By Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Dhaka Tribune

January 17, 2018

Some 655,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in Myanmar on August 25, 2017

The documents and agreements needed for the repatriation of Rohingyas have all been finalized.

The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement on November 23, 2017 to repatriate the Rohingyas.

A Joint Working Group was formed on December 19 of the same year under the terms and conditions of the bilateral arrangement signed between the two countries.

Later on Tuesday (January 16), Bangladesh and Myanmar finalized the physical arrangement agreement. Under the agreement, the countries agreed to complete the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas within two years.

With signing of the agreement, all the legal procedure for the repatriation of Rohingyas have been completed but now question arises if the process to send back the displaced people to Myanmar will start right away.

As per the experts, the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas may not start now. Rather, the process will need more time.

What happens now?

Former foreign secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain said: “There are two challenges now.

“Firstly, we will have to keep mounting pressure on Myanmar and secondly, bring back confidence among the Rohingyas so that they agree to return to their homeland.”

He said: “The oppression on the Rohingyas has been a recurring problem. It has occurred in 1978, 1992, 2012, 2016, and most recently in August 2017.

“They [Myanmar government] are now saying that they will take back the people who entered Bangladesh after October 2016, and will decide about the other people later.”

He added: “If they had to take the Rohingyas back, then why did they drive them away?”

“The most important question is how do we trust Myanmar when they are repeatedly breaking our trust?”

Touhid Hossain said: “One of the main clauses of the repatriation agreement of 1978 and 1992 was that the Myanmar government will take steps to ensure that the Rohingyas do not flee to Bangladesh.”

The former foreign secretary added that bilateral and international pressure will have to be continued on the Myanmar government.

He said Myanmar will have to build confidence among the Rohingya population by assuring that they will not be persecuted and be able to live there properly.

Former defence attaché to Myanmar Shahidul Hoque also emphasized building confidence among the Rohingyas.

He said: “The Rohingyas need to be informed of their housing and food status, their nationality, their means of livelihood. The two governments are already discussing these matters, and it needs to be conveyed to the Rohingya refugees so that they feel secure.”

Regarding the repatriation, Shahidul said: “UN refugee agency and other international agencies have to be involved in the process to solve the problem effectively.

“Myanmar will lose interest in the repatriation of the Rohingyas if the international community decreases their pressure on the country.”

According to the International Organization for Migration, some 655,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in Myanmar on August 25, 2017, taking the total number of refugees to at least 868,000.

By Jeff Crisp

News Deeply

January 17, 2018

As Rohingya refugees poured out of Myanmar into Bangladesh last fall, the two countries were already negotiating mass returns. This wouldn’t be the first premature repatriation of Rohingya, but today it reflects a trend of unsafe returns, says refugee expert Jeff Crisp.

ONE OF THE most striking characteristics of the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh has been the speed with which the two states have started to discuss and plan for the refugees’ repatriation.

On August 25, 2017, an attack by militants claiming to represent Myanmar’s stateless Muslim minority prompted a violent response by the country’s security forces. Within just two months, over 600,000 Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh.

Even as refugees continued to flee – at least 50,000 more by the end of 2017 and smaller numbers in January 2018 – Bangladesh and Myanmar started negotiations in early October and reached a bilateral agreement by mid-November to begin repatriation within two months.

Many aid agencies and human rights organizations expressed serious reservations about the premature nature of this accord. But other members of the international community were warming to the idea that the speedy return of the Rohingya would avert a very large, long-term refugee situation in Bangladesh that would be extremely expensive to maintain and which would have a destabilizing impact on the region.

On November 24, 2017, for example, E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini issued a highly optimistic statement on the Rohingya following a visit to both countries, saying, “We expect their return to happen fast and in safe conditions.”

Myanmar and Bangladesh continue to express confidence that the repatriation process is on track to begin January 22. Yet Rohingya refugees are extremely reluctant to return to a country where they have been subjected to terrible violence and where they would continue to be deprived of citizenship, rights and economic opportunities. Some have said they would rather die in Bangladesh than return to Myanmar.

Almost no details have been released about the way in which Bangladesh and Myanmar would organize and finance the return and reintegration of such a massive refugee population. And the U.N.’s refugee and migration agencies have both been at pains to point out that they have had no involvement in the planning process.

While these considerations seem likely to delay the implementation of the repatriation process and limit the number of refugees that it involves, there is no room for complacency.

First, large numbers of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh before, most notably in 1978 and 1991. And on both occasions, they were forced to return to Myanmar on the basis of bilateral agreements signed between the two countries, with the refugees being expelled from Bangladesh by means of intimidation, physical violence, the use of military force, the withdrawal of food aid and other forms of assistance.

Shamefully, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) was both complicit in and publicly silent about these events. That disregard for the rights and dignity of the Rohingya was encapsulated by a telling comment made by one of the organization’s senior officials at a meeting I attended in 1992. “These are primitive people,” they remarked. “At the end of the day they will go where they are told to go.”

It is now incumbent on UNHCR to ensure that there is no repetition of these earlier scenarios, insisting that any repatriation that takes place in the future does so in a way that is both voluntary and safe, as stipulated in the organization’s own guidelines on refugee returns. That will require UNHCRto take a robust stand in its dealings with Bangladesh, Myanmar, the E.U.and other donors, all of whom are likely to have other priorities.

A second cause for concern is that the premature repatriation of the Rohingya refugees is by no means an isolated example.

Recently, Somali refugees in Kenya have been encouraged, cajoled and induced to repatriate by threats of camp closure, reduced assistance levels and increased indebtedness. Large numbers of Afghan refugees have been repatriating from Pakistan as a result of harassment and intimidation, despite the deteriorating security situation and diminishing opportunities in Afghanistan.

