Sam JAHAN
Thu, August 25, 2022
Thousands of Rohingya refugees held "Genocide Remembrance Day" rallies on Thursday across a huge network of camps in Bangladesh, marking five years since fleeing a military offensive in Myanmar.
In August 2017 around 750,000 of the mostly Muslim minority streamed over the border with mainly Buddhist Myanmar to escape the onslaught, which is now the subject of a landmark genocide case at the UN's top court.
Today there are nearly a million Rohingya, half of them under 18, in rickety huts in camps where the mud lanes regularly become rivers of sewage during monsoon rains.
On Thursday thousands staged rallies in many of the camps, holding banners, shouting slogans and demanding a safe return to their home state of Rakhine in western Myanmar.
"Today is the day thousands of Rohingya were killed," young leader Maung Sawyedollah said with tears in his eyes as he led a rally in Kutupalong -- the world's largest refugee settlement.
"Only Rohingya can understand the pain of the 25th of August. Five years ago this day nearly one million Rohingya were displaced. On this day in 2017 more than 300 of our villages were burnt down to ashes," he said.
"All we want is a safe and dignified return to our homeland," said Sayed Ullah, another community leader.
"Unfortunately, our cries have fallen on deaf ears. The international community is not doing anything. Here in the camps we are languishing in tarp and bamboo shelters and barely surviving on handouts," he said.
Many shouted slogans also demanding the repeal of a 1982 law that stripped them of their citizenship in Myanmar, where they are widely seen as foreigners.
- 'A prison' -
Several attempts at repatriation have failed, with Rohingya refusing to return without security and rights guarantees.
Rohingya community leaders complain that the security situation in the Bangladeshi camps -- surrounded by barbed wire -- is also deteriorating, with at least 100 people killed in violence since 2017.
Many of the killings are blamed on a Rohingya insurgent group, as well as gangs involved in drug smuggling and human trafficking that find easy recruits among the many bored young men in the camps.
"It's a prison for the Rohingyas. The life of the Rohingyas has worsened in these five years," said one young activist, declining to give his name for fear of retaliation from Bangladeshi police.
"Rohingya shops were demolished. We need to take permission to go out of the camps to meet our relatives. We feel unsafe because of violence and the rising number of targeted killings," he said.
A survey of the refugees published by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday showed that the camps were becoming increasingly unhygienic.
It said that 76 percent of respondents said toilets were overflowing, up from 38 percent in 2018.
Acute watery diarrhoea cases have increased by 50 percent compared to 2019 and cases of skin infections like scabies have also soared.
Fires are common. Last year, a massive blaze left around 15 people dead, 560 injured and up to 10,000 families -- more than 45,000 people -- displaced.
The UNHCR has called for more funding from the international community.
To ease overcrowding, Bangladesh authorities have relocated about 30,000 Rohingya to an island but there are worries it is prone to flooding.
"Voluntary and sustainable repatriation is the only solution to the crisis," said Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen.
str-sam/sa/stu/dva
Five years on from the biggest mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh, people in the camps say there is no end in sight. Human rights groups want global actors to mark the anniversary with a coordinated strategy.
More than a million refugees currently reside in the camps in Bangladesh, but few feel at home
Five years after the latest and biggest mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh, people in the camps say that the limbo they are living in is never ending. They don't see much hope to get their normal lives back.
More than 1 million Rohingya currently reside in Bangladesh, but few people would call it home.
On a recent day, Hasina Begum asked her father to bring water from the community well because her husband was currently away from the refugee camp. This 23-year-old woman can't do it herself because of her physical inability, that she is trying to conceal with her yellow dupatta — a shawl traditionally worn by women to cover the head and shoulders.
When asked the reason for her disability, Begum told DW with tears the story of a day five years back.
"They (Myanmar military) hit me with a rod," Begum said. "I was drenched with blood, and they thought I was dead. So they left me there."
Five years later, she still has pain in her head and feet.
Begum was a victim of a brutal clampdown by Myanmar's military in 2017. The Myanmar military began a sweeping campaign of massacres, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine State on August 25, 2017, following attacks on the border posts by some Rohingya militants.
The campaign killed thousands of Rohingya, according to many international organizations, including Doctors Without Borders. At the time of the exodus, the United Nations say more than 745,000 people fled to neighboring Bangladesh. That figure now stands at over a million. Begum and her family now live in a refugee camp.
Hasina Begum, a 23-year-old woman, conceals some of her scars with a yellow dupatta
Life in the Bangladeshi camps
Begum lives with her husband and child in a tiny two-room house in the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, the largest refugee camp in the world, hosting about 600,000 refugees, according to figures from a number of human rights bodies, such as the Refugee Council USA.
"My husband has no work," Begum said. He goes to Tabligh (a religious group)" for food and other aid.
