A Crime against Humanity

[Banglar Bir]

THE ROHINGYA TRAGEDY
Burma Shows Us What a ‘Muslim Ban’ Really Looks Like: Apartheid
‘Muslims are not allowed to settle here or stay overnight,’ reads a sign. ‘No one here is allowed to marry a Muslim. Anyone breaking the rules will be labeled a traitor.’
JOSHUA CARROLL
SAM AUNG MOON
10.18.17 5:00 AM ET
RANGOON, Burma—When Khin Win Myint and her son were stopped by police at a checkpoint in Burma’s southeastern Kayin state last month, she tried to hide the fact she was a Muslim.

But the officer was suspicious. He searched the car and called in backup before holding the pair and their driver at the checkpoint near the Thai border for two hours. Eventually, she told the truth. Then things got worse.

“I was so scared,” she told The Daily Beast. “The police were saying to the driver: ‘Why did you bring these Bengalis? Their religion is all about killing. The Islamists, they are rapists. Why did you bring them? Why do you support them?’”

This happened more than 500 miles from western Rakhine state where Burma’s army is ethnically cleansing Rohingya Muslims in response to what it calls terror attacks. More than half a million Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh since late August.

The Rohingya are commonly referred to inside the country as Bengalis, a name that reinforces the false belief they are foreign interlopers. The army says its actions are a response to attacks against police outposts on Aug. 25 by a small, ragtag militia called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. But the UN says its clearance operations began before those attacks.

“‘If Muslims want to travel between townships, they need recommendations from village administrators.’”
Khin Win Myint is not a Rohingya, but amid an outpouring of hatred against the group, fear and suspicion against all Muslims has spiked in her home state. Some believe that Muslims have traveled from Rakhine and infiltrated Kayin, also known as Karen, state.

How Burma Built Concentration Camps and Got Away With It
The week after Khin Win Myint was detained, local authorities said Muslims would need special documents to travel.

“If Muslims want to travel between townships, they need recommendations from village administrators,” an announcement read.

“There has been some conflict within the last two months in Rakhine state, so we have been doing security checks,” said Tayza Tun Hlaing, a spokesperson for the Karen state government.

The military’s clearance operations in Rakhine have received popular support inside Buddhist-majority Burma despite condemnation from abroad. That has emboldened Buddhist extremists around the country to push forward with local, apartheid-style policies against Muslims.

These include setting up committees to punish Buddhists for trading with Muslims, banning members of the religion from entire villages and, in Karen state, limiting freedom of movement.

The Karen government said the new restrictions were decided on after nine Muslims without national ID cards were detained near the Thai border.
Karen state’s chief minister has since denied any involvement in issuing the notice, blaming it on an administrative error, but Muslims say the restrictions are still in place.

While Burma’s Muslims have faced persecution for decades, inter-communal violence in 2012 set off a grassroots campaign, often supported by local authorities, to impose outright segregation.

“‘These villages have become symbolic bastions of Buddhist purity.’”
“Muslims are not allowed to settle here or stay overnight,” reads a sign at the entrance to Payar Gyigone village in the southern Irrawaddy delta region. “No one here is allowed to marry a Muslim… anyone caught breaching the rules will be labeled a traitor and punished.”

At least 21 villages have erected signboards like this across the country, though the actual number is likely higher, according to the Burma Human Rights Network, a group focusing on the plight of Burma’s Muslims.

“These villages have become symbolic bastions of Buddhist purity,” the group said in a recent report.

Buddhist nationalists will use the spike in hatred against the Rohingya since the Aug. 25 attacks to encourage more villages to erect these signs, said Kyaw Win, the group’s executive director.

“When there is a problem involving the Rohingya, they capitalize on that fear,” he told The Daily Beast.

Non-Muslims seen as too sympathetic toward Muslims are also a target. One woman in Myebon, an area in southern Rakhine state that has not been hit by the recent violence, learned this the hard way.

Soe Chay, 35, went to the market last month to buy rice and other goods to sell on to local Muslims, who have been confined to camps with restricted access to food since the violence in 2012.