In Cameroon, the military has used strong-arm tactics to expel thousands of refugees who have fled from extremist violence in Nigeria. And in Lebanon, the government and other local actors have been exerting growing pressure on refugees to return to Syria, a country where armed conflict and human rights abuses continue unabated.

As demonstrated by the earlier experience of the Rohingya, the principle of voluntary and safe repatriation has never been universally respected, and it would be misleading to suggest these developments are entirely new. Even so, the scale and frequency of involuntary refugee returns in recent years suggest that a fundamental norm of refugee protection is now being challenged as never before.

Can this trend be halted? The omens are not good. The world’s most prosperous states appear to have concluded that the best way to deal with asylum seekers arriving at their borders is to send them back to where they came from: countries such as Turkey, Libya and Afghanistan in the case of the E.U.; Central America with respect to the U.S.; Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam for Australia. Developing countries with much weaker economies and far larger refugee populations have taken full note of these developments and are understandably asking why they should not follow the same example.

Further cause for concern can be found in the negotiation of the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees. On one hand, the 2016 New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants that established the Global Compact process, asserts that the international community “will actively promote durable solutions” for refugees, “with a focus on sustainable and timely return in safety and dignity.” On the other hand, it asserts that refugee repatriation “should not necessarily be conditioned on the accomplishment of political solutions in the country of origin.”

This statement paves the way for the return of refugees to a country such as Myanmar, where the anticipated democratic transition has failed. Without solutions that include the recognition of Rohingya citizenship and human rights, we are likely to see history repeating itself yet again in the future.

Joint Statement

Date: 17th January 2018

Rohingyas’ concerns over the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh

We, the undersigned Rohingya organisations worldwide express our serious concern over an agreement, signed on 23rd November 2017, between Myanmar and Bangladesh on the return of some 670,000 Rohingya refugees who have recently taken refuge in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar genocide. 

But the question is how the terrified and traumatized refugees would be repatriated to Arakan/Rakhine State where they experienced, witnessed and fled the genocidal brutality of Myanmar troops, Rakhine extremists and other vigilantes. There is no change of attitude of the Myanmar government and its Military towards Rohingya; still they identify Rohingya as recent “Bengali interlopers” from Bangladesh; and Rohingyas continue entering into Bangladesh due to continuing violence and brutality against them in Arakan. 

Refugees are homesick, but they are unwilling to return as congenial atmosphere has not been created yet for safe and voluntary repatriation with dignity and honour. The refugees should be settled in their homes. It would be worst simply moving the refugees from camps in Bangladesh to dislodgement sites in Myanmar. It is dangerous that the regime has already claimed state-ownership of Rohingyas’ land within the affected region of Northern Arakan/Rakhine state. Before they return to Myanmar the refugees need guarantee ensuring their life and property security and “peaceful-coexistence” as equals with all other people in Arakan and Myanmar. 

In consideration of the above, the following measures are imperative for safe and voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya refugees:

1. The UNHCR, which is a mandated UN protection agency, should be involved in all process of repatriation. 

2. The Refugees should be allowed to put down their identity as “Rohingya”, the UN-recognized name to self-identify.

3. Refugee representatives should be discussed in all process of repatriation.

4. Repatriation must be fully voluntary. The refuges should be rehabilitated in their original homes and properties, with full compensation under the supervision of the UN with peace-keeping force, NOT to displacement sites in Myanmar.

5. Demilitarized UN safe zones shall be created in Northern Rakhine State, as an interim measure, in order to guarantee security of life, property and dignity of the persecuted people, as well as to ensure confidence, faith and understanding in the minds of the heavily terrified and traumatized refugees.

6. The Myanmar government must restore their full Myanmar citizenship ensuring all rights and freedoms -- security of life, property, honour, dignity, freedom of religion, movement, education, marriage, employment etc. -- without any infringement, restriction, and discrimination in all affairs of their national activities. 

7. The Myanmar government shall recognize the “Rohingya ethnicity” allowing them to peacefully co-exist in Arakan/Rakhine State as equals with their “collective rights” on par with other ethnic nationalities of the country.

8. The Myanmar Citizenship Law of 1982 must be scrapped or amended aligning it with international standards and treaties to which Myanmar is State Party, including articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Rights of Child.

9. Land is asset and means of making living. All previous land and landed properties of the refugees must be given back to them immediately.

10. Necessary arrangement shall be made to try and punish all perpetrators by an international independent tribunal. The Myanmar government shall stop and prohibit all forms of racism, incitement, propaganda, hate speech, Islamophobia, decrees and directives against the Rohingyas and other Muslims.

11. The Myanmar government must allow unimpeded humanitarian aids to all needy and unfettered access to the media and rights groups to Northern Arakan/Rakhine state. 

12. The welfare of the offspring of rapes and raped women must be ensured.

Signatories:

· Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

· Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

· British Rohingya Community in UK 

· Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

· Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ)

· Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan

· Burmese Rohingya Community Australia (BRCA)

· Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland-Australia (BRAQA)

· Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

· European Rohingya Council (ERC)

· Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia(MERHROM)

· Rohingya American Society

· Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee

· Rohingya Community in Germany

· Rohingya Community in Switzerland

· Rohingya Community in Finland

· Rohingya Community in Italy

· Rohingya Community in Sweden

· Rohingya Organisation Norway

· Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM)

· Rohingya Society Netherlands

For more information, please contact:

Tun Khin (Mobile): +44 7888714866

Nay San Lwin(Mobile): +49 69 26022349

Zaw Min Htut (Mobile): +8180 30835327

By Ruma Paul, Yi-mou Lee

Reuters

January 16, 2018

DHAKA/YANGON -- Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to complete within two years the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled an army crackdown last year in Myanmar.

