In Bangladesh camps, Rohingya refugees wish to return home as citizens

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh still nourish the hope of returning home to Myanmar, but not without securing their rights as citizens.

Suliman NiloySuliman Niloy returning from Cox's Bazarbdnews24.com
Published : 19 Sept 2017, 05:41 PM
Updated : 19 Sept 2017, 07:13 PM

Speaking to bdnews24.com, one Noor Alam said he has been getting "a taste of freedom" in the camps in Bangladesh, in contrast to the state of captivity his people endured in Rakhine State.

"The (Myanmar) government officials tell us 'you're not from here'. I am a Rohingya, but they call us Bengali," said the resident of Bolibazar in Maungdaw district.

"Our life there is like that in a prison. They are keeping us captive. We can't go anywhere because we don’t have papers from the government.

"We need the local chairman's permission to go from one village to another. Doesn't that make us a lot like caged birds?"

 

He said he has been "sleeping well" in Bangladesh even though it was as a refugee. "We'll go back if they give us citizenship."

Rohingya Muslims make up 40 percent of the population in Rakhine where the Myanmar army responding to insurgent attacks have been launching a violent 'clearance operation'.

Over 400,000 have already fled to Bangladesh using border routes amid reports of indiscriminate shooting of civilians, mass rape, looting and arson.

They joined another approximately 400,000 Rohingyas, who after fleeing past violence in Myanmar, have been living in squalid, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh's southeast district of Cox's Bazar.

Md Yusuf, another resident of Maungdaw, located on the other side of the Naf River, left behind a business in Shabe Bazar in the north of the district.

His education ended in 2004, back in the tenth grade. Being a Rohingya, he could not enter college despite his dreams for a good education. There were no job prospects either, so he settled for a business but that too was riddled with odds because of restrictions on Rohingya movement. 

"I even had trouble going to Maungdaw township for business. It was getting worse in the last few days."

Yusuf's suffering increased when he was issued an ID card in 2012. It meant paying a large fine whenever passing check posts.

"I paid around Tk 1,000 every time I was caught in the check posts. We had to pay this fine in every check post where you're stopped. No matter how far we travel for work, we are made to return to our home before the day ends."

Yusuf felt this harassment will remain unless the Rohingyas are given proper citizenship. "We want to return to our country. We want to go there as citizens."

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan who led an advisory commission for resolving the Rakhine crisis has recommended citizenship for Rohingyas.

The coordinated attacks on 30 Myanmar security posts on Aug 25 took place just hours after Annan handed the report to the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a massive escalation that prompted the Myanmar authorities to launch yet another violent operation targeting the Rohingyas in Rakhine.

As the mass exodus continued, Bangladesh proposed the formation of UN-administered safe zones for Rohingyas in Rakhine, but its call has so far received no response from Myanmar.

On Tuesday, Su Kyi in her much-anticipated address to the nation claimed to not know why the Rohingyas were fleeing the Rakhine State. She, however, said the refugees would be taken back after 'verification'.

The Nobel peace laureate, despite international outrage and scrutiny, spoke without mentioning the word Rohingya or the army operation targeted against them.

She earlier said she would skip the UN General Assembly taking place in New York for her work to resolve the crisis.

As the world media scoffed at Suu Kyi over her speech, Mohammad Hossain, a 60-year-old farmer from Maungdaw's Nalbuinna, said he had voted for Suu Kyi back when Rohingyas had voting rights.

But it was Suu Kyi's democratic rule that saw him displaced from home, he said.

He still hoped to go home but only if granted citizenship. Bangladesh is now housing the largest population of the Rohingya, even more than their home, Myanmar.

There were hundreds of Hindus among those who fled Rakhine. Sonaram of Chikanchharhi is one of them. He has been eagerly waiting for violence to stop so he can return home.

Indra Rudra, who lost his two sons in the violence, is also looking to go home but not without security. He wants assurance that 'the black-clad attackers' would never return to destroy their lives.

But Nironjon Pal felt different. He was convinced that peace would never return to the home left behind in Chikanchhari.

It was his third time in Bangladesh as a refugee. He escaped Myanmar for a few months in 1978. When he returned in 1991, he stayed in the camps for three years.

But this time it was different, and violent beyond all precedence, he said. So going home is not on his mind.