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Is this the final confrontation for the Rohingya?
Adil Sakhawat from Naikhongchhari border
Published at 01:59 PM August 27, 2017
Last updated at 03:01 AM August 28, 2017
Border Guard Bangladesh member at the border to prevent Rohingya influx in Bangladesh Dhaka Tribune
The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims
Thousands of Rohingyas are waiting at the border for shelter in Bangladesh in a bid to flee from a fresh spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Their houses were bombarded and torched by the Myanmar army in what they called the fight against insurgency. The atrocities carried out by Myanmar’s army are haunting the Rohingya Muslims, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.
Although the reports could not be independently verified, the fleeing Rohingya families carried consistent accounts of brutal military raids and the use of indiscriminate force against Rohingya villages.
The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian state. The UN has called the Rohingya one of the most persecuted people in the world.
The Rohingyas, including women and children, have gathered just on the other side of a small canal lying on the international border in Ghumdum area in Naikkhongchhori area of Bandarban district.
Dhaka Tribune correspondent crossed the small canal to talk to the Rohingyas on August 25 afternoon. From there, he learned that many of the Rohingya men were ready to join Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to fight back to regain their rights.
An estimated 115 Rohingya men have already left Bangladesh to join the ARSA, said the Rohingyas living in makeshift refugee camps. They took their mobile phones with them, but those were found switched off till Saturday night.
On a visit to the Rohingya camp, this correspondent found recruiters collecting the names of those who wanted to join the ARSA movement and fight against the Myanmar army.
Some Rohingya men looked anxiously and furiously towards the other side of the canal as they heard the sound of mortar shells and gunshots in the villages adjacent to the border.
They told Dhaka Tribune that they were not here to enter Bangladesh to flee Myanmar military atrocities; they only wanted to push their family members, including women, children and elderly persons safely through the Bangladesh border.
Rohingya women and children were seen waiting on the border to enter into Bangladesh territory to escape Myanmar army atrocity Dhaka Tribune
“We want to go back to our village to join the fight against the Myanmar military. Either the Myanmar army personnel will die or we. We cannot endure such atrocities anymore. We are all members of Harakat al-Yaqeen, (the former name of ARSA),” said a Rohingya man named Irfan.
Gunshots and mortar shells have increased since August 25, said several BGB men patrolling the Ghumdum border.
The Rohingya men waiting at the border did not seem afraid of those heavy firing and sound of the mortars, rather they were motivated to fight back.
Dhaka Tribune received an audio clip of ARSA chief Ata Ullah aka Abu Umar Al Junoni from the ARSA followers and supporters. Ata Ullah said: “I am not fighting to grab power. If there are any Rohingya brothers who are ready to fight, please join us, please save our mothers and sisters.”
Several Rohingyas sent pictures of ARSA leaders and fighters to the Dhaka Tribune, claiming they were freedom fighters.
Dhaka Tribune could not contact ARSA leaders directly as ARSA followers said their leaders were in the battle field.
Sources said ARSA was fighting with a small team, but it was getting larger as many Rohingyas were joining them.
The Central Committee for Counter Terrorism of Myanmar, in a statement published on August 25, declared armed attackers and ARSA as terrorist groups in accordance with the Counter-Terrorism Law of the country, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
But the ARSA followers and members told Dhaka Tribune that they started the movement as the Myanmar military’s atrocities became intolerable.
ARSA in its Twitter page claimed they began the resistance as a defence against the Myanmar military and security forces.
ARSA supporters also said that several Rohingya Muslims had been killed in Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships in the Rakhine state, but there were no Buddhist casualties during the crackdown.
Supporter claimed their leader Ata Ullah and fighters were not targeting the Rakhine people, rather their target was the Myanmar military.
Humanitarian crisis
In many videos provided by several Rohingyas, hundreds of Rohingyas in Rathedaung were seen hiding in the nearby forests and mountains to escape the military atrocities. They were afraid of further Myanmar security forces’ raid in those hideouts as well.
Rohingya homes were being burned down by the state armed forces and Rakhine extremists, Rohingyas hiding in the mountains said.
Most of the houses in Rathedaung, Chein Khali, Chein Halivillages were torched by the Myanmar joint forces, said the terrified Rohingyas.