The UN Refugee Agency, responding to the plan, raised a concern about forcibly repatriating over 650,000 Rohingya who fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a conflict erupted in western Rakhine state in August. 

Statements from both the Myanmar and Bangladesh foreign ministries said Bangladesh would set up five transit camps on its side of the border. Those camps would send Rohingyas to two reception centers in Myanmar. The repatriation process would start next Tuesday, the statements said. 

Myanmar said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees. 

The Bangladesh statement said “Myanmar has reiterated its commitment to stop (the) outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh”. 

Myanmar stressed the need for both sides to take preventive measures against possible Rohingya attacks and said it gave Dhaka a list with the names of 1,000 alleged militants. 

The crisis erupted after Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 in Rakhine triggered a fierce military response that the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing. Some 650,000 people fled the violence. 

The military denies ethnic cleansing, saying its security forces had mounted legitimate counter-insurgency clearance operations. 

The Bangladesh statement called for repatriating orphans and “children born out of unwarranted incidence”, a reference to cases of rape resulting in pregnancy, said a Bangladesh foreign ministry official who declined to be identified. 

The rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s security forces was widespread, according to interviews with women conducted at displacement camps by U.N. medics and activists. The military denies it was involved in any sexual assaults. 

VERIFICATION PROCESS 

A spokesperson from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday the Rohingya should only return voluntarily when they feel it is safe to do so. 

“Major challenges have to be overcome,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing. “These include ensuring they are told about the situation in their areas of origin ... and are consulted on their wishes, that their safety is ensured.” 

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters last week the returnees could apply for citizenship “after they pass the verification process”.

Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, told Reuters this month Myanmar would begin processing at least 150 people a day through each of the two camps by Jan. 23. 

The meeting that concluded on Tuesday in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw was the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the November repatriation agreement. 

Left out of the talks were the fears and concerns of the refugees themselves, “as if they are an inert mass of people who will go where and when they are told,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an email. 

“Where are considerations for protection of the Rohingya from Myanmar security forces who months ago were raping and killing them? How come the discussions ignore the deprivation of rights of people held in indefinite detention, which is what these so-called “temporary” accommodations may become?,” Robertson asked. 

‘LIVING LIKE PRISONERS’

A group of refugees at the Kutupalong Rohingya camp near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh expressed doubt about the camps Myanmar has agreed to establish on its side of the border. 

Mohammad Farouk, 20, who arrived in Bangladesh following the Aug. 25 attacks, said exchanging one camp for another made little difference - except ”the camps in Myanmar will be far worse, because we will be confined there and there will be a risk to our lives.” 

Another resident of the Kutupalong camp compared the new transit camps to ones set up near the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe following bouts of violence in previous years ”where people are living like prisoners”. 

“First, ask the military to give those Rohingya their homes and property back, then talk to us about returning,” said the Rohingya refugee who did not want to be identified. 

Some said the kind of violence they witnessed toward their community in Myanmar made it hard for them to trust the military. “Even if I don’t get food or anything else here, at least there is safety. I won’t feel safe if I go back to Myanmar,” said Rashid Ahmed, 33.

Noor Alam, 37, who came to Kutupalong five months back, wondered if he could ever get a job in Myanmar. “They don’t even call us Rohingya. Until they consider us citizens we won’t go back.” 

Some young men in the camp worried they might be arrested on accusations of terrorism if they returned to Myanmar. 

Camp conditions in Bangladesh are dire enough, but more than 520,000 Rohingya children are at even greater risk ahead of the cyclone season that generally begins in April, the United Nations Children’s Fund said on Tuesday. 

”Hundreds of thousands of children are already living in horrific conditions, and they will face an even greater risk of disease, flooding, landslides and further displacement,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh. 

Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh, including those who came after previous displacements dating back to the 1990s. 

Reporting by Ruma Paul and Yi-mou Lee; Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Cox's Bazar, Shoon Naing, and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Bill Tarrant

By UN News Centre 

January 16, 2018

As the Bay of Bengal region gears up for cyclone and monsoon seasons, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than 500,000 Rohingya children already living in “horrific” conditions in makeshift settlements in Bangladesh may face compounded risks of disease and displacement. 

“What is already a dire humanitarian situation risks becoming a catastrophe,” Edouard Beigbeder, the head of UNICEF programmes in Bangladesh said Tuesday, warning on the impact of the approaching cyclone and monsoon seasons.

“Hundreds of thousands of children are already living in horrific conditions, and they will face an even greater risk of disease, flooding, landslides and further displacement,” he added.

More than 4,000 suspected cases of diphtheria have been reported among the refugees – with 32 deaths, including at least 24 children.

UNICEF and partners have launched a diphtheria vaccination campaign, and are working to provide access to safe water and sanitation facilities, but overcrowding and the growing risk of extreme weather increases the risk of further outbreaks. 

“Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera outbreaks and to Hepatitis E, a deadly disease for pregnant women and their babies, while standing water pools can attract malaria-carrying mosquitos. Keeping children safe from disease must be an absolute priority,” Mr. Beigbeder added. 

In addition to the increased threat of disease outbreaks, cyclones can cause flooding and landslides. With little time to prepare before the cyclone season begins in March, even a moderate storm could have a devastating impact. 

Tropical cyclones generally strike Bangladesh from March through July, and September through December – with the greatest number of storms arriving in May and October. 

In May 2017, Cyclone Mora caused widespread damage when it barrelled through the region, including destroying some 25 per cent of Rohingya refugee camp shelters. 

Additionally, June monsoons threaten landslides and floods, which may also render severe damage on shelters, water systems, latrines and other infrastructure. 

