Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions
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This is not a "coded" message, it is rather clear message directed towards specific actor in Myanmar and their principal backer China. US already aware Bangladesh current regime is puppet one and non consequential, It is Myanmar junta and their backers should read the message.
NoOne'sBoy
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We need to have a population exchange in south asia just like balkans. all the muslims who want to live under sharia should go to muslim countries. secular muslims should stay and in return we should accept non-muslims from muslim countries. the privileged bleeding heart non-muslims should be depprted. the whole multicultural thing doesnt work with conservative people. we should have conservative religious zones and modern liberal multicultural zones
haidian
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Why you hate China so much? Did China ask them to kill Rohingyas and Kokangs? Did China ask them to bomb Chinese town and send thousands of refugees to flee to China？ What puppet? China dosen't control any country , you are just unbelieveable
I have stated facts as understood by everyone in the world, despite Chinese effort to mask it. Don't blame me for stating the obvious. China is free to confront (or not) US, I have nothing to say about that - following "non intervention" theory.
UN slams Myanmar’s denial of access to Rakhine
Fri Oct 6, 2017 11:01AM
The United Nations (UN) has slammed Myanmar’s refusal to grant humanitarian access to Rakhine State as “unacceptable,” saying the flight of terror-hit Rohingya Muslims out of the region continues.
“This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it’s into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus,” said the UN’s under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Mark Lowcock, in a Friday press briefing in Geneva.
“Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim,” he said, reiterating the world body’s appeal for access to the widely-displaced population in Rakhine and saying the existing circumstances are “unacceptable.”
Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
“The access we have in northern Rakhine State is unacceptable,” Lowcock added after a small team of UN staff visited the majority-Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing “unimaginable” suffering.
Myanmarese authorities, led by de facto leader and Noble peace prize winner Aug San Suu Kyi, have been tightly controlling access to the state since last month when purported attacks by Rohingya militants prompted a brutal military response that has forced over 515,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
The violence, backed by radical Buddhist monks, has left scores of Rohingya villages torched and completely destroyed.
Lowcock said that he believed “a high level” UN team would be able to visit the area “in the next few days,” without elaborating, repeating UN’s demands for Myanmar to allow “unhindered (and) unfettered” access to the state.
He further said the UN had “substantial capacity” in Myanmar, which can be swiftly deployed to northern Rakhine once clearance is granted by local authorities.
Rohingya-majority Rakhine has been emptied of half of its Muslim population over the past weeks and more people are on the move as unspeakable acts of violence continue against the Rohingya.
Many witnesses and rights groups have reported systematic attacks, including rape, murder and arson, at the hands of the army and Buddhist mobs against Rohingya Muslims.
The UN has described the government-sanctioned crackdown on Rohingya as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/06/537666/UN-Myanmar-Rakhine-Mark-Lowcock
Fri Oct 6, 2017 11:01AM
The United Nations (UN) has slammed Myanmar’s refusal to grant humanitarian access to Rakhine State as “unacceptable,” saying the flight of terror-hit Rohingya Muslims out of the region continues.
“This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it’s into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus,” said the UN’s under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Mark Lowcock, in a Friday press briefing in Geneva.
“Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim,” he said, reiterating the world body’s appeal for access to the widely-displaced population in Rakhine and saying the existing circumstances are “unacceptable.”
Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
“The access we have in northern Rakhine State is unacceptable,” Lowcock added after a small team of UN staff visited the majority-Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing “unimaginable” suffering.
Myanmarese authorities, led by de facto leader and Noble peace prize winner Aug San Suu Kyi, have been tightly controlling access to the state since last month when purported attacks by Rohingya militants prompted a brutal military response that has forced over 515,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
The violence, backed by radical Buddhist monks, has left scores of Rohingya villages torched and completely destroyed.
Lowcock said that he believed “a high level” UN team would be able to visit the area “in the next few days,” without elaborating, repeating UN’s demands for Myanmar to allow “unhindered (and) unfettered” access to the state.
He further said the UN had “substantial capacity” in Myanmar, which can be swiftly deployed to northern Rakhine once clearance is granted by local authorities.
Rohingya-majority Rakhine has been emptied of half of its Muslim population over the past weeks and more people are on the move as unspeakable acts of violence continue against the Rohingya.