View image on Twitter
ARSA_The Army @ARSA_Official
URGENT: Rakhine political groups & Intl Govts MUST immediately put pressure on Burmese army to stop using Rakhine Civilians as Human Shields
“Our region is in total chaos now. They have burnt down our homes using fire, mortars. They have seized our properties and forced us to leave our homes. We have become totally helpless. We don’t know where we will go now,” said one villager Zaydi Pyinover phone.
Myanmar military and joint security forces are carrying out offensives in many villages of Rakhine state including Kwan Thi Pin, MiHtaikChaungWa, Nat Chaung, Taman Thar, Zee Pin Chaung, Lon Doong, Zin Paing Nya, Ye MyetTaung, Kyi KanPyin, Tharay Kun Baung, Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi, Padin, Alay Than Kyaw, ThawanChaung, ThinbawKwe, Udaung, MyintHlut, Taung Bazaar, Phaung Daw Pyin.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/08/27/final-confrontation-rohingyas/
Panic-stricken Rohingyas stranded in no-man’s land
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 03:08 AM August 28, 2017
Last updated at 03:10 AM August 28, 2017
Photo
haka Tribune
'We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives'
Rocked and displaced by the ongoing atrocities by Myanmar’s army, Rohingya refugees with nowhere to go are running helter-skelter in “no man’s land” on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, with both Border Guard Police (BGP) in Myanmar and Border Guard Bangladesh stepping up vigil on their respective sides.
Unable to bear the persistent persecution, the Rohingya Muslims are feeling homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state leaving behind their hard-earned valuables and property. And, many are losing their beloved ones when rushing to escape the brutalities, a scene prevalent all over the border.
Visiting the Jolpaibania border point in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila on Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune correspondent found over 500 refugees, including women and children, stiff from sitting squeezed up against one another in a bamboo orchard owned by one Nurul Islam.
Among them is Moshtaque Ahmed, a resident of Dekibonia village in Rakhine.
The 70-year old said: “I have four sons and six daughters. Army men picked one of my sons up. He will never return home because I am sure that they have already killed him.
“We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives.”
A woman by the name of Rohina Akter said a group of army men picked his husband up, calling him a member of Rohingya insurgent group Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement).
Claiming innocence for her husband, she said: “My husband is not involved in the group. They [army men] mercilessly beat my husband before my eyes, inflicting severe injuries on him.”
Speaking from the other side of the border, Nurul Bashar and Mujibur Rahman said a military helicopter arrived at Dekibonia army and BGP camps on Saturday around 2pm. After the helicopter departed at 3pm, army personnel accompanied by BGP and locals swooped on Rohingya-inhabited Dekibonia, Chakkata, Fakirapara and other adjacent villages, launching a blanket attack on the villagers.
According to sources in Rakhine, security forces have been indiscriminately firing on the Rohingyas since the Friday incident.
In addition to setting fire to the Rohingyas’ property, they are targeting girls and young women, said the sources, adding that the Rakhine state will soon be cleansed of Muslims if the persecution continues.
Narrating the brutalities, witnesses said the army men shoot youths to death after hanging them upside down. Some of non-Muslim Rakhine youths have joined the military forces in their campaign of assault on the Muslim minority.
On Friday, at least 89 people including a dozen security force members were killed as Rohingya insurgents reportedly besieged border posts in troubled Rakhine state, prompting the army to launch a new crackdown on the Rohingyas and thus triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.
Earlier, over 70,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the October 9, 2016 attacks on security posts, joining as many as 500,000 estimated refugees who have come to Bangladesh during decades of persecution in their motherland.
The previous counterinsurgency operation ceased in mid-February this year, ending a four-month sweep that the UN said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ick-stricken-rohingyas-stranded-no-mans-land/
12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:03 AM, August 28, 2017
Rohingyas pouring in
Hundreds cross border points in Teknaf, Ukhia, Naikhyangchhari; scores wait on no-man's land
Rohingya families crossing the border to escape persecution are lodged in a makeshift camp in Ghumdhum point in Cox's Bazar. Families were seen with bottles of water, polythene sheets and other basic essentials as they entered Bangladesh. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Star Report
Hundreds of Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through different unguarded border points of Ukhia, Teknaf and Naikhyangchhari yesterday while hundreds more took shelter on no man's land after failing to cross the border.