Since 25 August, widespread violence in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state has forced over 650,000 members of the Rohingya community to flee their homes and seek shelter across the border in Bangladesh. A number of UN agencies, together with humanitarian partners and the Bangladesh Government have been providing them with life-saving support.

Min Khant

RB Opinion

January 15, 2018

Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Suu Kyi and Foreign Minister of Japan Mr. Taro Kono conducted a joint press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nay Pyi Taw on Friday, 12 January 2018 after having a long bilateral discussion between the two leaders.

In these days, Myanmar is too lucky to have the state of Japan as new partner, followed by China and Russia to help assist its multiple structures and economic development. The Republic of China, Russian Federation, and lastly Japan have come to shield Myanmar’s immoral conducts of brutalities in the world political arena on its minority people and intransigence on demand of international community to abide the universal law and obligatory duties to fulfill the equitable rights of persecuted Rohingya people and the rest in Myanmar. 

The three countries have rigidly sided by Myanmar depend on their own respective interest, and concern of economic strategies amid from the regional and international political pressure and economic restraint due to Myanmar’s human rights violations, which have been totally unacceptable, on all the ethnic people of the nation, particularly against Rohingyas since August 2017. 

Though, the international community has been drastically asking to have access to the Rohingya localities for their proper investigation, Myanmar has been persistently denying to the world’s access to the clue which is importantly needed by the world people to lay down the final solution to the problem. In contrast, the sate Counsellor saying ‘such a world investigation would make worse to live harmoniously together between two major groups; Buddhist Rakhine and Muslims Rohingyas’. 

The state Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been disgracefully afraid of being exposed the brutalities, and multiple inhumanities committed on Rohingyas by the combined forces, for which she has been an eloquent speaker and excellent chicanery to deceive the world to be concealing the killing operations by Myanmar military forces, commanded by S.G. Min Aung Hlaing. 

As more, the state Counsellor would always tell the world leaders:” the matter of Rohingyas in Arakan state is not a single matter to be settled down urgently, but there are many more issues all along the nation regarding the indigenous people”. She has been too much cheeky to the matter of Rohingyas affairs and regards as a jokey manner to the mishap on Rohingyas designed by Min Aung Hlaing and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, herself.

Regarding the recent uncovers of ten Rohingyas innocent dead bodies in Inn Din village, she said:” There were killings in Inn Din village. The Tatmadaw had conducted an investigation and would be taking action so this is viewed as a new step taken by our country. In the end, rule of law in the country is the responsibility of the country. It is a positive indication that we are taking the steps to be responsible”. 

Ever since, the Rohingyas’ more than 340 villages were torched into ashes and people were evicted from their houses; the babies and toddlers were killed and the beautiful Rohingya girls and good-looking ladies were being raped by the forces. And, while many of disarrayed Rohingyas were being dead due to lack of water, food and shelter along their ways to Bangladesh; the absconders property were burned and valuable were looted by military forces, Rakhine armed men and Rakhine ordinary villagers. In the meantime, all these mishaps on Rohingyas were being denied by the Ministry of defense and the state Counsellor herself and she has repeatedly flanked the military’s random speaking mouth which has been shamelessly lying to the world. 

Ultimately, whoever international dignitary pays visit to Myanmar, he/she knowingly and cheerfully agrees to the state Counsellor’s misleading talent, whatsoever she discusses, explains and defrauds the relevant issues from the path of reality.

However, the world leaders want to execute the concerning commerce with her, the entire state commerce of Myanmar does not run under her guided policy. Nevertheless, the commander in chief, Min Aung Hlaing directs and controls how to share the state benefit to the military department. In addition, the state peace, stability and peace building chitchat all along the countryside with the indigenous people by the Counsellor, is a show off to the world. While S.G Min Aung Hlaing’s Ministries (Ministry of Home Affairs, Borders and Defense) control stability of the state, development of borders areas, restoration of rule of law, social harmony among societies and communal state sparkle instabilities. 

Talking about the memorandum of understanding (MoU) reached between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate the fled more than (655,000) Rohingyas to Bangladesh is, as a matter fact, not a sincere attempt of the government of Myanmar after seeing its unfinished multiple cleansing operations so far in Rohingyas localities, Rakhine state.

Formation of UEHRD (the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement, and Development), leading by the Counsellor, as Chairperson of it is nothing. However to brag and please the world community, as if the government is going to repatriate the displaced persons and resettle them to their original locations and for that expecting the big amount of assistance from international donors, Japan and others, who always propped up and protected Myanmar against the worldwide pressure in international arenas. 

Without the presence of international recommended cooperation in Rakhine state to resettle the Rohingyas, then in accord the MoU between the Bangladesh and Myanmar has already reached is evidently to kill alive , maim and demoralize on those will be repatriated Rohingyas people in the camps-side of Myanmar before being resettled them to their original localities as per MoU.

Is it believable the suggestion that under the hand of heinous regime and the chicanery leader, the state Counsellor will properly conduct the Refugees affairs in line principle of international standard? No Single Rohingya refugee currently in Bangladesh will agree such a status quo due to return back & then to be killed again unkindly and be punished severely by Myanmar at the killing field. The military and the Counsellor have already preplanned the beautiful snares for repatriated Rohingya as revenge.

How some world leading nations and that of the honorary leaders do have to support such kind of heartless, brutal, and devious Myanmarese and the regime to provide cash and kind for nothing at the absence of world community to conduct the world-concerned affairs?

Frankly, The Japanese Foreign Minister’s observation due to the root cause of the problem in Arakan as the issue of poverty is merely a plain wrong thought. 