Most of the people are unemployed, including Begum's 44-year-old father, Enayetullah. He returns with a pot of water.
"We had huge farmlands," Enayetullah said. I used to cultivate them. We had cattle, a house and a lot of possessions. We left them all behind."
Enayetullah said he did not think of his possessions when he fled Myanmar. But now after five years, he misses his home, and his lands.
Rohingya refugees living in limbo in Bangladeshi camps
Seeking work, without prospects
Many people in the camps want to work and rebuild their lives.
"We can't go out of the camps. Sometimes we get a call to work. But that is rare," says 33-year-old Mohammad Shafi.
The Rohingya are also struggling with limited education opportunities.
Mohammad Riaz is a 10th-grade student. This will be his last year of education inside the camps.
"After this year I will have no opportunity to study further, but I want higher education," Riaz told DW.
Searching for more opportunities, many Rohingya try to flee the camps to and leave Bangladesh.
Elaine Pearson, the acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch, released a statement on the eve of the anniversary of the 2017 exodus, saying: "Donors should support Rohingya refugees to study and work freely and safely so they can build independent and self-reliant futures."
Mohammad Shafi says it is not possible to "go out of the camps"
UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet recently visited the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with community representatives telling her that they want to build a better life.
"One day I want to go home, but I don't know when I can," Enayetullah said.
The life of the Rohingya remains in limbo within the camps, with no end in sight to their current plight.
"When I remember my homeland, my heart burns. I want to go back," Tasmida Begum told DW. "But only if they give us peace — and give our possessions back."
Tasmida Begum is afraid that the military might attack again if she goes back. She lost a brother and a brother-in-law in 2017.
Aung Kyaw Moe, an adviser to the National Unity Government of Myanmar, run by the Suu Kyi led NLD party, told DW that repatriation has not been possible because of a lack of interest from Myanmar's government.
"It is not happening because of the lack of political will from the Myanmar side," Moe said. He is the first Rohingya to hold a position in Myanmar's government. "They don't want them to go back."
Repatriation talks are underway among Myanmar, Bangladesh and different UN bodies. A joint task force is in place to finalize the list of Rohingya people to be repatriated.
"We have already given them a list of 830,000 Rohingya. They have accepted that," Shamsud Douza, an additional commissioner at the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner's Office, told DW. "We are providing them with humanitarian aid, but at some point they have to leave."
Bangladesh anticipates sending the Rohingya people back to Myanmar. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Masud Bin Momen told the press that repatriations could begin by the end of 2022.
"We are hopeful we can start the repatriation by the end of the year. We are trying to do it for our own interest because they are becoming a burden for us," he said.
After two prior repatriation attempts failed, Moe said the list might just be a method of delaying the process. "Myanmar has the list. They know very well who have fled," he told DW. "If they really want to initiate the repatriation process they would have given a list to Bangladesh, find them and send them back."
Will there be justice?
Five years on, nobody has been held accountable for the brutality that happened in Myanmar. Gambia has launched a genocide case about the issue before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case is being heard. The Myanmar government had filed an appeal, but this has since been rejected.
Rights organizations demand that the UN Security Council end its current inaction and urgently negotiate a resolution to institute a global arms embargo on Myanmar. Human Rights Watch said the Security Council should refer the situation to the International Criminal Court and impose targeted sanctions on the junta and military-owned conglomerates.
But a UN action on this scale might be vetoed by China and Russia.
"China has always been a problem for the Rohingya,"Moe said. We have to find an innovative way to deal with the blockages created by China and Russia particularly in the Security Council and other UN bodies."
Hasina Begum said she had no idea what justice would look like. To her, getting back to a normal life is a long way off, with the mental and physical wounds leaving more than just the visible scars on her body.
"I don't know what will happen next,"she said. I don't see a future here or anywhere."
Edited by: John Silk
Bangladesh has taken in over a million Rohingya after they were forced out of Myanmar. Now, the Bangladeshi government is pressuring the EU to help repatriate them.
Activists have decried living conditions in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh
An estimated 1.1 million Rohingya refugees were taken in by neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military unleashed a violent crackdown in 2017, in what many describe as a genocide against the Muslim-majority group.
Bangladesh has raised the alarm over the cost incurred by the refugee load, and warned of a potential regional crisis. The pressure is also rising internationally, with the UN Human Rights Council passing a resolution in June that called for the rapid repatriation of Rohingya.
Bangladesh's foreign minister, Abdul Momen, also reportedly pressed the issue earlier this month during a meeting with Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, on the sidelines of a summit in Cambodia.
Faint hope of returning
At the moment, however, the outlook is bleak for those who want to see Rohingyas return to Myanmar. International law states that refugees should not be sent back without a guarantee of safety and humanitarian treatment. According to Brussels, this cannot be guaranteed.