Many witnesses and rights groups have reported systematic attacks, including rape, murder and arson, at the hands of the army and Buddhist mobs against Rohingya Muslims.
The UN has described the government-sanctioned crackdown on Rohingya as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/06/537666/UN-Myanmar-Rakhine-Mark-Lowcock
Indus Pakistan
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UN is just a American tool.
WoW, did not know, thanks for sharing the "secret".
Indus Pakistan
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So why are you quoting a American tool [UN] which has zero credibility by a Shia mouthpiece [Press TV]? Seems to me this is all Jewish/Shia conspiracy against our ally China and intended to cause "Syria" like instability near the belly of the PRC.
Banglar Bir
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The Rohingya crisis through the eyes of a refugee
We asked Kamal Hossain, who runs a booth to locate lost children, to photograph the crisis from his perspective.
Kamal Hossain started a booth to help reunite separated Rohingya families [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
Annette Ekin
@evakillen
Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - A recently-arrived Rohingya couple stood sobbing in the sudden afternoon downpour outside a booth on the main drag of the Kutupalong registered refugee camp. It was Wednesday, September 27, and that morning, their four-year-old son had disappeared while his mother was washing herself.
The child, who someone had dropped off at this lost and found booth for missing children, sat crying in the covered stall.
Kamal Hossain, who runs the booth that helps reunite Rohingya children with their families, didn't immediately hand the child over to the couple. He had first to ensure that they were his parents. So Kamal gently coaxed the boy to point out his mother in the crowd of onlookers.
"Tell me who is your mother? Is that your mother?" he asked, pointing at different women.
After an agonising wait for the couple, Kamal was satisfied that the boy had identified his mother with a nod of his head. The woman reached out to hold her son, crying with relief.
"Here you will find so many people and [you] cannot be sure who is good or bad," Kamal later explained. Part of his work involves cross-checking that children are being reunited with their families and not with "someone else who can sell them or abuse them".
On September 27, this couple was reunited with their son in Kutupalong registered refugee camp at a booth that helps locate missing family members [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
In this thoroughfare, a dirt road congested with refugees on the move, edged with clinics and schools and a registration centre, Kamal and his simple microphone booth have become a constant presence - and a source of hope for people looking for lost family members in the ever-changing throng.
The most recent round of brutal repression by the Myanmar army - described as ethnic cleansing by the UN - has forced more than half a million ethnic Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Soon after the refugees began to arrive in the border area, Kamal found a woman crying outside his office gate in Kutupalong.
Kamal, who works as a security guard for the international aid organisation, Handicap International, learned that the woman's child had gone missing.
Kamal, himself a Rohingya refugee from Boli Bazar in Myanmar, whose family fled army violence and came to Bangladesh in the 1990s, pondered how he could help.
"I thought for the entire day, what to do, how can I find the child," recalled the wiry, soft-spoken man with a gentle smile. It had to be something that could penetrate the crowds, he concluded.
Kamal decided to hire a microphone for eight days, paying 3,000 Bangladeshi Taka (about $36) - his monthly salary - figuring that if he announced missing children's names "people can hear me and they can pass it from person to person".
Kamal helped to track down the woman's child. "So I continued it," he said. "I feel so good when one person is finding another person through [this]." The UNHCR now supports the initiative, and Kamal works at the booth full-time.
READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya?
He makes announcements about individuals whose families have reported them missing or about unaccompanied minors who have been brought to his booth.
"I announce five things: name of the village [in Myanmar], name of the child, name of mother, name of father and age of the child," said Kamal, adding that he usually includes a description of the child's clothing. He meticulously records everything in a workbook.
Kamal starts work at around 8:30am and finishes late at night. He says he makes around 40 to 50 announcements a day. He can usually be spotted inside the booth with other volunteers. Outlets for refugees to charge their mobile phones for free (charging stations usually have a fee of about 10 Bangladeshi Taka, around $0.12) were recently installed on the large wooden table the microphone sits on.
On Saturday, Kamal said that more than 1,200 people - mostly mothers - had registered missing family members, while he estimates that about 700 families have been reunited. According to Kamal, many reunited families don't report back, but those whose family members are still missing tend to return time and again to the booth asking for news.