Although Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the local administration denied entry to Rohingyas, residents and elected representatives in those areas said refugees were coming through six unprotected points.
Locals added that some of the Myanmarese nationals were going to unregistered refugee camps on foot or by battery-run easy bikes.
Visiting different spots and talking with locals in Ghumdhum under Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban, our Cox's Bazar correspondent learnt that many more Rohingyas were waiting to cross the border.
Some of the refugees who got into the country alleged that Myanmar troops were burning down their houses, killing men and torturing women. "We came here to save our lives," one of them told The Daily Star.
Border guards remained on high alert as fresh gunshots were heard in Myanmar's Maungdaw, opposite of Ghumdhum, between 8:30am and 9:00am yesterday, our correspondent reported.
The BGB chief warned of a “befitting response” if Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) creates any untoward situation in the bordering area.
Addressing a press conference at Ghumdhum Border Observation Post yesterday, BGB Director General Maj Gen Abul Hossain also said, “We are on high alert. We will not allow anyone from Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh.”
POPE FOR ROHINGYAS
Pope Francis yesterday appealed for an end to the violent persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, the Vatican Radio wrote yesterday.
Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, he said, “Sad news has reached us of the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters, a religious minority. I would like to express my full closeness to them -- and let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of good will to help them, who shall give them their full rights.”
Quoting a senior Vatican source, Reuters earlier reported that Pope Francis will almost certainly visit Myanmar and Bangladesh, two countries caught up in a crisis over the Rohingyas, before the end of the year.
The trip is likely to take place between the end of November and the start of December but definitely before Christmas, the source added. The Vatican has so far officially said only that a trip to both countries is “under study”.
A Vatican team is visiting both countries to sort out details and report back to the pope, who will make the final decision, Reuters wrote on August 23.
INDIA'S CONCERN
India has said it is “seriously concerned” by reports of renewed violence and attacks by terrorists in northern Rakhine province of Myanmar and hoped that perpetrators of the crimes will be brought to justice.
“We are deeply saddened at the loss of lives among members of the Myanmar security forces,” said a statement of India's external affairs ministry issued late on Saturday evening.
Extending “strong support” to Myanmar government “at this challenging moment”, it read, “Such attacks deserve to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be brought to justice.”
The statement came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Myanmar on his way to China to attend the BRICS Summit in the first week of September, reported our New Delhi correspondent.
Meanwhile, Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said.
The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, reports Reuters.
The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.
Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.
The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.
As the latest violence in Rakhine triggered a fresh inflow of Rohingyas towards Bangladesh, about 2,000 to 2,500 of them entered Naikhyangchhari on Saturday evening.
They were condoned off by BGB members so that they cannot proceed further into the country. Locals, however, extended a helping hand to the refugees with food, water and other life-saving materials.
Panel Chairman of Ghumdhum Union Parishad Kamal Uddin said if not guarded, the refugees will take shelter in nearby Balukhali and Kutupalong camps.
Quoting a BGB commander, AFP reported that 20 Rohingyas were caught yesterday and sent back.
The country has been hosting up to 5,00,000 Rohingyas for three decades. Around 33,000 of them are registered and live in two camps in Cox's Bazar. Others live in different areas of Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.
After Myanmar armed forces launched a counterinsurgency operation following attacks on security personnel in Rakhine State in October last year, more than 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh.
FOUR OTHER INJURED AT CMCH
Four more injured Rohingyas were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday.
They are Ziabul, 27, son of Nuruzzaman; Md Elias, 20, son of Hamid Hossain; Md Toha, 16, son of Hossen Ahmed, and Mubarak Hossain, 25, son of Nabi Hossain, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Allauddin, of CMCH Police Outpost.
All of them are bullet-hit and from Maungdaw town in Rakhine State, he added.
“Mobarak Hossain was admitted to CMCH around 3:30pm yesterday and the rest came in the early hours,” the ASI added. “The condition of Elias is critical as he suffered bullet injuries in his shoulder and head.”
They entered Bangladesh through several points of Bandarban border. They received primary treatment at Kutupalong before being shifted to CMCH.
With the four, the total number of injured Rohingyas admitted to CMCH stands at six.