EU spokesperson Nabila Massarali told DW that the bloc "supports the voluntary, orderly, safe and dignified repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, as soon as feasible, if and when conditions allow."
But she added that the present situation in Myanmar was "not conducive to a return of refugees in the near future."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military orchestrated a coup in February 2021, overthrowing the democratically-elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government. That sparked an ongoing civil war, in which — according to conservative estimates — more than 2,000 civilians have been killed. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, says the Thailand-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The military only controls limited areas of Myanmar. The rest lies under the authority of defense forces loyal to the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government set up by ousted civilian politicians and activists, and the numerous ethnic armed organizations that have been in conflict with the national authorities for decades.
Fighting escalates in Rakhine
Making matters worse, there is growing violence in the southwestern Rakhine State — from where many of the Rohingya refugees originally fled and would likely return — between the Arakan Army, an ethnic rebel group, and the Myanmar military. At least 10 clashes have been recorded since July 18, Radio Free Asia reported this week. This does not bode well for the cease-fire agreement that both sides agreed to in 2020.
After 2017, over a million Rohingya refugees were taken in by Bangladesh
"The Arakan Army has worked assiduously in the past two years to build up their political autonomy, and that is completely unacceptable to the military regime," said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC.
"Whether it is sheer arrogance or a legitimate concern that the Arakan Army might try to secede, the military is starting a war that it can ill afford, and one that will have wider strategic consequences in Myanmar."
Arakan Army softening its stance on Rohingya
Rohingya repatriation would require cooperation from the Arakan Army. The political wing of the ethnic militia group, known as the United League of Arakan, administrates much of Rakhine State, analysts say.
It has recently toned down its previous hostilities towards the Rohingya minority, which has been persecuted in Myanmar for decades. Tun Myat Naing, the Arakan Army chief, has expressed his willingness to integrate the Rohingya back into Rakhine society.
The militia has its own reasons for changing course, said Kristina Kironska, a Bratislava-based academic who specializes in Myanmar. In May, senior leaders of the Arakan Army held talks with the civilian shadow government, the NUG, for the first time since the coup. This sparked speculation over a possible alliance against the military junta ruling Myanmar.
The NUG says it will devolve power considerably, or even possibly introduce a federal system, if it manages to oust the junta. This could play out well for the Arakan Army, which has been demanding self-determination for Rakhine State for well over a decade. Analysts believe that the militia group is seeking international legitimacy, and assistance on the Rohingya crisis would earn it support from abroad.
A chance for peace due to armed rebellion
"For the Rohingya, paradoxically, the coup and the emergence of the Arakan Army [in conflict with the military] have opened a one-in-a-century opportunity — an opportunity for peacebuilding in Rakhine," said Myanmar expert Kironska.
The big question, she added, is whether the EU and other foreign stakeholders are willing to engage with the Arakan Army in the process of repatriation.
EU spokesperson Massrali said Brussels "has so far [had] no contact with the Arakan Army in Myanmar on the process of repatriation of Rohingya and has no plan to establish relations to that end."
But a senior source in the EU appeared to contradict this statement when contacted by DW.
The bloc has had some dialogue with the Arakan Army "including on the Rohingya issue," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The EU isn't alone in being cagey about dealing with Myanmar's numerous ethnic militias. The US government's position on that the topic is "broken," said DC-based Abuza. "They completely need to change course and actively engage the [ethnic armed organizations], as they will have a seat at the table in a future Myanmar."
In turn, the EU source said the dialogue between the shadow government and the Arakan Army on an anti-junta coalition and possible repatriation would probably be more important than what the EU did.
"The noises coming out of the NUG regarding the Rohingya citizenship and repatriation have been encouraging," they added.
NUG and the Rohingya genocide
The NUG is composed primarily of deposed politicians from the former NLD government, which has a tainted history of relations with the Rohingya minority. The genocide took place while the NLD was in government. Deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi — whose prison sentence for trumped-up corruption charges was extended to 18 years earlier this month — was widely criticized by the international community for failing to condemn the military-led genocide.
But the NUG has since expressed its willingness to accept the Rohingya and repeal the 1982 Citizenship Act, which has been used to deny Rohingya citizenship.
Rohingya repatriation from Bangladesh remains unlikely
The attitude towards Rohingya people in Myanmar seems to be changing. However, the return of refugees from neighboring Bangladesh five years after the army drove them out is not expected any time soon.
An exhausted Rohingya reaches Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar
Five years ago, Myanmar's army launched what it called "clearance operations" against the Muslim-minority Rohingya people in Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh.
Civilians were murdered, girls and women were raped and entire villages were razed to the ground. About 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where most remain to this day in refugee camps.