Kamal, who has three children, the oldest a 12-year-old son, has sheltered three Rohingya girls, aged around 16, 12 and seven, in his family's home in the camp. People found the two younger girls by the road and the other in a market and brought them to the booth.
"They're not safe here as they are girls and there are so many men - anything can happen to them, that's why I took them along with me," he said.
READ MORE - 'I watched my son drown': Rohingya boat survivor
He would announce their names in his daily broadcasts; two have since been reunited with their families, one through the announcements.
In this refugee crisis, where more than half a million Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 and more continue to come, Kamal says the wealthy are able to help with money and aid. "I'm poor. I don't have this chance. I can do only this thing," he said, referring to the announcements.
Still, Kamal has made a tangible difference in many people's lives by reuniting families. As a refugee who has lived in Bangladesh for years, we wanted his unique, personal perspective on what his fellow Rohingya are enduring.
Al Jazeera provided Kamal with an instant camera and asked him to photograph what he believes people need to see. This is what he came back with:
Two days after he started the microphone announcements, Kamal said his friend found the girl pictured above and brought her to his booth.
The child, who is about seven years old, had become separated from her family two days after they arrived in Bangladesh.
Kamal sheltered her in his family home. He put her picture up on his Facebook page along with his mobile number and said the girl's uncle, who lives in Malaysia, found the post and contacted her father. On Saturday, the girl's father came to collect her.
When they were reunited "they started crying," he said. Kamal said he photographed them near the booth.
For Kamal, this is the most important picture that he took. It depicts, he said, the reality of what is happening in Myanmar and the nature of the violence being inflicted upon the Rohingya.
"[The] Myanmar army killed her husband and another child in front of her. They were four in the family. Her husband and son were killed," Kamal said, adding that the girl was stabbed and the woman was raped.
"While leaving, they burned the house down with mother and daughter inside," he said. The woman was severely burned.
"If people see this picture, they will know the real scenario here, and they will come and work for them. [They'll see] that they need support," Kamal reflected.
The mother and child in the picture are now staying with a family in the Kutupalong registered refugee camp.
This is Rohima, who Kamal said is about 16 years old and comes from a village in Maungdaw township in Myanmar.
"She was with her family. She was crossing the border and then she lost her parents and as she doesn't know anything about Bangladesh - where to go, what to do - she followed some refugees and just came here," he said.
Rohima turned up at his booth and asked him to make an announcement for her.
"I don't have any power to mic anywhere else. I can only mic here," he said. "It's almost around 20 days that this girl is at my house and I haven't found her parents."
Kamal said he announces her case every hour and wishes he could spread the news that she is looking for her parents so that she might find them.
He said she has become like a daughter and has bonded with his wife, but said it would be difficult to accommodate her indefinitely.
The man in the photograph was injured in a road accident while he was collecting aid soon after he arrived in Bangladesh, Kamal said.
Kamal is critical of those distributing aid by the side of the road.
"There are so many people from Myanmar, they came here, and they don't know anything about the country. They came here, and they encountered with accidents, so I captured this picture so that people give aid somewhere else - not just right beside the road - to our people," he said.
The man sustained a head injury from the accident and "is roaming around". Kamal said he found him in Balukhali camp and on Saturday he was in front of his booth.
"He can speak. If he says 10 sentences, maybe two are correct," he said.
This picture is important, he believes, "because the people [who] are providing aid beside the road, they need to know this, they need to go to some safer place to provide aid because people are in need of it and they will definitely go there."
With reporting by Afrose Jahan Chaity
Source: Al Jazeera News
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/rohingya-crisis-eyes-refugee-171006080133297.html
We asked Kamal Hossain, who runs a booth to locate lost children, to photograph the crisis from his perspective.
Kamal Hossain started a booth to help reunite separated Rohingya families [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
Annette Ekin
Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - A recently-arrived Rohingya couple stood sobbing in the sudden afternoon downpour outside a booth on the main drag of the Kutupalong registered refugee camp. It was Wednesday, September 27, and that morning, their four-year-old son had disappeared while his mother was washing herself.
The child, who someone had dropped off at this lost and found booth for missing children, sat crying in the covered stall.
Kamal Hossain, who runs the booth that helps reunite Rohingya children with their families, didn't immediately hand the child over to the couple. He had first to ensure that they were his parents. So Kamal gently coaxed the boy to point out his mother in the crowd of onlookers.