After making her purchases, she said, “I got chased by some people on motorbikes.” The thugs asked: “Who are you going to give these things to?” before beating her and cutting her hair.

Then they tied a sign around her neck reading “I’m a national traitor” and marched her through the town while forcing her to shout the same phrase.

“I can’t even eat rice today because I am in so much pain,” she told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a local news outlet, shortly after the attack.

After Khin Win Myint was stopped in Karen state, police took her to a nearby police station where, she said, officers beat her son, who is in his early twenties. They were released the next day and sent back to their hometown of Hpa An, the state capital.

Tayza Tun Hlaing, the government spokesperson, said that local media had “exaggerated” their reports about the restrictions, which were needed because most Muslims do not have national ID cards. “We understand the problems of the Muslims and want them to feel comfortable.”

But longstanding government-led discrimination is precisely the reason many Muslims lack these ID cards. Rights campaigners have reported cases of Muslims being flat-out denied the cards, or told they could only have them if they provided evidence of their lineage dating back centuries.

Muslims in Hpa An who have ID cards told The Daily Beast they had had no trouble traveling since the order, but religious leaders say more than two thirds of the state’s Muslims don’t have cards.

“They feel discriminated against,” said Saw Than Htut, a Member of Parliament for Hpa An with the ruling NLD party and also a Buddhist. He only found out about the new travel restrictions, he said, when a Muslim friend confronted him brandishing a copy of the announcement and asked, “What’s this?”

Did the MP, who appeared more tolerant than many, think travel restrictions against Muslims in the name of security were fair? “I think it’s better if I don’t answer that,” he said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/burma...ks-like-apartheid?source=facebook&via=desktop

 

[Banglar Bir]

U.N. Security Council urges Myanmar to stop excessive military force
Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council urged the Myanmar government on Monday to “ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state,” where violence has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the Buddhist-majority Asian country.
A Rohingya refugee walks uphill carrying a vessel filled with water at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

To appease council veto powers Russia and China, Britain and France dropped a push for the Security Council to adopt a resolution on the situation and the 15-member body instead unanimously agreed on a formal statement.

The council expressed “grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State, including by the Myanmar security forces, in particular against persons belonging to the Rohingya community.”

“The Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine State, to restore civilian administration and apply the rule of law, and to take immediate steps in accordance with their obligations and commitments to respect human rights,” it said.

Myanmar has been stung by international criticism for the way its security forces responded to attacks by Rohingya militants on 30 security posts. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25.
A Rohingya refugee carrying a child walks along the Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

“The Security Council stresses the primary responsibility of the Government of Myanmar to protect its population including through respect for the rule of law and the respect, promotion and protection of human rights,” the statement said.

It stressed the importance of transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and “in this regard, the Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and instruments.”
Slideshow (12 Images)
Myanmar has refused entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.

The Security Council said it was alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Rakhine state and warned that the increasing number of refugees “has a destabilizing impact in the region.”

The council demanded that the Myanmar government allow immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian aid and media access. It asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back in 30 days on the situation.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...o-stop-excessive-military-force-idUSKBN1D62MK

 

[Banglar Bir]

Perils in Naf River
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 02:27 PM November 07, 2017
Last updated at 02:36 PM November 07, 2017

A boat carrying Rohingya refugees is seen leaving Myanmar through Naf river while thousands other waiting in Maungdaw, Myanmar |Reuters
Rohingyas cross the perilous waters using nothing but jerry cans
“As the tide was in favour on Saturday afternoon, we set out to cross the river in hopes of reaching the bank of the river. We kept on swimming for days despite the high tide, and not having eaten for days,” said Kamal Hossain, a Rohingya refugee hailing from Godampara village in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar.

With nothing but a small five litre yellow jerry can to stay afloat, Kamal swam his way across the Naf River. The harsh conditions of the river could not stop his determination to make it. Eventually, the same evening he reached Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf, despite all odds.

Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on November 1, 2017 | Reuters
Five other young men, aged 17 to 20, made it to the island with him. They were Aman Ullah, Belal Uddin, Rabiul Hasan, Md Sadek and Abdul Karim.