There are hundreds of thousands of people stranded in refugee camps
Myanmar's armed forces said the campaign was in response to attacks mounted several days earlier on police stations by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant resistance group. The UN and human rights organizations judged the retaliation as disproportionate. The army is accused of committing crimes against humanity and genocide. Currently, a case against Myanmar for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is pending before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Decades of discrimination
The Rohingya are not recognized by Myanmar as a distinct ethnic group, and have been subject to discrimination and demonization for decades. Many lack citizenship rights and cannot move around freely, send their children to school or access medical care. Presently, over one million Rohingya live in Bangladesh, and some 300,000 to 400,000 live in other foreign countries. But about 400,000 Rohingya still live in Myanmar, mostly in camps near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State. This is where most of the Rohingya in the country lived before being driven out. But the dominant population in the state is made up of the Arakanese, a Buddhist ethnic group, who have been in conflict with the central government and military for decades.
Though most Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, many others in the country regard them as illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh. They also accuse them of having too many children, or marrying Buddhist women and thereby threatening the country's Buddhist traditions. This is unlikely to happen given that 87% of the population is Buddhist. It was influential nationalist monks who spread the myth of a Muslim takeover in incendiary sermons and on social media ahead of 2017. Studies have shown that the smear campaign caught on because anti-Rohingya prejudice and systematic discrimination had been widespread for decades.
Changing attitudes?
However, attitudes towards the Rohingya have changed since the coup in February 2021 and the army's jailing of Aung San Suu Kyi and brutal crackdown on protests. Now that the army has targeted the majority ethnic Bamar population, there is also a certain form of solidarity, particularly among Generation Z. Young activists, some of whom have turned their back on the policies of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), are fighting the military and demanding "justice for the Rohingyas" — whatever that may actually mean.
The 2021 coup sparked nation-wide protests
The National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government that was formed in exile after the coup, issued a statement regarding its Rohingya policy in June 2021 and reiterated its position in March 2022: "The Policy commits to the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons, and to comprehensive legislative and policy reform in support of citizenship, equality in rights and opportunity, and justice and reparations." The NUG also appointed Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya, human rights adviser. He recently spoke to DW about the situation in Myanmar.
Currying favor with the West?
It is difficult to say with certainty how genuine or far-reaching this solidarity with the Rohingya actually is. And as the NUG has hardly any real political power in Myanmar, its statement currently amounts to little more than a declaration of intent.
What is clear is that the NUG's main priority is its fight against the military. Since it is still counting on the support of the West, which so far has been very restrained and has only provided humanitarian assistance, its new-found solidarity with the Rohingya might be motivated by its own interests. After all, the US and European governments are very concerned about the human rights of Myanmar's Rohingya. Thus, the NUG is being accommodating to the Western position even though some of its members rejected it before 2021.
Comprised largely of members of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party, the NUG finds itself in a dilemma over this matter. In 2019, Suu Kyi, who was State Counsellor of Myanmar at the time, went to the International Court of Justice to defend Myanmar against accusations of genocide. By doing so, she was effectively protecting the miliary, with the backing of many of her supporters.
As State Counsellor, Aung San Su Kyi defended Myanmar in The Hague
If her stance on the Rohingya is now called into question, it means that she was either mistaken or instrumentalized by the military. Both ideas are hard to stomach for many people who revere Suu Kyi like a saint. In fact, such suggestions could even lead her supporters to oppose the NUG.
There are no surveys or empirical studies on how people in Myanmar view the Rohingya. It is, therefore, unclear whether broad swathes of the population have changed their mind about this ethnic minority since the 2021 coup, given the decades of discrimination preceding it.
Repatriation impossible
What is certain is that under the current circumstances, the Rohingya refugees stranded in Bangladesh cannot yet be repatriated
During a visit in early August, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet only mentioned the repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar once. She said that this must "always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist."
Michelle Bachelet, UN human rights chief, visited Bangladesh in early August
For his part, Aung Kyaw Moe told DW that not much had improved in Rakhine State and "the situation is almost the same as in 2017."
Speaking on the "Myanmar in a PodShell" podcast, Myanmar analyst Tony Waters seemed to agree and predicted that "repatriation to Rakhine is not going to happen, that is self-evident for everybody who follows Myanmar."
Meanwhile, Myanmar's civil war rages on, and its economy lies in ruin. In Rakhine State, the cease-fire between the Arakan Army and Myanmar's armed forces is increasingly fragile. If hostilities resume, the Rohingya could well once again find themselves caught in the crossfire.
This article was translated from German.
With repatriation attempts unlikely in the near future, the EU is instead focusing on aid to help the refugees. In May, Brussels donated an additional €22 million ($22 million) in assistance, which will mainly go to Rohingya in Bangladesh.
"In the absence of the return of refugees to Myanmar, it is vital to ensure the delivery of essential support and services to the refugees," said Massrali.