"Tell me who is your mother? Is that your mother?" he asked, pointing at different women.
After an agonising wait for the couple, Kamal was satisfied that the boy had identified his mother with a nod of his head. The woman reached out to hold her son, crying with relief.
"Here you will find so many people and [you] cannot be sure who is good or bad," Kamal later explained. Part of his work involves cross-checking that children are being reunited with their families and not with "someone else who can sell them or abuse them".
On September 27, this couple was reunited with their son in Kutupalong registered refugee camp at a booth that helps locate missing family members [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
In this thoroughfare, a dirt road congested with refugees on the move, edged with clinics and schools and a registration centre, Kamal and his simple microphone booth have become a constant presence - and a source of hope for people looking for lost family members in the ever-changing throng.
The most recent round of brutal repression by the Myanmar army - described as ethnic cleansing by the UN - has forced more than half a million ethnic Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Soon after the refugees began to arrive in the border area, Kamal found a woman crying outside his office gate in Kutupalong.
Kamal, who works as a security guard for the international aid organisation, Handicap International, learned that the woman's child had gone missing.
Kamal, himself a Rohingya refugee from Boli Bazar in Myanmar, whose family fled army violence and came to Bangladesh in the 1990s, pondered how he could help.
"I thought for the entire day, what to do, how can I find the child," recalled the wiry, soft-spoken man with a gentle smile. It had to be something that could penetrate the crowds, he concluded.
Kamal decided to hire a microphone for eight days, paying 3,000 Bangladeshi Taka (about $36) - his monthly salary - figuring that if he announced missing children's names "people can hear me and they can pass it from person to person".
Kamal helped to track down the woman's child. "So I continued it," he said. "I feel so good when one person is finding another person through [this]." The UNHCR now supports the initiative, and Kamal works at the booth full-time.
READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya?
He makes announcements about individuals whose families have reported them missing or about unaccompanied minors who have been brought to his booth.
"I announce five things: name of the village [in Myanmar], name of the child, name of mother, name of father and age of the child," said Kamal, adding that he usually includes a description of the child's clothing. He meticulously records everything in a workbook.
Kamal starts work at around 8:30am and finishes late at night. He says he makes around 40 to 50 announcements a day. He can usually be spotted inside the booth with other volunteers. Outlets for refugees to charge their mobile phones for free (charging stations usually have a fee of about 10 Bangladeshi Taka, around $0.12) were recently installed on the large wooden table the microphone sits on.
On Saturday, Kamal said that more than 1,200 people - mostly mothers - had registered missing family members, while he estimates that about 700 families have been reunited. According to Kamal, many reunited families don't report back, but those whose family members are still missing tend to return time and again to the booth asking for news.
Kamal, who has three children, the oldest a 12-year-old son, has sheltered three Rohingya girls, aged around 16, 12 and seven, in his family's home in the camp. People found the two younger girls by the road and the other in a market and brought them to the booth.
"They're not safe here as they are girls and there are so many men - anything can happen to them, that's why I took them along with me," he said.
READ MORE - 'I watched my son drown': Rohingya boat survivor
He would announce their names in his daily broadcasts; two have since been reunited with their families, one through the announcements.
In this refugee crisis, where more than half a million Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 and more continue to come, Kamal says the wealthy are able to help with money and aid. "I'm poor. I don't have this chance. I can do only this thing," he said, referring to the announcements.
Still, Kamal has made a tangible difference in many people's lives by reuniting families. As a refugee who has lived in Bangladesh for years, we wanted his unique, personal perspective on what his fellow Rohingya are enduring.
Al Jazeera provided Kamal with an instant camera and asked him to photograph what he believes people need to see. This is what he came back with:
Two days after he started the microphone announcements, Kamal said his friend found the girl pictured above and brought her to his booth.
The child, who is about seven years old, had become separated from her family two days after they arrived in Bangladesh.
Kamal sheltered her in his family home. He put her picture up on his Facebook page along with his mobile number and said the girl's uncle, who lives in Malaysia, found the post and contacted her father. On Saturday, the girl's father came to collect her.
When they were reunited "they started crying," he said. Kamal said he photographed them near the booth.