Mohammad Musa, 23, who suffered bullet wounds while fleeing alleged police action in his village in Rakhine State, died at CMCH on Saturday morning.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingyas-pouring-1455010
12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:40 AM, August 28, 2017
Myanmar must change tack on Rohingyas
A BGB soldier stands guard near some Rohingya refugees at Ghumdhum in Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban on August 27, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
The very fact that Myanmar has termed the recent militant attack on its security forces as being the work of “extremist Bengali insurgents” underlines the very crux of the problem. It restates their position on the Rohingyas, their unwillingness to accept the ethnic minority for what they are. Rohingyas, who happen to be Muslims, are as Bengali as Americans are English. And this attitude of rejecting one of its own has underpinned Myanmar's policy regarding the Rohingyas.
It bears restating that the Rohingyas have been living in Arakan, now Rakhine State of Myanmar, for centuries. Regrettably, it was with one stroke of pen that a minority group, an integral part of the Burmese culture and society, being its citizen, was made stateless by the Burmese strongman and dictator Gen Ne Win. That, we understand, was his reaction to his abortive attempt to force the Rohingyas out of the western province into Bangladesh permanently. He managed to push out nearly one third of the total Rohingya in Arakan, a good 300,000 of them, by a military operation codenamed “Operation King Dragon”ostensibly for the purpose of checking illegal immigrants, in 1978. And this was by an anti-Rohingyain character. But strong international reaction against the ethnic purge forced him to take back most of those from Bangladesh. That policy of expulsion having failed, he resorted to a legal expedient—the Citizenship Law of 1982.
History must be recounted to put a perspective to the issue. The current spate of violence that was started last October is a strategy that Myanmar has used and continues to use to clear its territory of one of its ethnic minorities, made stateless by a government fiat. The Rohingyas have been described as the most persecuted stateless people in the world. That the Rohingyas are ghettoised and have had their movement restricted is nothing new. Their movement has been controlled since 1964 through a law which restricted the movement of the Muslims of Arakan especially prohibiting the movement out of Akyab District towards east. Thus, the Rohingyas were put into a sort of incarceration since 1964.
The latest extremist attack of August 25, which merits the strongest contempt, is also a cause for concern for Bangladesh. Recall the fact that it was the killing of several Myanmar security personnel by the militants that triggered the violence wreaked on the Rohingyas in the name of fighting insurgency in October 2016. That action came in for criticism from the local head of UN refugee agency who went so far as to characterise the killings as ethnic cleansing.
For Bangladesh, the Rohingya problem has cast it between the devil and the deep sea or a Catch 22 situation if you like. While on one hand it cannot officially open its doors to the persecuted Rohingyas, it can neither forcefully turn them back into uncertainty. Strategic compulsions preclude the former stance, it being very unadvisable since that would encourage the Myanmar government to continue to create conditions to leverage all the Rohingyas permanently out of their homeland, and fulfil its longstanding aim. But hosting a large number of refugees will impose, and it already has, adverse security as well as socio-economic consequence on Bangladesh.
Although Bangladesh is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, it has acted under the obligation of the customary international law and the principle of non-refoulement not to reject asylum seekers at its border when they are escaping persecution in their homeland and trying to seek security from threats to their lives and liberty. Technicalities cannot be impediments to humane behaviour.
It has been our position that since the situation is of Myanmar's own making, it should be for it to resolve it. But that Bangladesh cannot remain an impassive neighbour because it has been directly affected by the developments in the State of Rakhine has been demonstrated by the government's expressed position on the issue.
Amidst all the killings in one part of her country, the silence of Su Kyi was very deafening and all that she could say about the atrocities of the security forces was that they were working as per “the law”. However, a redeeming feature in the entire pathetic situation was the setting up of the Annan Commission in August last year to “find a sustainable solution on the complicated issues in Rakhine State.”
And if it was not a ruse by Su Kyi to placate international opinion of Myanmar's Rohingya policy, then the government of Myanmar should recognise the merit of the recommendations of the Commission which was handed over to its President on August 24 and act on it.
It is about time Myanmar realised the error of its Rohingya policy. If anything it has festered extremism among the younger members of the Rohingya community. This cannot be allowed to happen. We must make it abundantly clear that our stake in the region is not only humanitarian. If it is allowed to simmer it would adversely affect us in equal measure. And that we cannot allow to happen.