Abdul said: “We left our village over a month ago and stayed on Daungkhali Char for the past 11 days. There were some international NGOs there who provided relief – food and essential supplies. However, recently the supplies have stopped and hunger has made life difficult.”

They explained that before making their journey, their Rohingya elders had asked them to let the women and children cross the river first and to wait their turn. But due to dire circumstances and lack of food, they decided to risk it all with only faith in their hearts.

Rohingya refugees continue their journey after crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Palong Khali, Bangladesh, November 1, 2017 | Reuters

At least 14,000 Rohingyas from Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships are currently waiting at Daungkhali Char for the past two weeks.

Sadek said: “We had the chance to speak to those who had made it before us over the phone and that is how we got the idea to use jerry cans to cross the river.”

Lt Col Khalid Hasan, ad-hoc regional director of operation of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), said: “These young men have fought fierce conditions. Once our soldiers saw them at the river banks, they began rescue operations. They are all right now and are being given food and medicine. Once they are rested and able, they will be sent to the refugee camps.”

Rohingya refugees walk after crossing the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on November 1, 2017 | Reuters
On November 3, a total of 19 Rohingya children crossed the Naf River from Daungkhali Char to Shah Porir Dwip in broad daylight. On November 2, four more youngsters managed to make their way to the island.

With this Saturday’s rescue, a total of 51 young people have made their way to Bangladesh from Myanmar and they all came using jerry cans.

So far, approximately 200 people have been killed by the attempt to cross Naf River from Myanmar.

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, about 621,000 Rohingyas have so far entered Bangladesh since August 25.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/11/07/perils-naf-river/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Humanitarian space and world’s most persecuted minority
www.thestateless.com/2017/11/humanitarian-space-and-worlds-most-persecuted-minority.html

By Furkhan Noordeen
SRI LANKA: Often referred to as the world’s most persecuted minority, the Rohingya are an ethnic group of 1.33 million people in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s Western Coastal State of Rakhine, and have since 1982 with the pre-independent migration of labourers been rendered stateless and denied citizenship.

Although the Rohingya, a majority of who are Muslims, have lived in Myanmar since the early 12th century, they have not been recognised as one of the 135 ethnic groups in the country — stirring not merely a cultural divide but also raising discriminatory concerns amid racial and religious, in this case, Buddhist supremacy.

Following Myanmar’s exclusive Union Citizenship Law of 1948 and the post-1948 military coup, the Rohingya were given only foreign identity cards which restricted their employment and educational opportunities and making matters even worse, in 1982 Myanmar enacted new legislation rendering the Rohingya stateless and depriving them of almost all human rights including the right to practice their faith.

According to Eleanor Albert of the Council on Foreign Relations, the outbreak of violence against the ethnic minority dates back to 2012 when a group of Rohingya men stood indicted on charges of raping and killing a Buddhist woman. It later led to Buddhist extremists launching a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ by killing some 280 Rohingyas and setting fire to their homes.

Against this backdrop are brutal military crackdowns and the recent retaliatory attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on police outposts along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, extrajudicial killings, rape, arson, torture, and restrictions on marriage, employment, education and religion by the de facto Head of State, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, which forces the Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and several other Southeast Asian countries, risking their lives on rickety boats in search of humanitarian aid and greener pastures.

Last month, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) official Abdul Jalil reported that 12 out of a 100 refugees fleeing Myanmar had died when their boat capsized near neighbouring Bangladesh. This is one of many recent incidents of this nature with such deaths having dominated headlines in the past and considering what happens almost on a daily basis, perhaps, a thousand more might have faced the same fate at the time this article was published.

Yet, what nettles human rights activists is the inability of the administration of Suu Kyi, the incumbent State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to trace a single atom in villages that blow up to smithereens in the most ungodly hours of the day. Tun Khin, a longstanding political confrère of Suu Kyi, said the State Counsellor mostly obliged to the military that kept her under house arrest for 15 long years.