For Kamal, this is the most important picture that he took. It depicts, he said, the reality of what is happening in Myanmar and the nature of the violence being inflicted upon the Rohingya.
"[The] Myanmar army killed her husband and another child in front of her. They were four in the family. Her husband and son were killed," Kamal said, adding that the girl was stabbed and the woman was raped.
"While leaving, they burned the house down with mother and daughter inside," he said. The woman was severely burned.
"If people see this picture, they will know the real scenario here, and they will come and work for them. [They'll see] that they need support," Kamal reflected.
The mother and child in the picture are now staying with a family in the Kutupalong registered refugee camp.
This is Rohima, who Kamal said is about 16 years old and comes from a village in Maungdaw township in Myanmar.
"She was with her family. She was crossing the border and then she lost her parents and as she doesn't know anything about Bangladesh - where to go, what to do - she followed some refugees and just came here," he said.
Rohima turned up at his booth and asked him to make an announcement for her.
"I don't have any power to mic anywhere else. I can only mic here," he said. "It's almost around 20 days that this girl is at my house and I haven't found her parents."
Kamal said he announces her case every hour and wishes he could spread the news that she is looking for her parents so that she might find them.
He said she has become like a daughter and has bonded with his wife, but said it would be difficult to accommodate her indefinitely.
The man in the photograph was injured in a road accident while he was collecting aid soon after he arrived in Bangladesh, Kamal said.
Kamal is critical of those distributing aid by the side of the road.
"There are so many people from Myanmar, they came here, and they don't know anything about the country. They came here, and they encountered with accidents, so I captured this picture so that people give aid somewhere else - not just right beside the road - to our people," he said.
The man sustained a head injury from the accident and "is roaming around". Kamal said he found him in Balukhali camp and on Saturday he was in front of his booth.
"He can speak. If he says 10 sentences, maybe two are correct," he said.
This picture is important, he believes, "because the people [who] are providing aid beside the road, they need to know this, they need to go to some safer place to provide aid because people are in need of it and they will definitely go there."
With reporting by Afrose Jahan Chaity
Source: Al Jazeera News
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/rohingya-crisis-eyes-refugee-171006080133297.html
Last edited:
Banglar Bir
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11:25 AM, October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:34 AM, October 07, 2017
Rohingya insurgents open to peace move
But Myanmar govt ceasefire ending
Young Rohingya Muslim refugees walk under the rain at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district on October 6, 2017. Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP
Reuters, Yangon
Rohingya insurgents said on Saturday they are ready to respond to any peace move by the Myanmar government but a one-month ceasefire they declared to enable the delivery of aid in violence-racked Rakhine State is about to end.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) did not say what action it would take after the ceasefire ends at midnight on Monday but it was “determined to stop the tyranny and oppression” waged against the Rohingya people.
“If at any stage, the Burmese government is inclined to peace, then ARSA will welcome that inclination and reciprocate,” the group said in a statement.
Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
When the ARSA announced its one-month ceasefire from Sept. 10, a government spokesman said: “We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists.”
The rebels launched coordinated attacks on about 30 security posts and an army camp on Aug. 25 with the help of hundreds of disaffected Rohingya villagers, many wielding sticks or machetes, killing about a dozen people.
In response, the military unleashed a sweeping offensive across the north of Rakhine State, driving more than half a million Rohingya villagers into Bangladesh in what the United Nations branded a textbook example of “ethnic cleansing”.
Myanmar rejects that. It says more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting, most of them “terrorists” who have been attacking civilians and torching villages.
The ability of the ARSA, which only surfaced in October last year, to mount any sort of challenge to the Myanmar army is not known but it does not appear to have been able to put up resistance to the military offensive unleashed in August.
Inevitably, there are doubts about how the insurgents can operate in areas where the military has driven out the civilian population, cutting the insurgents off from recruits, food, funds and information.
The ARSA accused the government of using murder, arson and rape as “tools of depopulation”.
NATIVE
The ARSA denies links to foreign Islamists.
In an interview with Reuters in March, ARSA leader Ata Ullah linked the creation of the group to communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine in 2012, when nearly 200 people were killed and 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.
The group says it is fighting for the rights of the Rohingya, who have never been regarded as an indigenous minority in Myanmar and so have been denied citizenship under a law that links nationality to ethnicity.
