Rohingya refugees doubt Myanmar's assurances on going home
October 03, 2017 Reuters Agency
Rohingya refugees
Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were sceptical on Tuesday about their chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees.
More than half a million Rohingya have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine State launched in late August that has been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing and placed a huge burden on Bangladesh.
Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing, saying it is only fighting Rohingya terrorists who have claimed attacks on the security forces. The government has said anyone verified as a refugee from Myanmar will be allowed to return under a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993.
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar government spokesman confirmed it would go along with process, provided people could verify their status with paperwork.
But many refugees are scornful.
"Everything was burned, even people were burned," said a refugee who identified himself as Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a right to stay in Myanmar.
At the root of the problem is the refusal by Buddhist-majority Myanmar to grant citizenship to members of a Muslim minority seen by a mostly unsympathetic, if not hostile, society as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Though Myanmar has not granted Rohingya citizenship, under the 1993 procedure, it agreed to take back people who could prove they had been Myanmar residents.
But a day after Bangladesh and Myanmar announced apparent progress, a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official appeared resigned to a difficult process.
"This is still a long procedure," said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.
There were already about 300,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, but Myanmar had said it would only take back those who arrived after October 2016 - when a military offensive in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh - "subject to verification", the official said.
"We said that many Rohingya refugees have no documents, so this process should be flexible. Myanmar said they will decide who will get involved in the verification," the official said, adding Bangladesh wanted international agencies to be involved.
Myanmar's government spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove residency, but it was only Myanmar, and not Bangladesh, that could verify citizenship.
"We have a policy for the repatriation process and we will go along with that policy," the spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters.
'BREAK THEIR PROMISE'
But even if refugees had documents, many are wary about returning without an assurance of full citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and curbs they have endured for years.
Amina Katu, 60, laughed at the thought of returning.
"If we go there, we'll just have to come back here," she said. "If they give us our rights, we will go, but people did this before and they had to return."
Last month, Anwar Begum told Reuters she had now fled from Myanmar three times. The first time was to escape a 1978 crackdown, and she returned the following year. She fled again in 1991 and returned in 1994.
"I don't want to go back," the 55-year-old added. "I don't believe the government. Every time the government agrees we can go back, then we're there and they break their promise."
Investigators appointed by Suu Kyi and led by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan recommended in August that Myanmar review a 1982 law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless.
Statelessness was at the root of the problem, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a meeting in Geneva on Monday.
"Nowhere is the link between statelessness and displacement more evident than with the Rohingya community of Myanmar, for whom denial of citizenship is a key aspect of the discrimination and exclusion that have shaped their plight," he said.
Grandi also called for a two-track approach to tackle issues of citizenship and rights and inclusive development to stamp out poverty in Rakhine State.
UNICEF appeals for $76.1M for Rohingya children
UNICEF on Monday requested $76.1 million from donor countries to assist children affected by the Rohingya refugee crisis in southern Bangladesh.
The UNICEF appeal for $7 million for Rohingya refugees has been expanded over tenfold to $76.1 million due to "the fast-growing scale of the crisis," the UN agency said in a statement."The appeal will cover the immediate needs of newly arrived Rohingya children, as well as those who arrived before the recent influx, and children from vulnerable host communities.
"According to UNICEF, up to 60 percent of the more than half-million Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25 are children.
"Desperate, traumatized children and their families are fleeing the violence in Myanmar every day. We are scaling up our response as fast as we can, but the magnitude of need is immense and we must be able do more to help them.
These children are being denied a childhood,quot; Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s executive director, said in a statement.The majority of Rohingya children are not fully immunized against diseases such as polio, Lake warned.Since Aug. 25, more than 500,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.
The refugees are fleeing a fresh military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes, and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.
Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the issue at the UN.
The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.
Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/rohingya-refugees-doubt-myanmars-assurances-on-going-home-2794923