According to Myanmar’s third and present Constitution published in September 2008 following a referendum, the military is allocated 25% of the seats in parliament with the ministries of home and border affairs and defence coming under its purview. It is also permitted to appoint one of the two Vice Presidents. The Commander-in-chief of the military, Tatmadaw, whose powers override those of the President, is authorised to exercise State sovereignty during emergencies, and under these circumstances, to fathom whether the State Counsellor has any leverage over the military requires another article altogether.

Nevertheless, Suu Kyi’s unwillingness to acknowledge the mass exodus of the Muslim minority has rekindled humanitarian space, so much so that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan himself toured the ‘becoming-war-torn site.’

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi revealed that more than 500,000 (over 607,000 as of November 7) Rohingya refugees were sheltered in two camps at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh this year as a result of the brutal security operations deemed as a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein. Among the refugees are some 240,000 children and 50,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women suffering from malnutrition. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina too has called for international pressure so as to discontinue forthwith the oppression of the Rohingya.

Despite severe backlash arising from the allegations of ethnic cleansing, systematic violence and human rights violations, Suu Kyi rejects and denies the allegations outright saying it were the Rohingya militants who instigated violence, while journalists and aid agency representatives who wished to study the ground situation in Rakhine were being continually denied access.

In September, Myanmar authorities postponed a visit by UN rapporteurs and diplomats to Rakhine and in a related incident detained two journos covering the flight of the ethnic Rohingya to Bangladesh. It is also alleged that Myanmar’s Chief of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), Renata Lok-Dessallien, attempted to prevent human rights advocates from visiting areas where the Rohingya live. To add insult to injury, the office of the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar said recently the delivery of relief aid had been suspended due to security concerns and government field-visit restrictions rendered it impossible to carry out the provision of humanitarian assistance amid the Myanmar Government earlier this year even devising a plan to relocate the Rohingya in a remote, uninhabitable island.

However, when UN Secretary General António Guterres urged to end the military operation against the Rohingya, Myanmar’s National Security Adviser Thaung Tun refuted allegations of ethnic cleansing and bloodshed.

Surprisingly, the Rohingya plight has taken its toll on celebrities too. 19-year-old Miss Grand Myanmar Shwe Eain Si was stripped of her pageant title after she posted a video on the ongoing violence in Rakhine on her Facebook page — her post however did not allege the Burmese military to have engaged in widespread atrocities against Rohingya. Also in September, Miss Turkey was dethroned after she tweeted about last year’s coup attempt.

Nevertheless, efforts to air and probe ongoing violence against the Rohingya have become possible, at least to some extent, with Radio Free Asia reporting on October 2 that several emissaries and UN agencies visited Rakhine despite warnings by Myanmar law enforcement agencies about possible terrorist attacks in the area. Lately, a delegation of 67 diplomats from at least 46 countries toured Rohingya camps at Kutupalong and Balukhali in Bangladesh and lent a patient hearing to the woes and broken dreams of the refugees.

In a drastic turn of events, Suu Kyi pledged in a televised address at Myanmar’s Capital Naypyidaw on September 19 that she would entertain the returnees on verification of their citizenship — a promise too good to be true because the Rohingya are not likely to be bestowed citizenship in the foreseeable future. However, this was seconded by a Myanmar minister during a recent bilateral meeting with Bangladeshi officials. Furthermore, Suu Kyi diverted media attention saying Rakhine Buddhists remained anxious over their shrinking population albeit they don’t face any sort of discriminatory population control regulation like the Rohingyas do. The Rohingya Muslims by the way are restricted to having a maximum of two children a family.

With tensions building up whenever Rohingya brave rough seas, the international community and humanitarian agencies pledge their support by means of aid or at least by tweeting their condolences. Although many countries were less hospitable initially, with time they shouldered a greater burden of the plight faced by the Rohingyas by converting into action the term, ‘being humane.’ Among the countries which have generously extended a much-needed helping hand are Bangladesh, the US, Canada and Indonesia.