The group repeated their demand that Rohingya be recognized as a “native indigenous” ethnic group, adding that all Rohingya people should be allowed “to return home safely with dignity ... to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
The Rohingya have long faced discrimination and repression in Rakhine State where bad blood between them and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, stemming from violence by both sides, goes back generations.
The ARSA condemned the government for blocking humanitarian assistance in Rakhine and said it was willing to discuss ceasefires with international organizations so aid could be delivered.
Some 515,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh but thousands remain in Rakhine.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although a military-drafted constitution gives her no power over the security forces.
Suu Kyi has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 by which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back.
Many refugees fear they will not have the paperwork they believe Myanmar will demand to allow them back.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/rohingya-insurgents-open-peace-move-1472851
Rohingya insurgents open to peace move
But Myanmar govt ceasefire ending
Young Rohingya Muslim refugees walk under the rain at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district on October 6, 2017. Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP
Reuters, Yangon
Rohingya insurgents said on Saturday they are ready to respond to any peace move by the Myanmar government but a one-month ceasefire they declared to enable the delivery of aid in violence-racked Rakhine State is about to end.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) did not say what action it would take after the ceasefire ends at midnight on Monday but it was “determined to stop the tyranny and oppression” waged against the Rohingya people.
“If at any stage, the Burmese government is inclined to peace, then ARSA will welcome that inclination and reciprocate,” the group said in a statement.
Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
When the ARSA announced its one-month ceasefire from Sept. 10, a government spokesman said: “We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists.”
The rebels launched coordinated attacks on about 30 security posts and an army camp on Aug. 25 with the help of hundreds of disaffected Rohingya villagers, many wielding sticks or machetes, killing about a dozen people.
In response, the military unleashed a sweeping offensive across the north of Rakhine State, driving more than half a million Rohingya villagers into Bangladesh in what the United Nations branded a textbook example of “ethnic cleansing”.
Myanmar rejects that. It says more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting, most of them “terrorists” who have been attacking civilians and torching villages.
The ability of the ARSA, which only surfaced in October last year, to mount any sort of challenge to the Myanmar army is not known but it does not appear to have been able to put up resistance to the military offensive unleashed in August.
Inevitably, there are doubts about how the insurgents can operate in areas where the military has driven out the civilian population, cutting the insurgents off from recruits, food, funds and information.
The ARSA accused the government of using murder, arson and rape as “tools of depopulation”.
NATIVE
The ARSA denies links to foreign Islamists.
In an interview with Reuters in March, ARSA leader Ata Ullah linked the creation of the group to communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine in 2012, when nearly 200 people were killed and 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.
The group says it is fighting for the rights of the Rohingya, who have never been regarded as an indigenous minority in Myanmar and so have been denied citizenship under a law that links nationality to ethnicity.
The group repeated their demand that Rohingya be recognized as a “native indigenous” ethnic group, adding that all Rohingya people should be allowed “to return home safely with dignity ... to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
The Rohingya have long faced discrimination and repression in Rakhine State where bad blood between them and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, stemming from violence by both sides, goes back generations.
The ARSA condemned the government for blocking humanitarian assistance in Rakhine and said it was willing to discuss ceasefires with international organizations so aid could be delivered.
Some 515,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh but thousands remain in Rakhine.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although a military-drafted constitution gives her no power over the security forces.
Suu Kyi has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 by which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back.
Many refugees fear they will not have the paperwork they believe Myanmar will demand to allow them back.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/rohingya-insurgents-open-peace-move-1472851
Banglar Bir
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Disease fears grow as Bangladesh plans giant Rohingya refugee camp
Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases
Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.
Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.
More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.
With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space.
For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.
Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.
It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents.
“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.
But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.
The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.
Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.
During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground.
Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.
This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.
ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.
In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”.
“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.
UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.
Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.
Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
Floods, landslides and elephants
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure.
On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.
But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.
And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.
Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.
Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.
Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.
“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said.
‘The fearful life’
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.
They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island.
Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.
Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh
“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”
During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.
But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.
“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp
Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases
Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.
Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.
More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.
With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space.
For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.
Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.
It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents.
“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.
But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.
The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.
Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.
During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground.
Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.
This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.
ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.
In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”.