In that matter, Rohingyas have been persecuted, oppressed, restricted and the hateful system of unfairness and isolation seep into in every aspect of Rohingyas people lives for SEVENTY years in Rakhine state. By seeing the heinous character of the almost entire Rakhine and Burmese Buddhists, the truth is the Buddhist Rakhine and Burmese have the systematic technique of cleansing plot against Rohingyas from their ancestral land ‘on ground of physical appearance, ethnic, tradition, belief, culture, and religious differences’. The Rohingyas are the senior inhabitants in the land in accord the historical background that no one can deny this logical phenomenon.

Any bulk assistances provided by the either leading nations to the hand of the central government of UEHRD (the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement, and Development) or Rakhine state authorities without thorough liability, direct cooperation and concrete involvement of the world community. 

Then, such a move either by the state of Japan is regarded by the world community as the following practice of both CHINA and RUSSIA. And that would only embolden the current stubborn Myanmar authorities (NLD regime and military institution) to severely punish more to the existing Rohingyas people in their townships and will carelessly deny all the world peaceful and constant demands on Myanmar to honorably repatriate, restore the legitimate rights of ROHINGYAS.

By Tahsin Noor Salim

Dhaka Tribune

January 15, 2018

How can they go back under these conditions?

In order to carry out the repatriation process for the Rohingya, Bangladesh and Myanmar mutually consented to an arrangement on November 23 last year.

The features of the agreement originate from a repatriation bargain made between Myanmar and Bangladesh in 1992. As per the 1992 agreement, Myanmar would only allow those who would be able to submit identity documents.

According to Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, the identity documents of the Rohingya were seized before August 25 or destroyed when their houses were burned.

The question, then, invariably becomes: How can anyone expect those who have had their homes and belongings get razed by fires, who have had their own children be ripped away from their arms and thrown into the same fires, to carry their identification papers with them when they fled from such nightmares?

Some of the other contentious terms of the agreement include:

• Repatriation requiring Myanmar-issued proof of residency

• The Myanmar government’s right to refuse repatriation to individuals

• The repatriated being settled in temporary locations with severely restricted movement

According to Professor CR Abrar, an expert on matters of migration, such a deal will not yield any fruitful result. He also expressed that, “chances are very slim that our expectations on repatriation and rehabilitation of the Rohingya will come true, but we would be enlightened if it turns into reality.”

Similarly, Jim Della-Giacoma holds the view that the agreement is more of a diplomatic ploy and not a serious step in resolving the crisis.

What I believe is also missing in the agreement are the voices and demands of the Rohingya themselves. At an international conference held at Dhaka University on November 29, it was highlighted that the Rohingya currently housed in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, had expressed that they had four clear demands:

• The UN army should be deployed for the security of the Rohingyas once they are repatriated

• The perpetrators should be prosecuted and brought before international justice

• The Rohingya should be compensated for their property and other losses

• The Rohingya should be given citizenship and that the Kofi Anan proposal should be implemented

It seems unlikely that Myanmar would agree to the proposition for the UN army to be deployed to ensure that the Rohingya are safe. Although Bangladesh wants the involvement of UNHCR, Myanmar is reluctant. It seems that Myanmar is disinclined even about minimal supervision by the international community.

In the memorandum, it mentions that Myanmar has the final say in any dispute. Unfortunately, to the utmost inconvenience of the Rohingya, the ball remains in Myanmar’s court.

Given the uncertain state of affairs, how can the Rohingya wish to be repatriated?

There is no specific time-frame as to how long they will have to remain under such conditions. With such a clause, how can we expect that the Rohingya will be given their due rights as citizens?

Although the Rohingya who have safely crossed the shores are provided essential protection and assistance in Bangladesh, this is not a long-term solution.

What still remains in the grey area is the future of the Rohingya and their children — their ability to secure a source of revenue, access to the justice system and basic rights as citizens.

Bangladesh, a relatively poor country with inadequate cultivable land and resources and a population of about 170 million, cannot be responsible to bring a solution to the crisis by itself.

What we need now is for more affluent countries to shoulder some of that responsibility, and a more pro-active approach from the international community and neutral organisations such as the UN.

To that end, Bangladesh needs more foreign investment as well. The international community can help our nation build up a stronger economy through investing in it. In the long run, it will eventually heighten trade opportunities and generate employment opportunities for the Bangladeshi citizens and the Rohingya as well.

The Rohingya could also be given vocational training to make them occupationally mobile.

With the repatriation process under the aforesaid agreement appearing bleak with looming uncertainties, Bangladesh receiving a helping hand from some of the more well-off nations can only make life that much easier for the Rohingya currently in our shores.

Tahsin Noor Salim is a Researcher at Bangladesh Institute of Legal and International Affairs (BILIA).

By AFP

January 15, 2018

YANGON, Myanmar — Talks were held Monday to “settle issues” over the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, Bangladeshi officials told AFP, as doubts linger over how many of the 655,000 Muslim minority who fled violence are likely to return.

Under diplomatic pressure, Myanmar has vowed to repatriate refugees driven into Bangladesh by an army crackdown last year, if they can verify they belong in western Rakhine state.

But aid agencies question how many Rohingya, a Muslim minority reviled inside Myanmar, will be able to prove their residence given the speed of their flight and complexity of their status in Myanmar.

Most Rohingya refugees approached by AFP in the Bangladeshi camps also say they will not return to a state where their villages have been torched and where they allege atrocities by the army and ethnic Rakhine locals.

Officials from the two countries met in Naypyidaw on Monday to “settle issues” related to repatriation, two Bangladeshi officials familiar with the talks told AFP, requesting anonymity and without giving specific details.

The two governments signed an agreement in November paving the way for repatriations from January 23.

The deal applies to Rohingya who fled Myanmar in two major outbreaks of violence since October 2016.