With the announcement of an additional $32 million in humanitarian assistance to Rohingya at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the US has pledged a total of $95 million aid. Adding to the $6.63 million aid to the conflict-stricken in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Canadian International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced another $2.5 million in humanitarian assistance. Briefly after sending eight sortie missions or 74 tonnes of aid, two Hercules aircraft carrying aid for Rohingya in Rakhine left Jakarta. Also, the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said King Mohammed VI had instructed to send urgent humanitarian aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Furthermore, Channel News Asia reported last month that the EU and the US were discussing sanctions against Myanmar military leaders in the wake of human rights violations.

Meanwhile, several countries including China and India have taken a non-humanitarian stance on the Rohingya issue with Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang announcing on September 12 that China condemned the violent attacks in Rakhine and supported Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard peace. On the other hand, Aljazeera reported on October 3 that the Indian Government said it would not stop its efforts to deport the estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees, of whom more than 16,000 are registered with the UN Refugee Agency. In the most recent case where two Rohingyas had filed a petition against the Indian Government’s plan to deport the persecuted refugees, Government Attorney Tushar Mehta said the Rohingya were a security threat, thereby breaching Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which states ‘right to life’ is available to both locals and foreigners while such forced repatriation may violate Customary International Law under ‘non-refoulement.’

The Tamil Nadu Police confirmed that with these developments, a group of 32 people — of whom 30 are Rohingyas and the other Indians — living for the past five years under refugee status granted by the UNHCR office in India, had on April 30 ventured on an illegal voyage to Australia by boat via the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka.

As the vessel entered Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, coastguards patrolling the International Maritime Boundary Line took the boat people into custody on charges of illegal migration and handed them over to the Kankesanthurai Police the same day. With the Indian High Commission acknowledging that these refugees had sailed from Nagapattanam, Tamil Nadu, a report under reference number B/372/17, under Section 45 & 45A of the Immigration and Emigration Act, was filed and the refugees were produced before the Mallakkam Magistrate who ordered these people to be housed at the Mirihana detention camp pending the AG’s advice and the two Indians be kept under remand custody.

Based on a report by Attorney Shainaz Mohamed who appeared on behalf of the Myanmar refugees, according to the AG’s advice, Section 45 & 45A of the Immigration and Emigration Act shall not apply and the case filed cannot be maintained since it was confirmed that these Myanmar nationals are in fact refugees. Interestingly though, Sri Lanka is not among the 142 State Parties to both the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. However, it had inked a Working Agreement with the UNHCR in 1987, which enables the refugee agency to accommodate up to 2,000 refugees each year.

However, the law-abiding refugees were forced to move to a house in Mount Lavinia (taken on lease by the UNHCR) after a refugee was alleged to have been raped by an officer attached to the Mirihana detention camp. A case was filed against him at the Gangodawila Magistrate’s Court under case number B/2030/17.

Despite the transfer being carried out with prior notice to the area police, the cops acted completely oblivious to the relocation when extremists led by radical Buddhist monks stormed the UN safe house in Mt. Lavinia. It was also alleged that relatives of the police officer charged with raping a Rohingya refugee were among the uncivilized, narrow-minded protesters who showcased to the world their true nature. These hapless refugees among whom were men, women and children, some of them infants, were then transferred to the Boossa detention camp for security reasons.

Despite the fact that several individuals who instigated this kind of senseless violence against the Rohingya refugees during the height of the Sinhala-Muslim communal clash have been legally taken care of, some elements still engage in hostile, blasphemous discourse and inhumane activities igniting the flames of ethnic discord.

It is astonishingly-noteworthy to underscore the sad fact that Sri Lanka, which proclaims itself to be one of the most hospitable countries in the world, is hampering the temporary accommodation of a handful of Rohingya refugees — numbering a mere 0.0068% of those accepted by Bangladesh.

A media communique issued by Internal Affairs Ministry Secretary D. Swarnapala on September 18 states this was not the first time Myanmar refugees arrived in Sri Lanka. The communique said 55 people who arrived from Myanmar on March 3, 2008, were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Navy and subsequently handed over to the UNHCR. They had been sent back in 2012. Again in February 2013, Sri Lanka had rescued two boat loads of 138 and 170 asylum seekers and they too had been sent back in November 2015.