“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.
UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.
Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.
Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
Floods, landslides and elephants
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure.
On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.
But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.
And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.
Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.
Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.
Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.
“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said.
‘The fearful life’
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.
They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island.
Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.
Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh
“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”
During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.
But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.
“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp
Banglar Bir
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 7,805
- Reaction score
- -3
- Country
- Location
Disease fears grow as Bangladesh plans giant Rohingya refugee camp
Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases
Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.
Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.
More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.
With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space.
For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.
Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.
It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents.
“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.
But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.
The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.
Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.
During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground.
Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.
This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.
ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.
In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”.
“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.
UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.
Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.
Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
Floods, landslides and elephants
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure.
On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.
But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.
And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.
Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.
Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.
Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.
“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said.
‘The fearful life’
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.
They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island.
Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.
Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh
“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”
During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.
But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.
“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp
Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases
Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.
Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.
More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.
With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space.
For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.
Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.
It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents.
“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.
But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.
The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.
Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.
During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground.
Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.
This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.
ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.
In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”.
“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.
UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.
Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.
Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
Floods, landslides and elephants
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure.
On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.
But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.
And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.
Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.
Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.
Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.
“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said.
‘The fearful life’
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.
They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island.
Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.
Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh
“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”
During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.
But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.
“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp
Banglar Bir
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 7,805
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07:52 PM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 08:00 PM, October 06, 2017
Dhaka warns S Asia of refugee consequence
Star Online Report
Bangladesh today said the presence of nearly one million Rohingya refugees, who escaped ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, in its territory has the potential to destabilise South Asia and favoured implementation of the Kofi Annan report in its entirety to solve the crisis.
Addressing a media conference after wrapping up his two-day visit to India, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, who met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, said, while the presence of so many Rohingyas in Bangladesh was a “huge burden” on the country’s small economy but also posed a security threat.
“It has the potential to destabilise not only Bangladesh but also the entire region. It has ingredients to become a security threat,” he asserted.
Asked if Bangladesh shared India’s concern over the possibility of Rohingyas turning into a security threat, Haque said: “We also believe that the Rohingya issue has the potential to destabilise the region. We are speaking in the same language on this.”
To a question as to how supportive India has been to Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue, Bangladesh’s top diplomat said “the people of Bangladesh are very appreciative of India’s role in coping with the situation arising out the influx of so many Rohingyas. In terms of sending relief materials, India tops the list. The people of Bangladesh and its government are happy about India’s role”.
He said India has always stood by Bangladesh on Rohingya issue “and I have no doubt about India’s support to Bangladesh to help stabilise the situation in Bangladesh arising out of the refugee crisis.”
Haque said ever since the present phase of Rohingya crisis erupted, he had met the Indian foreign secretary in Colombo and New York before the meeting in New Delhi.
“The impression I got is that India will always stand by Bangladesh especially in times of difficulty,” he remarked.
Asked about India’s decision to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas, Haque said “I will not comment on India’s decision. But we hope consideration will be given to the human rights aspect of it.”
Haque said Bangladesh has already about 4.5 lakh Rohingyas since 1978-79 and added to it is another over five lakh who have poured in since August this year.
Replying to a question, Haque said there was no timeframe for Myanmar to get back with a response to Bangladesh’s proposal on repatriation of Rohingya refugees made during the visit of the minister in the State Counsellor’s office to Dhaka a few days ago but both sides are in the processing of firming up the composition of the joint working group to be set up for the purpose.
“No, there is no timeframe for Myanmar’s response but we want it as early as possible,” he added.
Asked to elaborate on Bangladesh’s proposal made to Myanmar last week for repatriation of Rohingyas, the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary said, “This is a part of the negotiations. So, I will not disclose the details. But we have proposed the involvement of international bodies in the repatriation process because the number of refugees is huge.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...tation-kofi-annan-report-solve-crisis-1472509
Dhaka warns S Asia of refugee consequence
Star Online Report
Bangladesh today said the presence of nearly one million Rohingya refugees, who escaped ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, in its territory has the potential to destabilise South Asia and favoured implementation of the Kofi Annan report in its entirety to solve the crisis.
Addressing a media conference after wrapping up his two-day visit to India, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, who met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, said, while the presence of so many Rohingyas in Bangladesh was a “huge burden” on the country’s small economy but also posed a security threat.