It does not cover an estimated 200,000 Rohingya refugees who were living in Bangladesh prior to that date.

Last month Bangladeshi officials said they had sent a list of 100,000 names to Myanmar for the first round of repatriation.

Myanmar is yet to publicly endorse the list or even confirm it has received the names.

But the country is on track for the January 23 deadline, the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar reported Monday, adding building work is ongoing at the 124-acre Hla Po Khaung “temporary camp” in Rakhine’s Maungdaw district.

Eventually the site “will accommodate about 30,000 people in its 625 buildings” before they can be resettled permanently.

The report did not mention the Rohingya — who are denigrated by many in Myanmar as “Bengali” immigrants and mostly denied citizenship.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have languished in squalid IDP camps inside Rakhine after earlier unrest in 2012, raising fears that any returnees from Bangladesh will be thrust into a similar limbo.

Diplomats have also cast doubt on Myanmar’s willingness to allow substantial numbers of Rohingya back after an intense army campaign forced over half their number out.

In an unprecedented statement last week, Myanmar’s army admitted security forces took part in the extra-judicial killings of 10 Rohingya in their custody at Inn Din village.

Amnesty International called the admission “the tip of the iceberg” of alleged massacres, rapes and arson attacks on Rohingya villages carried out in the weeks after August 25.

Myanmar’s army defends its ‘clearance operations’ as a legitimate response to deadly raids by Rohingya militants.

By Associated Press

January 15, 2018

A top Myanmar official said Monday that a camp to house Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees who return from Bangladesh will be ready by its promised deadline next week.

More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a brutal crackdown in August following attacks on police posts by a militant group. Though Myanmar's army claimed it was a clearance operation against the terrorists, the United Nations, United States and others have said the operations were "ethnic cleansing" to remove the Rohingya from the country.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to repatriate Rohingya and set up a working group last month to oversee the repatriation of people who had fled violence in the northern part of Rakhine state in western Myanmar.

Win Myat Aye, the minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, said Myanmar was hosting a one-day meeting Monday with Bangladesh officials in the capital Naypyitaw to discuss the logistics of how many Rohingya will be allowed into Myanmar and how they will be scrutinized to be placed in the camps.

Officials plan to start the repatriation process from Jan. 23.

"We are planning ahead to be able accept the returnees from next week and we are sure that this will be done on time," Win Myat Aye said.

The UN refugee agency said it is not involved in the process but is willing to play a "constructive role" in the process if allowed, specifically in registering the refugees and helping determining whether they are returning to Myanmar voluntarily.

"Our involvement in the process and our full access to areas of return in Myanmar can help to build confidence for all concerned, including the refugees," said Vivian Tan, UNHCR's senior regional communication officer.

In the November agreement, Myanmar's civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, pledged to take measures to halt the outflow of Rohingya to Bangladesh and restore normalcy in the region. The U.N and rights groups have urged the Myanmar government to ensure the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya refugees.

Many have questioned whether Rohingya would return to Myanmar under the current circumstances.

Japan's foreign minister on a visit to Myanmar last week urged Suu Kyi's government to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of the refugees.

State-run media in Myanmar reported Monday the 124-acre Hla Po Khaung camp will accommodate about 30,000 people in 625 buildings and that at least 100 buildings are to be completed by the end of the month. It would be the first camp built in the repatriation process.

Rohingya refugee children play with glove balloons at a Samaritan's Purse diphtheria clinic at Balukhali camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh January 15, 2018.

By Jared Ferrie

Thomson Reuters Foundation

January 15, 2018

PHNOM PENH -- Aid workers are ramping up efforts to vaccinate half a million children against diphtheria in and around Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, said the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

The respiratory disease has killed as many as 31 people and infected about 4,000 since it broke out in November in the camps, which house more than 655,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar military operations that began in August. 

About 316,000 Rohingya children were vaccinated last month, according to a Sunday statement by the WHO, the United Nations’ health agency. They will need two more doses, spaced a month apart. 

In the meantime, health workers are vaccinating another 160,000 Bangladeshi children who live in communities near to refugee settlements in the border district of Cox’s Bazar. 

Diphtheria had almost been eradicated in Bangladesh, with only two cases reported in 2016, said Catalin Bercaru, a WHO spokesman in the capital, Dhaka. 

When it appeared in the camps in November, “health workers were indeed surprised”, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email. 

Since then, there have been suspected cases in nearby communities, he said. 

Children are particularly vulnerable to diphtheria, a bacterial infection that causes dead tissue to build up over the throat and tonsils, making it difficult to breath. The disease also produces a toxin affecting other organs. 

Diphtheria is spread through direct contact with infected people or by breathing secretions from their coughs or sneezes. 

“One of the main reasons for the emergence of the outbreak is the low routine immunization coverage in Rakhine state of Myanmar, where the Rohingya population came from,” said Bercaru. 

The influx of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya also created perfect conditions for the disease to spread, as the refugees are forced to live in close quarters with poor sanitation and limited access to health care. 

The exodus of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar began after a Rohingya militant group launched deadly attacks on Myanmar police and military outposts last August. 

The military responded with a sweeping counteroffensive that rights groups say have been accompanied by rapes and murders of Rohingya civilians. Myanmar has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing, blaming most of the violence on the insurgents. 

Reporting by Jared Ferrie; Editing by Ros Russell.