If it is not an issue within Sri Lanka that makes the country less hospitable than what it used to be, then what is it? Can we oversimplify internal concerns saying international pressure prompted them to act in this manner? We may not be bound to reach out to the needy and look into their grievances, but we could at least not rape, torture or abuse the innocent who are already distressed and in various stages of degradation and destitution forced to flee from country to country. Why are the relevant authorities keeping mum on this humanitarian issue? It may not be a responsibility, but we could, as a nation, be humane enough to act with equanimity, peace and harmony by living the Buddha’s precept, “let all beings be happy” at least till such time the refugees are sent back home.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/humanitarian-space-and-worlds-most-persecuted-minority.html

 

[Banglar Bir]

UN representative: Rohingya women gang-raped by Myanmar security forces
UNB
Published at 07:40 PM November 12, 2017
Last updated at 07:43 PM November 12, 2017

United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict claims hundreds of raped Rohingya women still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal Dhaka Tribune
The UN special envoy said they observed a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion.
United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten on Sunday said they consistently heard about sexual violence from Rohingya survivors, including gang-rape of women by multiple soldiers.

“One survivor described being held in captivity by the Myanmar Armed Forces for 45 days when she was raped repeatedly,” she said while addressing a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka.

Patten said others still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal.
Also Read- ‘I saw Myanmar army gang-rape my daughter’
“Any actor who commits and commands or condones sexual violence against civilians must be held to account,” she said.

“This includes keeping the spotlight of international scrutiny on the perpetrators. I want the survivors to know that they are not alone; I also want to ensure that the government of Bangladesh will not be alone in coming to their aid,” she said.

The UN special envoy said they observed a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion.
Also Read- Rohingya women: The face of unspeakable horror
“A clear picture is emerging from the alleged perpetrators of these atrocities and their modus operandi. Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar,” Patten said.

Other actors involved include the Myanmar Border Guard Police and militias composed of Rakhine Buddhists and other ethnic groups.

She also mentioned about other forms of sexual violence like forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity.

“Several sources informed us that some women and girls have been literally raped to death,” said the UN envoy.
Also Read- Gang-rape horrors haunt Rohingya refugees
She said some of the Rohingyas expressed their desire to return home, provided they would be granted citizenship and equal status while others said they have nothing left to return but ashes.

“The wounds are extremely raw. Women and girls dissolved into tears when recounting the extreme brutalities they both endured and witnessed,” said the UN envoy.

Patten said one woman shared three concrete recommendations that made a deep impression on her.
Also Read- Raped, burned, killed
“We want peace, we want a leader who can take responsibility for our community and we want a safe place where we can share our stories with our sisters,” Patten quoted the Rohingya woman as saying.

She said all the women she spoke with wanted to see the perpetrators punished. “They all – without exception – demanded justice. And yet, not a single soldier or commander has been called to account for these atrocities.”

Upon her return to New York, the UN envoy will brief the UN Secretary General on the situation she observed on the ground.

Her office will compile the annual report of the Secretary General on conflict-related sexual violence to be presented to the Security Council next March which includes a dedicated section on Myanmar.
Also Read- The real reason so many Rohingya girls are pregnant
She laid emphasis on intensifying pressure on Myanmar and said the UN Security Council could also establish a mechanism to investigate the crimes.

Patten said she will also discuss the issue with the President of the International Criminal Court during her meeting soon.

Responding to a question, she said what had happened could be crimes against humanity and it could also be genocide and others have called it ethnic cleansing but she first wants to analyse the information she acquired.

The UN special envoy visited Bangladesh to better understand the patterns and trends of the sexual violence related to the conflict in Myanmar.

The Special Representative visited several field locations, including the Bangladesh-Myanmar border itself.

