More than 720,000 of Myanmar’s stateless Rohingya people fled a brutal military crackdown in August last year, taking shelter in crowded camps in Bangladesh and bringing with them harrowing tales of rape, murder, and arson. Although the community has lived in Myanmar for generations, a 1982 law stripped them of their citizenship and made most of them stateless. No clear process for citizenship for the Rohingya has been demonstrated. They are widely referred to as “Bengalis” by the government, inferring they are interlopers in the country.
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to start the repatriation of Rohingya refugees next month, less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was continuing. The Rohingya still are not allowed to move around in Rakhine freely. Rohingya are still being targeted in violence and the hardship and threats are still forcing the remaining Rohingya to flee. Rohingya demands for safety and citizenship had not been met by Myanmar authorities and Rahkine is described as “dangerous” for the Muslim community. Buddhist community leaders and citizens there still refer to the Rohingya as “terrorists” and made it clear that “no one wants them to come back”.
Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said last week, “It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place at the moment.”
The Myanmar government is demolishing areas where thousands of Rohingya lived before fleeing to Bangladesh. According to a UN fact-finding mission, whose report last month called for Myanmar’s military leaders to be prosecuted for genocide, the purpose of the bulldozing and construction is “the removal of the Rohingya and all traces of them and their replacement with non-Rohingya”.
Another effect of the construction is the destruction of physical evidence that could be useful in a future tribunal. Christopher Sidoti, a member of the UN fact-finding mission, told the Guardian he and his colleagues were able to collect enough witness and victim evidence to compile pre-prosecution briefs, which could one day be used by prosecutors. “The clearance is certainly destroying evidence, including of probable graves and sites of burning bodies, but it does not prevent accountability because of the great mass of other evidence,” Sidoti said.
UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic recently told the Guardian that the agency “does not believe that conditions are currently in place in Myanmar for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees”.
Rohingya families who fled Myanmar have been living in cramped, makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. Bangladesh initially proved very welcoming to those fleeing the violence, but the burden of looking after the refugees has become politically contentious in the already poverty-stricken country.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/bangladesh-and-myanmar-agree-to-start-rohingya-repatriation-in-mid-november
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/no-one-wants-the-terrorists-back-signs-of-rohingya-erased-in-rakhine-state
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to start the repatriation of Rohingya refugees next month, less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was continuing. The Rohingya still are not allowed to move around in Rakhine freely. Rohingya are still being targeted in violence and the hardship and threats are still forcing the remaining Rohingya to flee. Rohingya demands for safety and citizenship had not been met by Myanmar authorities and Rahkine is described as “dangerous” for the Muslim community. Buddhist community leaders and citizens there still refer to the Rohingya as “terrorists” and made it clear that “no one wants them to come back”.
Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said last week, “It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place at the moment.”
The Myanmar government is demolishing areas where thousands of Rohingya lived before fleeing to Bangladesh. According to a UN fact-finding mission, whose report last month called for Myanmar’s military leaders to be prosecuted for genocide, the purpose of the bulldozing and construction is “the removal of the Rohingya and all traces of them and their replacement with non-Rohingya”.
Another effect of the construction is the destruction of physical evidence that could be useful in a future tribunal. Christopher Sidoti, a member of the UN fact-finding mission, told the Guardian he and his colleagues were able to collect enough witness and victim evidence to compile pre-prosecution briefs, which could one day be used by prosecutors. “The clearance is certainly destroying evidence, including of probable graves and sites of burning bodies, but it does not prevent accountability because of the great mass of other evidence,” Sidoti said.
UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic recently told the Guardian that the agency “does not believe that conditions are currently in place in Myanmar for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees”.
Rohingya families who fled Myanmar have been living in cramped, makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. Bangladesh initially proved very welcoming to those fleeing the violence, but the burden of looking after the refugees has become politically contentious in the already poverty-stricken country.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/bangladesh-and-myanmar-agree-to-start-rohingya-repatriation-in-mid-november
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/no-one-wants-the-terrorists-back-signs-of-rohingya-erased-in-rakhine-state
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