Genocide Panel

Event Start: 29th January 2018, 5:00pm

Genocide: Why We Let It Happen

Genocide leaves the darkest stain on the conscience of humanity, yet today we are again witnessing international passivity in the face of the genocide in Myanmar. Why have we failed to learn our lesson from these atrocities and why do we allow this stain on our conscience to continue to grow? With Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday 27 January, we seek to reflect on how to apply the promise of 'never again'

• David Sheffer: American lawyer and diplomat who, as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, helped create the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
• Alice Musabende: A survivor of the Rwandan genocide, now an expert on the dynamics of peacebuilding in the context of post-conflict countries
• Mukesh Kapila: As the whistleblower on the Darfur atrocities, he is an expert on genocide prevention and international diplomacy
• Maung Zarni: A Burmese human rights activist and academic, he has been denounced as an "enemy of the State" for his opposition to the Myanmar genocide
• Ellen Kennedy: Director at the Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and founder and Executive Director of World Without Genocide

Min Khant

RB Opinion

January 11, 2018 

The statement No. (1/2018) which was stated on January 10, 2018 by the Myanmar National Human Rights commission on the Global New Light of Myanmar in regards the ARSA terrorists attack the vehicle carrying members of the security forces with explosives device, and small arms from the hillock of North West of Kyein Chaung village in Maungtaw township, Rakhine state around 10:00 am on 5 January 2018 and a driver and two members of security forces were wounded -- was nothing more than the bogus message of similar to entire media outlet of Myanmar.

In Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar, there are several groups of illegal armed organizations, some fighting against the central regime of Myanmar for their self-legitimate right and some are nothing to demand the due legitimate rights to the regime. Those (Thet armed group, Dianet & Mro armed-men) are plausibly assisted to survive through their ways of looting, robbing, destroying and killing Rohingya people by well aware of regional and central government. 

Among them, some (two of Rakhine Buddhist organizations that have coordinated the regular contact with local Rakhine populace to fight against the central regime and Rohingyas Muslims) are well known by central government of Myanmar and international community for their constant claims to Rakhine state authority and the central government of Myanmar as the stakeholders.

Time and again, regional and central government have been openly advocating and fulfilling the necessary things on the tiny groups of several minorities, dwelling along the Mayu Mountains and that of the ridges as people of recognized indigenous inhabitants and militants. The regional and central regime’s philosophy has been to be able to charge visible multiple faults that (are blamable on Rohingyas and beautiful justification by the regime) the both governments want in time to blame & punish on innocent Rohingyas the preplanned heinous oppressions by the government forces. 

The Government has been contemplating beautifully and drastically the state multiple sullied and horrible games hand in hand with the mountain dwellers to circulate the filthy playoffs to be shown to the faces of international community that neither Rohingyas ordinary people nor ARSA, the so called Rohingyas armed militant have ever committed crimes against the government. 

To censure on Rohingyas, and at the same time, to hide behind to the inhumane atrocities that have been committed against Rohingyas Muslims by the regime with a coordinated efforts of mountain dwellers: “Mro, Thet, Dianet and Rakhine Buddhist armed men” in north Rakhine state. And, to lay out the dishonest reasons not to be repatriated the Rohingyas people as much as earlier as per the demand of international community and in line principle of the global norms, which demanded by the fled Rohingyas to Bangladesh. 

Now reasoning as if ARSA’s attack in north Arakan, Myanmar regime, which asserting just because of the ARSA’s attack in north Rakhine, that, in fact, there is no visible ARSA on ground nor possibly ARSA might not have committed any attack as accused, Myanmar government has been manipulating several kinds of unreasonable reasons to the world.

The government of Myanmar insists the recent ARSA’s attack in the region is as the terrorist attack and that ARSA does not desire the fled refugees to be repatriated soon and wants various instabilities in the region. In that ground, government saying, it is impossible to construct the buildings, roads, schools, religious constructions, professional structures, and livelihoods in time due to be repatriated Rohingyas people that both governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh have reached an agreement in November 2017. 

What a hallucination of Myanmar government to blame on ARSA for her dishonesty to implement the world demands due to Rohingyas people rights restorations, successful repatriation, livelihood establishments, building harmonious societies and processing of Rohingyas people citizenship. Blaming on recent ARSA’s attack which created by the military is a huge new tragedy to revert all the agreements Myanmar has reached bilateral and international consensus between and among the nations in regards Rohingyas. 

Not only that, there are a lot of operations one after another in the region, north Rakhine state against Rohingyas people who still reside in their villages. Couple of days ago, a military combine operation with indigenous mountain dwellers has thrown some explosives to the fishpond of the village, Chin-Tha-maa (Khan-Sa-Ma) nearby Phaung-Daw-Byin village in north of Buthidaung Township. Later, military authorities have summoned the village head and let him gather his male villagers to find out the ARSA attackers and their ammunitions. 

The military authorities, asserting the prior information that there were ARSA attackers in the village and many arms and explosives being hidden underneath of the pool. Then the authorities have had let the villagers to fetch out the water from fishpond until the end to find out the explosives which the villagers have no knowledge about the episode. In accord the villagers, the entire ARSA attackers or those of the ammunition have been a pretext, a plain game, and attachments to flee Rohingyas from the village that may fear of being randomly arrested, severely tortured and the exorbitant compensation in return military authorities’ clemency. Many young men were arrested and ever since they have been severely and inhumanely tortured to confess to be, ARSA attackers and ammunition found at the fishpond belong to them. What a trap!

Likewise, the remaining Rohingyas in the regions have been under extremely threats and multiple intimidations under the form of one way of another reason or pretext by the military strategies adopted by S.G Min Aung Hlaing and military branches to torture the remaining Rohingyas people physically and mentally in the regions to get out of the region. Every Rohingyas remaining in the regions are in a state of suspense or impatience due to the worry of military’s inhumane maneuver on Rohingyas innocent day in day night who are barely unprotected by law but Rohingyas as preys to be killed by military-predators and its coordinators. It seems that military strategies to expel all Rohingyas in the region who remained in their location yet, and military will commit whatever they want to annihilate all Rohingyas in the region to cleanse altogether. 