She met relevant Bangladeshi authorities in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar, including the security services, to discuss strengthened collaboration and coordination with the UN to respond to sexual and gender-based violence, as well as potential protection concerns arising from the unprecedented influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...gya-women-gang-raped-myanmar-security-forces/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Myanmar's soldiers targeted Rohingya Muslim women for gang rape: UN official
Sun Nov 12, 2017 05:23PM

Rohingya Muslim refugees who entered Bangladesh by makeshift boats walk toward refugee camps after landing in the Teknaf district of Bangladesh, November 11, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
Myanmar's soldiers have "systematically targeted" Rohingya Muslim women for gang rape in Rakhine state, says a UN official.
Pramila Patten, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, said many of the atrocities committed by the troops "could be crimes against humanity."

The UN official made the remarks during a press briefing in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on Sunday, after visiting the southeastern district of Cox's Bazar, which is located near the border with Myanmar.

"I heard horrific stories of rape and gang rape, with many of the women and girls who died as a result of the rape," Patten said, adding, "My observations point to a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion."

The sexual violence in Rakhine was "commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar," the special representative said.

"The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation and sexual slavery in military captivity."

"One survivor described being held in captivity by the Myanmar armed forces for 45 days, during which time she was repeatedly raped. Others still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal," Patten stated.

The UN official added that the sexual violence was a key reason behind the exodus of the Rohingya and occurred in the context of "collective persecution" of the minority.

"The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was clearly a driver and push factor for forced displacement on a massive scale and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and the removal of the Rohingya as a group."

Patten earlier met women and girls who were among thousands of Rohingya Muslims that have sought refuge in Bangladesh.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled the predominantly-Buddhist country of Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25, when a crackdown on the Rohingya intensified in Rakhine. The government has been engaged in a campaign against the minority, which the UN and human rights groups have called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Elsewhere in her remarks, Patten said she would raise the issue of the persecution of the Rohingya, especially sexual violence and torture, with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"When I return to New York I will brief and raise the issue with the prosecutor and president of the ICC whether they (Myanmar's military) can be held responsible for these atrocities."

International rights groups have already called on world leaders to address the plight of the Rohingya.

PressTV-HRW urges strong action against Myanmar over Rohingya
Human Rights Watch urges world leaders gathering for upcoming annual summits in Asia to address the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/11/12/541960/UN-Myanmar-Rohingya-women

 

[Banglar Bir]

12:00 AM, November 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:33 AM, November 18, 2017
Horrors they will never forget
Children in Rakhine faced grave violations, killings, rape, says Save the Children report

Staff Correspondent
Running away from his burning village in Rakhine State to come to Bangladesh, 12-year-old Hasan walked into an abandoned village to look for food and water. As he found a water reservoir and got closer, he saw about 50 bodies floating.
“I can't forget the smell of the burning houses, or the sight of the bloated bodies. These are horrors I will never forget,” he told researchers from Save the Children.

The researchers pointed out that the story was not unique and Rohingya children, who have fled to Bangladesh, gave similar accounts of the appalling violence they witnessed in Myanmar.

The international NGO yesterday published “Horrors I Will Never Forget”, a report containing testimonies of Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar.

“The stories tell of children killed and maimed by the Myanmar military. Stories of children burned alive in their homes. Stories of girls being raped and abused,” Helle Thorning-Schmidt, chief executive of Save the Children, wrote in the foreword of the report.

The ongoing persecution of Rohingyas has displaced hundreds of thousands in Rakhine State. Over 620,000 people have arrived in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar in the last three months.

The Save the Children report said those who fled Myanmar spoke of seeing children targeted for brutal sexual violence, killed and maimed indiscriminately and abducted.

"These appalling crimes amount to grave violations against children in conflict. They must stop and those carrying them out must be held accountable," it said.

Around 60 percent of the Rohingyas, who came to Cox's Bazar since August 25, are children, and almost each of them witnessed a family member or someone from their community killed, it observed.

"They have seen and experienced things that no child should ever see."

Shadibabiran, a 16-year-old girl cited in the report, said military went to their village and started shooting. Her mother was shot in the ankle.