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...ng/myanmar-must-change-tack-rohingyas-1455016
Adil Sakhawat from Naikhongchhari border
Published at 01:59 PM August 27, 2017
Last updated at 03:01 AM August 28, 2017
The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims
Thousands of Rohingyas are waiting at the border for shelter in Bangladesh in a bid to flee from a fresh spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Their houses were bombarded and torched by the Myanmar army in what they called the fight against insurgency. The atrocities carried out by Myanmar’s army are haunting the Rohingya Muslims, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.
Although the reports could not be independently verified, the fleeing Rohingya families carried consistent accounts of brutal military raids and the use of indiscriminate force against Rohingya villages.
The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian state. The UN has called the Rohingya one of the most persecuted people in the world.
The Rohingyas, including women and children, have gathered just on the other side of a small canal lying on the international border in Ghumdum area in Naikkhongchhori area of Bandarban district.
Dhaka Tribune correspondent crossed the small canal to talk to the Rohingyas on August 25 afternoon. From there, he learned that many of the Rohingya men were ready to join Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to fight back to regain their rights.
An estimated 115 Rohingya men have already left Bangladesh to join the ARSA, said the Rohingyas living in makeshift refugee camps. They took their mobile phones with them, but those were found switched off till Saturday night.
On a visit to the Rohingya camp, this correspondent found recruiters collecting the names of those who wanted to join the ARSA movement and fight against the Myanmar army.
Some Rohingya men looked anxiously and furiously towards the other side of the canal as they heard the sound of mortar shells and gunshots in the villages adjacent to the border.
They told Dhaka Tribune that they were not here to enter Bangladesh to flee Myanmar military atrocities; they only wanted to push their family members, including women, children and elderly persons safely through the Bangladesh border.
Rohingya women and children were seen waiting on the border to enter into Bangladesh territory to escape Myanmar army atrocity Dhaka Tribune
“We want to go back to our village to join the fight against the Myanmar military. Either the Myanmar army personnel will die or we. We cannot endure such atrocities anymore. We are all members of Harakat al-Yaqeen, (the former name of ARSA),” said a Rohingya man named Irfan.
Gunshots and mortar shells have increased since August 25, said several BGB men patrolling the Ghumdum border.
The Rohingya men waiting at the border did not seem afraid of those heavy firing and sound of the mortars, rather they were motivated to fight back.
Dhaka Tribune received an audio clip of ARSA chief Ata Ullah aka Abu Umar Al Junoni from the ARSA followers and supporters. Ata Ullah said: “I am not fighting to grab power. If there are any Rohingya brothers who are ready to fight, please join us, please save our mothers and sisters.”
Several Rohingyas sent pictures of ARSA leaders and fighters to the Dhaka Tribune, claiming they were freedom fighters.
Dhaka Tribune could not contact ARSA leaders directly as ARSA followers said their leaders were in the battle field.
Sources said ARSA was fighting with a small team, but it was getting larger as many Rohingyas were joining them.
The Central Committee for Counter Terrorism of Myanmar, in a statement published on August 25, declared armed attackers and ARSA as terrorist groups in accordance with the Counter-Terrorism Law of the country, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
But the ARSA followers and members told Dhaka Tribune that they started the movement as the Myanmar military’s atrocities became intolerable.
ARSA in its Twitter page claimed they began the resistance as a defence against the Myanmar military and security forces.
ARSA supporters also said that several Rohingya Muslims had been killed in Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships in the Rakhine state, but there were no Buddhist casualties during the crackdown.
Supporter claimed their leader Ata Ullah and fighters were not targeting the Rakhine people, rather their target was the Myanmar military.
Humanitarian crisis
In many videos provided by several Rohingyas, hundreds of Rohingyas in Rathedaung were seen hiding in the nearby forests and mountains to escape the military atrocities. They were afraid of further Myanmar security forces’ raid in those hideouts as well.
Rohingya homes were being burned down by the state armed forces and Rakhine extremists, Rohingyas hiding in the mountains said.
Most of the houses in Rathedaung, Chein Khali, Chein Halivillages were torched by the Myanmar joint forces, said the terrified Rohingyas.