Ever since its establishment as Human Rights Commission of Myanmar, it has never stood from the sufferers who are helpless, hopeless, and vulnerable all along the country. They simply, inconsiderably, dishonestly, and irrationally stand by the side of oppressor, and tyrants as a protector not to be blamed by the world community. 

The question now is what is a job of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission to carry out in this country under the identity of ‘Human Rights Commission’? Myanmar Human Right Commission is a whole sale TICKET of brutal regime supporter, it does not regard the Rohingyas as human being, and the Rohingyas’ agony is regarded as a glee by the hearts of the Human Rights Commission members of Myanmar. 

May GOD perish all those who are the members of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission?

Bangladeshi authorities vaccinated Rohingya refugees for cholera and measles but were surprised by the diphtheria outbreak. (Photo: AFP/Munir Uz Zaman)

By AFP
January 13, 2018

UKHIA, Bangladesh -- In a makeshift bamboo clinic, small children struggle to draw breath through surgical masks, victims of a forgotten but deadly disease that has torn through the teeming Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Diphtheria had been all but eradicated in Bangladesh until last year, when more than 650,000 Rohingya poured across the border fleeing a bloody military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

Packed into an area meant for a much smaller number of refugees and with little sanitation or healthcare, the new arrivals provided fertile ground for the highly contagious respiratory disease to take hold.

It quickly spread through the camps, with the World Health Organization reporting more than 3,600 cases.

The outbreak has already claimed the lives of at least 30 refugees, mostly children, while a handful of Bangladeshis living near the camps have also contracted the disease.

Carla Pla, head nurse at the specialist diphtheria unit run by medical charity MSF (Doctors Without Borders), said children were arriving with "severe" symptoms.

"This is a very challenging situation, because everyday there are coming more children, and the challenge to get the vaccine is also something that is very difficult," she told AFP at the unit.

Nearly 600 refugees have been referred there since it opened in December, putting enormous pressure on doctors also struggle to treat rampant malnutrition, water-borne disease and other diseases in the camps.

When AFP visited this week most of the patients were small children, some of them clearly struggling to breathe.

CAUGHT OFF GUARD

Bangladesh authorities were prepared for other diseases and moved quickly to inoculate the new arrivals against cholera and measles to prevent a health disaster.

But the emergence of diphtheria, which causes difficulty breathing and can lead to heart failure, paralysis and death if left untreated, caught aid workers off guard.

"We were taken aback when tests confirmed diphtheria in the camps. It was a long-lost disease in our country," said Abdus Salam, the chief medical officer for Cox's Bazar district, where the camps are located.

"Immediately, we acquired vaccines from abroad for an emergency response."

In December, they launched a huge vaccination push. Nearly 320,000 children aged under 15 have now been inoculated and another 160,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine this month.

High rates of vaccination mean diphtheria has become increasingly rare in much of the world, although Yemen is currently suffering an outbreak.

But the Rohingya come from impoverished Rakhine state, where state-imposed restrictions have ensured abysmal living standards for the persecuted Muslim community, and many children are not vaccinated.

Pla said it was challenging for staff treating a disease that "only existed in the textbooks for all these years", with many doctors seeing live cases for the first time in their careers.

SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS

Mohammad Hossain assumed his son, now being treated in the MSF clinic, had the same minor throat infection affecting other Rohingya children in the refugee camp.

"I thought it was tonsilitis. But the doctors said it was much more serious," Hossain told AFP, wearing a protective mask as he tended to the 11-year-old.

The appearance of diphtheria, long forgotten in many parts of the world, has compounded the misery for close to one million displaced Rohingya Muslims living in extreme hardship near the border with Myanmar.

Seven specialist diphtheria field clinics have been set up to treat the rising number of patients since the outbreak, said WHO's Southeast Asia emergency director Roderico Ofrin.

Together the wards house 400 beds for patients, but a shortage of doctors has required medics to be flown in from Britain and elsewhere to help battle the outbreak.

Treatment involves administering an antitoxin and antibiotics.

At the MSF ward, where Hossain's son Mohammad Rashed is making a slow recovery, medics wearing single-use scrubs work in tented-off wards treating patients.

Everyone coming into contact with the tents, set away in an isolated clearing, must wear masks and wash their hands in chlorinated water.

Preventing infected patients from coming into contact with the wider, largely unvaccinated population of Rohingya remains a priority, doctors said.

Rohingya community leaders meanwhile are trying to spread awareness about this resurgent disease to offset a full-blown epidemic.

By AFP

January 12, 2018

A Rohingya woman and three children perished when a fire gutted their tent shelter in a UN camp in Bangladesh, authorities said Friday.

Police and a Red Crescent official said a candle sparked the fire late Thursday at a UN-run transit camp for refugees in Ghumdum border village.

"Seven people were severely burnt. They were shifted to a Red Crescent field hospital where two people died last night and another two died this morning (Friday)," Ikram Elahi Chowdhury, a regional head of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, told AFP.

The victims had only arrived from Myanmar in the past week and were waiting at the transit centre to be shifted to a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district.

Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said an investigation had been started.

"We are working closely with the Bangladeshi authorities to ascertain how the fire started and how tragedies like this can be prevented in the future," he said in a statement.

More than 650,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 after Myanmar's security forces launched what the UN and US officials have called ethnic cleansing in the country's Rakhine state.

Many refugees start at transit centres set up along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border before they are brought to the main refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

Aid workers have warned that flimsy tents and bamboo and tarpaulin shelters set up to house the refugees are potential fire traps.