“It has the potential to destabilise not only Bangladesh but also the entire region. It has ingredients to become a security threat,” he asserted.
Asked if Bangladesh shared India’s concern over the possibility of Rohingyas turning into a security threat, Haque said: “We also believe that the Rohingya issue has the potential to destabilise the region. We are speaking in the same language on this.”
To a question as to how supportive India has been to Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue, Bangladesh’s top diplomat said “the people of Bangladesh are very appreciative of India’s role in coping with the situation arising out the influx of so many Rohingyas. In terms of sending relief materials, India tops the list. The people of Bangladesh and its government are happy about India’s role”.
He said India has always stood by Bangladesh on Rohingya issue “and I have no doubt about India’s support to Bangladesh to help stabilise the situation in Bangladesh arising out of the refugee crisis.”
Haque said ever since the present phase of Rohingya crisis erupted, he had met the Indian foreign secretary in Colombo and New York before the meeting in New Delhi.
“The impression I got is that India will always stand by Bangladesh especially in times of difficulty,” he remarked.
Asked about India’s decision to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas, Haque said “I will not comment on India’s decision. But we hope consideration will be given to the human rights aspect of it.”
Haque said Bangladesh has already about 4.5 lakh Rohingyas since 1978-79 and added to it is another over five lakh who have poured in since August this year.
Replying to a question, Haque said there was no timeframe for Myanmar to get back with a response to Bangladesh’s proposal on repatriation of Rohingya refugees made during the visit of the minister in the State Counsellor’s office to Dhaka a few days ago but both sides are in the processing of firming up the composition of the joint working group to be set up for the purpose.
“No, there is no timeframe for Myanmar’s response but we want it as early as possible,” he added.
Asked to elaborate on Bangladesh’s proposal made to Myanmar last week for repatriation of Rohingyas, the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary said, “This is a part of the negotiations. So, I will not disclose the details. But we have proposed the involvement of international bodies in the repatriation process because the number of refugees is huge.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...tation-kofi-annan-report-solve-crisis-1472509
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October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:57 PM, October 07, 2017
Rohingya crisis: India, EU ask Myanmar to work with Bangladesh
Rohingya refugees walk along the Balukhali refugee camp after the rain in Cox's Bazar, October 6, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
India and the European Union have asked Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report over Rohingya issue and work with Bangladesh to enable them to return to the Rakhine province.
A joint statement issued after talks in New Delhi yesterday among Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker did not mention the word ‘Rohingya’.
It said, “Both sides took note that this violence was triggered off by a series of attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants which led to loss of lives amongst the security forces as well as the civilian population.”
India and the EU stressed the need for ending the violence and restoring normalcy in the Rakhine state without any delay.
They urged the Myanmar authorities to implement the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission’s recommendations and work with Bangladesh to enable the return of the displaced persons from all communities to northern Rakhine state."
The joint statement said India and the EU also recognised the role being played by Bangladesh in extending humanitarian assistance to the people in need.
The call by India and the EU to Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report came on a day when Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said Dhaka wants the report to be implemented in its entirety and without any pre-condition.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...-india-eu-ask-myanmar-work-bangladesh-1472866
Rohingya crisis: India, EU ask Myanmar to work with Bangladesh
Rohingya refugees walk along the Balukhali refugee camp after the rain in Cox's Bazar, October 6, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
India and the European Union have asked Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report over Rohingya issue and work with Bangladesh to enable them to return to the Rakhine province.
A joint statement issued after talks in New Delhi yesterday among Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker did not mention the word ‘Rohingya’.
It said, “Both sides took note that this violence was triggered off by a series of attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants which led to loss of lives amongst the security forces as well as the civilian population.”
India and the EU stressed the need for ending the violence and restoring normalcy in the Rakhine state without any delay.
They urged the Myanmar authorities to implement the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission’s recommendations and work with Bangladesh to enable the return of the displaced persons from all communities to northern Rakhine state."
The joint statement said India and the EU also recognised the role being played by Bangladesh in extending humanitarian assistance to the people in need.
The call by India and the EU to Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report came on a day when Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said Dhaka wants the report to be implemented in its entirety and without any pre-condition.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...-india-eu-ask-myanmar-work-bangladesh-1472866
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