View image on Twitter
ARSA_The Army @ARSA_OfficialURGENT: Rakhine political groups & Intl Govts MUST immediately put pressure on Burmese army to stop using Rakhine Civilians as Human Shields
“Our region is in total chaos now. They have burnt down our homes using fire, mortars. They have seized our properties and forced us to leave our homes. We have become totally helpless. We don’t know where we will go now,” said one villager Zaydi Pyinover phone.
Myanmar military and joint security forces are carrying out offensives in many villages of Rakhine state including Kwan Thi Pin, MiHtaikChaungWa, Nat Chaung, Taman Thar, Zee Pin Chaung, Lon Doong, Zin Paing Nya, Ye MyetTaung, Kyi KanPyin, Tharay Kun Baung, Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi, Padin, Alay Than Kyaw, ThawanChaung, ThinbawKwe, Udaung, MyintHlut, Taung Bazaar, Phaung Daw Pyin.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/08/27/final-confrontation-rohingyas/
Panic-stricken Rohingyas stranded in no-man’s land
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 03:08 AM August 28, 2017
Last updated at 03:10 AM August 28, 2017
Photo
haka Tribune'We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives'
Rocked and displaced by the ongoing atrocities by Myanmar’s army, Rohingya refugees with nowhere to go are running helter-skelter in “no man’s land” on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, with both Border Guard Police (BGP) in Myanmar and Border Guard Bangladesh stepping up vigil on their respective sides.
Unable to bear the persistent persecution, the Rohingya Muslims are feeling homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state leaving behind their hard-earned valuables and property. And, many are losing their beloved ones when rushing to escape the brutalities, a scene prevalent all over the border.
Visiting the Jolpaibania border point in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila on Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune correspondent found over 500 refugees, including women and children, stiff from sitting squeezed up against one another in a bamboo orchard owned by one Nurul Islam.
Among them is Moshtaque Ahmed, a resident of Dekibonia village in Rakhine.
The 70-year old said: “I have four sons and six daughters. Army men picked one of my sons up. He will never return home because I am sure that they have already killed him.
“We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives.”
A woman by the name of Rohina Akter said a group of army men picked his husband up, calling him a member of Rohingya insurgent group Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement).
Claiming innocence for her husband, she said: “My husband is not involved in the group. They [army men] mercilessly beat my husband before my eyes, inflicting severe injuries on him.”
Speaking from the other side of the border, Nurul Bashar and Mujibur Rahman said a military helicopter arrived at Dekibonia army and BGP camps on Saturday around 2pm. After the helicopter departed at 3pm, army personnel accompanied by BGP and locals swooped on Rohingya-inhabited Dekibonia, Chakkata, Fakirapara and other adjacent villages, launching a blanket attack on the villagers.
According to sources in Rakhine, security forces have been indiscriminately firing on the Rohingyas since the Friday incident.
In addition to setting fire to the Rohingyas’ property, they are targeting girls and young women, said the sources, adding that the Rakhine state will soon be cleansed of Muslims if the persecution continues.
Narrating the brutalities, witnesses said the army men shoot youths to death after hanging them upside down. Some of non-Muslim Rakhine youths have joined the military forces in their campaign of assault on the Muslim minority.
On Friday, at least 89 people including a dozen security force members were killed as Rohingya insurgents reportedly besieged border posts in troubled Rakhine state, prompting the army to launch a new crackdown on the Rohingyas and thus triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.
Earlier, over 70,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the October 9, 2016 attacks on security posts, joining as many as 500,000 estimated refugees who have come to Bangladesh during decades of persecution in their motherland.
The previous counterinsurgency operation ceased in mid-February this year, ending a four-month sweep that the UN said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ick-stricken-rohingyas-stranded-no-mans-land/
12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:03 AM, August 28, 2017
Rohingyas pouring in
Hundreds cross border points in Teknaf, Ukhia, Naikhyangchhari; scores wait on no-man's land
Rohingya families crossing the border to escape persecution are lodged in a makeshift camp in Ghumdhum point in Cox's Bazar. Families were seen with bottles of water, polythene sheets and other basic essentials as they entered Bangladesh. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Star Report
Hundreds of Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through different unguarded border points of Ukhia, Teknaf and Naikhyangchhari yesterday while hundreds more took shelter on no man's land after failing to cross the border.
