. I was raped by the military. I was beaten, hit in the head and shoulders and legs. I never experienced peace in Myanmar. There, we could not sleep. Here, at least we can sleep and know we are safe.

Even if the Myanmar government says we are safe, I won't go. They say one thing and do another. I will only go if we are given citizenship status and the government promises us protection. They need to settle this in a just way. Otherwise, I will not go back to Myanmar, even if they have to kill me here in Bangladesh.

Sole Mohammed, 50, former shopkeeper in Maungdaw Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

I came to Bangladesh in 2007. When I left Myanmar, there wasn't any violence, but we had no rights. I had to bribe the government just to do business and move around where I wanted to.

We want to go back to our homeland, our farms, our cattle and our shelters. We miss these things. But we are trying to get more rights from Myanmar. If they don't give us citizenship, why would we want to go back there? The people are not free to work, do any kind of ritual, choose any kind of profession. It is hard for children to get an education and we cannot freely move.

I will return if the situation improves, and our kids can get an education, and our land is returned, so we can live like the other people in Rakhine. We want equality. 

Feroza Khatum, 24, from Rathedaung Township

[Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera]

My daughter was thrown into the fire of a burning house by the Myanmar military. The military killed her. She was three and a half years old. I have no other children. 

I will not return now because we have been oppressed and I remember that oppression. I do not hope to return.

We should have citizenship status and the military must assure the international community that they will not oppress us. But I don't believe we will be safe. I don't believe the military will change anytime soon. The Myanmar government must promise us stability, and the world must force them to obey.

Rohingya Muslims wait to cross the border to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017. Picture taken on November 12, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)

By Pablo Aabir Das
November 25, 2017

A discriminatory citizenship structure and pervasive anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar suggest that if the Rohingya return home they are likely to face violence and persecution once again.

Since August, over 600,000 Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have fled their homes to escape persecution. These refugees have been forced to take shelter in makeshift settlement camps in Bangladesh, where disease and malnutrition have contributed to a pervasive gap in human services. In recent weeks, as a cold front has set in around the camps, there has been increasing concern over children freezing.

As a result, it should come as a reprieve that Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed a tentative agreement to send the Rohingya back to their home in the Rakhine State. While the details are still in flux, the understanding appears to be based off a framework that resolved a similar Rohingya refugee crisis in 1993. Among other things, this means that Rohingya who can prove that they possessed identification documents prior to the crisis can return home.

The issues surrounding this proposal are numerous, not least of which is the lack of clarity on where the Rohingya would even reside – most of their villages were decimated in the violence. The underlying challenge, however, is how the repatriated Rohingya will overcome historical barriers upon their return; Myanmar’s government has denied the Rohingya citizenship and, consequently, access to basic rights.

Proponents of the agreement suggest that if the Rohingya return with documentation, they may soon receive legitimate citizenship. However, even if citizenship is included as a condition to the Rohingya’s return, it is unlikely to serve as a solution to this multidimensional crisis. An anti-Rohingya sentiment is deeply embedded in the fabric of Myanmar’s society. Throughout the country, the Rohingya are characterised as dangerous intruders, intent on proliferating radical propaganda across the nation.

Citizenship is unlikely to ease this predisposition, partially because legal issues compound the social stigma – despite holding citizenship, there are countless cases of ethnic groups that are denied access to justice and basic services. With this in mind, it is a real possibility that as the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh ends, another one will soon reappear in Myanmar.

A conditional citizenship

Myanmar’s rule of law is fragile and tenuous so the constructs of citizenship that uphold established democracies do not exist in the same capacity. Laws surrounding nationality and ethnicity propagate a convoluted, hierarchal system that relies on proof of ancestry as a precursor to full rights. In other words, if residents cannot prove that they had two ancestors living in Myanmar prior to 1823, they can be denied full citizenship.

The system is intentionally prejudicial. Myanmar’s ethnocracy has systematically elevated Buddhist notions and values; as a result, the principles that define democracy, such as pluralism and parity, are elusive. Instead, what prevails is a societal structure that is stratified and discriminatory. Rather than using citizenship as a mechanism for inclusivity, Myanmar has passed laws that have manipulated it into an assimilation barrier for non-Buddhists.

Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law is the cornerstone of this system. The law not only fails to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, it also places those who have citizenship into three tiers: full citizens, associate citizens and naturalised citizens. Associate citizens are typically ethnic minorities who face discrimination from public officials and, subsequently, limited social and political freedoms.


A Rohingya refugee stands outside her makeshift shelter at Hakim Para refugee settlement near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2017. Credit: Reuters

The Kaman: a cautionary tale

It would seem that even this partial citizenship should, in theory, allow the Rohingya to live peacefully and independently. However, an examination of the Kaman people, a Muslim ethnic group who hold associate citizenship, casts doubt on this notion.

Often perceived as demographically insignificant, the Kaman are largely overlooked in Myanmar. Recognised as an indigenous population, they have nevertheless faced similar threats as their stateless counterparts. During the 2012 Rakhine State clashes between the Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists, the Kaman were forced out of their homes and into internal camps. Five years later, they remain caught up in the violence.

Unlike the Rohingya, as citizens, the Kaman should enjoy access to justice and the protection of the law. In recent years, however, as the anti-Muslim violence has risen in Myanmar, the Kaman have been denied fundamental rights including voting rights and freedom of movement.

As a peaceful ethnic group, the government has no rationale to deprive the Kaman of their rights aside from discrimination and neglect. This is most clearly reflected in the Kaman’s difficulty in obtaining citizenship documentation. In 2014, 2,000 displaced Kaman applied for national identification cards they lost in the violence, but after drawn out deliberations, only 38 had their requests granted.

With no prospects of legal recourse, the issues surrounding the Kaman are symptomatic of a failed justice system and a society that seems to value their lives solely based on race and creed. This same fate is likely to befall the Rohingya who return with documentation; societal prejudice will trump any sort of legitimacy they may be granted.

A bleak road ahead

It is flawed to believe that a citizenship system that has been used to deprive the Rohingya of their rights for so long can suddenly be used as an instrument to safeguard their future; especially when that system has a history of discriminating against those who already fall under its purview.

If the current state of affairs in Myanmar is not enough to raise concerns about the repatriation agreement, perhaps precedent can shed some light on the situation. The Rohingya have fled persecution in Myanmar in the past, and each time many have been forced to return to the same environment and the same treatment. Even in instances when they have been granted a political voice, like in the 1990 election when they won a small percentage of seats, it has been short lived. Following those elections, the generals annulled the results and launched a violent crusade against the Rohingya.

Once they return, there is no evidence that legal recognition will provide the Rohingya with the reconciliation, or protection, they need to secure a future in Myanmar. A long-term solution that allows the Rohingya to prosper in the Rakhine State would involve significant reforms in Myanmar’s laws and an overhaul of bias shown towards the Rohingya. These are tall orders, and as both Bangladesh and Myanmar are eager to resolve the crisis, it seems unlikely that they will be taken into consideration.

Pablo Aabir Das is with the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.


    • Rohingya Exodus