Although Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the local administration denied entry to Rohingyas, residents and elected representatives in those areas said refugees were coming through six unprotected points.
Locals added that some of the Myanmarese nationals were going to unregistered refugee camps on foot or by battery-run easy bikes.
Visiting different spots and talking with locals in Ghumdhum under Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban, our Cox's Bazar correspondent learnt that many more Rohingyas were waiting to cross the border.
Some of the refugees who got into the country alleged that Myanmar troops were burning down their houses, killing men and torturing women. "We came here to save our lives," one of them told The Daily Star.
Border guards remained on high alert as fresh gunshots were heard in Myanmar's Maungdaw, opposite of Ghumdhum, between 8:30am and 9:00am yesterday, our correspondent reported.
The BGB chief warned of a “befitting response” if Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) creates any untoward situation in the bordering area.
Addressing a press conference at Ghumdhum Border Observation Post yesterday, BGB Director General Maj Gen Abul Hossain also said, “We are on high alert. We will not allow anyone from Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh.”
POPE FOR ROHINGYAS
Pope Francis yesterday appealed for an end to the violent persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, the Vatican Radio wrote yesterday.
Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, he said, “Sad news has reached us of the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters, a religious minority. I would like to express my full closeness to them -- and let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of good will to help them, who shall give them their full rights.”
Quoting a senior Vatican source, Reuters earlier reported that Pope Francis will almost certainly visit Myanmar and Bangladesh, two countries caught up in a crisis over the Rohingyas, before the end of the year.
The trip is likely to take place between the end of November and the start of December but definitely before Christmas, the source added. The Vatican has so far officially said only that a trip to both countries is “under study”.
A Vatican team is visiting both countries to sort out details and report back to the pope, who will make the final decision, Reuters wrote on August 23.
INDIA'S CONCERN
India has said it is “seriously concerned” by reports of renewed violence and attacks by terrorists in northern Rakhine province of Myanmar and hoped that perpetrators of the crimes will be brought to justice.
“We are deeply saddened at the loss of lives among members of the Myanmar security forces,” said a statement of India's external affairs ministry issued late on Saturday evening.
Extending “strong support” to Myanmar government “at this challenging moment”, it read, “Such attacks deserve to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be brought to justice.”
The statement came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Myanmar on his way to China to attend the BRICS Summit in the first week of September, reported our New Delhi correspondent.
Meanwhile, Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said.
The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, reports Reuters.
The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.
Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.
The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.
As the latest violence in Rakhine triggered a fresh inflow of Rohingyas towards Bangladesh, about 2,000 to 2,500 of them entered Naikhyangchhari on Saturday evening.
They were condoned off by BGB members so that they cannot proceed further into the country. Locals, however, extended a helping hand to the refugees with food, water and other life-saving materials.
Panel Chairman of Ghumdhum Union Parishad Kamal Uddin said if not guarded, the refugees will take shelter in nearby Balukhali and Kutupalong camps.
Quoting a BGB commander, AFP reported that 20 Rohingyas were caught yesterday and sent back.
The country has been hosting up to 5,00,000 Rohingyas for three decades. Around 33,000 of them are registered and live in two camps in Cox's Bazar. Others live in different areas of Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.
After Myanmar armed forces launched a counterinsurgency operation following attacks on security personnel in Rakhine State in October last year, more than 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh.
FOUR OTHER INJURED AT CMCH
Four more injured Rohingyas were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday.
They are Ziabul, 27, son of Nuruzzaman; Md Elias, 20, son of Hamid Hossain; Md Toha, 16, son of Hossen Ahmed, and Mubarak Hossain, 25, son of Nabi Hossain, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Allauddin, of CMCH Police Outpost.
All of them are bullet-hit and from Maungdaw town in Rakhine State, he added.
“Mobarak Hossain was admitted to CMCH around 3:30pm yesterday and the rest came in the early hours,” the ASI added. “The condition of Elias is critical as he suffered bullet injuries in his shoulder and head.”
They entered Bangladesh through several points of Bandarban border. They received primary treatment at Kutupalong before being shifted to CMCH.
With the four, the total number of injured Rohingyas admitted to CMCH stands at six.
Mohammad Musa, 23, who suffered bullet wounds while fleeing alleged police action in his village in Rakhine State, died at CMCH on Saturday morning.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingyas-pouring-1455010
12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:40 AM, August 28, 2017
Myanmar must change tack on Rohingyas
A BGB soldier stands guard near some Rohingya refugees at Ghumdhum in Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban on August 27, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
The very fact that Myanmar has termed the recent militant attack on its security forces as being the work of “extremist Bengali insurgents” underlines the very crux of the problem. It restates their position on the Rohingyas, their unwillingness to accept the ethnic minority for what they are. Rohingyas, who happen to be Muslims, are as Bengali as Americans are English. And this attitude of rejecting one of its own has underpinned Myanmar's policy regarding the Rohingyas.
It bears restating that the Rohingyas have been living in Arakan, now Rakhine State of Myanmar, for centuries. Regrettably, it was with one stroke of pen that a minority group, an integral part of the Burmese culture and society, being its citizen, was made stateless by the Burmese strongman and dictator Gen Ne Win. That, we understand, was his reaction to his abortive attempt to force the Rohingyas out of the western province into Bangladesh permanently. He managed to push out nearly one third of the total Rohingya in Arakan, a good 300,000 of them, by a military operation codenamed “Operation King Dragon”ostensibly for the purpose of checking illegal immigrants, in 1978. And this was by an anti-Rohingyain character. But strong international reaction against the ethnic purge forced him to take back most of those from Bangladesh. That policy of expulsion having failed, he resorted to a legal expedient—the Citizenship Law of 1982.
History must be recounted to put a perspective to the issue. The current spate of violence that was started last October is a strategy that Myanmar has used and continues to use to clear its territory of one of its ethnic minorities, made stateless by a government fiat. The Rohingyas have been described as the most persecuted stateless people in the world. That the Rohingyas are ghettoised and have had their movement restricted is nothing new. Their movement has been controlled since 1964 through a law which restricted the movement of the Muslims of Arakan especially prohibiting the movement out of Akyab District towards east. Thus, the Rohingyas were put into a sort of incarceration since 1964.
The latest extremist attack of August 25, which merits the strongest contempt, is also a cause for concern for Bangladesh. Recall the fact that it was the killing of several Myanmar security personnel by the militants that triggered the violence wreaked on the Rohingyas in the name of fighting insurgency in October 2016. That action came in for criticism from the local head of UN refugee agency who went so far as to characterise the killings as ethnic cleansing.
For Bangladesh, the Rohingya problem has cast it between the devil and the deep sea or a Catch 22 situation if you like. While on one hand it cannot officially open its doors to the persecuted Rohingyas, it can neither forcefully turn them back into uncertainty. Strategic compulsions preclude the former stance, it being very unadvisable since that would encourage the Myanmar government to continue to create conditions to leverage all the Rohingyas permanently out of their homeland, and fulfil its longstanding aim. But hosting a large number of refugees will impose, and it already has, adverse security as well as socio-economic consequence on Bangladesh.
Although Bangladesh is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, it has acted under the obligation of the customary international law and the principle of non-refoulement not to reject asylum seekers at its border when they are escaping persecution in their homeland and trying to seek security from threats to their lives and liberty. Technicalities cannot be impediments to humane behaviour.
It has been our position that since the situation is of Myanmar's own making, it should be for it to resolve it. But that Bangladesh cannot remain an impassive neighbour because it has been directly affected by the developments in the State of Rakhine has been demonstrated by the government's expressed position on the issue.
Amidst all the killings in one part of her country, the silence of Su Kyi was very deafening and all that she could say about the atrocities of the security forces was that they were working as per “the law”. However, a redeeming feature in the entire pathetic situation was the setting up of the Annan Commission in August last year to “find a sustainable solution on the complicated issues in Rakhine State.”
And if it was not a ruse by Su Kyi to placate international opinion of Myanmar's Rohingya policy, then the government of Myanmar should recognise the merit of the recommendations of the Commission which was handed over to its President on August 24 and act on it.
It is about time Myanmar realised the error of its Rohingya policy. If anything it has festered extremism among the younger members of the Rohingya community. This cannot be allowed to happen. We must make it abundantly clear that our stake in the region is not only humanitarian. If it is allowed to simmer it would adversely affect us in equal measure. And that we cannot allow to happen.
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...ng/myanmar-must-change-tack-rohingyas-1455016
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