“They hit me in the face with a gun, kicked me in my chest and stamped on my arms and legs. Then I was raped by three soldiers. They raped me for about two hours and at some stage I fainted.

“They broke one of my ribs when they kicked me in the chest. It was very painful and I could hardly breathe. I still have difficulty breathing, but I haven't been to a doctor, as I feel too ashamed,” she told Save the Children, which changed the real names of the victims to protect their identities.

In recent weeks, several human rights watchdogs have accused Myanmar military of genocide and widespread sexual violence.

“These children, who have endured so much suffering, were desperate with no place to go,” said Save the Children Bangladesh Country Director Mark Pierce, urging the authorities to act.

He also demanded Myanmar to identify perpetrators of the crimes and bring them to justice or accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

"If Myanmar government fails to take credible and timely steps to investigate the crimes...and end impunity, the UN Security Council must act and refer the situation to the ICC," the report concluded.

It also asked the international community to ensure all Rohingya children, who fled to Bangladesh, receive adequate care and support to recover from trauma.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...crisis-horrors-they-will-never-forget-1492828

 

[Banglar Bir]

Military ‘burns Rohingya alive’, says Human Rights Watch

Rohingya fetch firewood at Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp. Picture: AP
Reuters
12:00 AM November 17, 2017
Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the past three months against Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine state.

The New York-based HRW report echoes one released on Wednesday by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights that alleged security forces slit the throats of Rohingya and burned victims alive.

They support an accusation by UN special envoy Pramila Patten this week, who said sexual violence was “being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar”.

The army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

HRW spoke to 52 women and girls who fled to Bangladesh, 29 of whom said they had been raped. All but one of the rapes were gang rapes. “Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” said author Skye Wheeler.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights documented “widespread and systematic attacks” on Rohingya civilians between October 9 and December last year, and from August 25 this year.

It said evidence gathered from more than 200 interviews with survivors, witnesses and international aid workers demonstrated that “Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing”.

More than half of the population of Rakhine has been displaced since October last year in Myanmar’s army “clearance operations” after Rohingya militants killed security officers.

“State security forces opened fire on Rohingya civilians from the land and sky. Soldiers and knife-wielding civilians hacked to death and slit the throats of Rohingya men, women, and children,” it said. “Rohingya civilians were burned alive. Soldiers raped and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls and arbitrarily arrested men and boys en masse.”
Reuters, AFP
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...h/news-story/ca0e4947dda3a8b4fa46dcff83d912de

Unspeakable acts of cruelty

• Tribune Editorial

Published at 08:13 PM November 17, 2017

Photo: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are
When it comes to describing the acts of cruelty perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces against the Rohingya people, words fail.

Indeed, by using rape of women and girls as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign, Myanmar has shown the world that there is nothing its army will not do in order to rid the country of Rohingya.

A report from Human Rights Watch documents the extensive use of sexual violence by Myanmar’s military against women and girls, as well as other acts of violence, cruelty, and humiliation — are these accounts not enough to unite the whole world against the Myanmar regime’s current ways?

The bare facts are so horrific they need no sensationalising — many women said their spouses, parents, and young children were murdered right in front of them.

Many of the rape victims who fled to Bangladesh did so with swollen and torn genitals, all the while being deprived of food, shelter, or — it goes without saying — medical attention.

Any country that chooses to look away when it comes to these atrocities forfeits its right to claim any moral ground in any matter.

It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are, because to sit by and do nothing but exchange words will not make Myanmar change its ways.

It is certainly not enough to merely make statements requesting Myanmar to stop using excessive force — it is blatantly clear that Myanmar has no intention to stop its operations.

We do not need another eyewash from the international community, we need stern action.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/17/unspeakable-act-horror/

 

[Banglar Bir]

2:00 AM, November 20, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 20, 2017
Caravan of the Dispossessed

Rohingya children look on at a refugee camp in Palong Khali near Cox's Bazar, October 4, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
C R Abrar
Over the last four decades the Rohingya people of the Rakhine State of Myanmar have been subjected to ongoing, planned, systematic oppression. Gradually, the international community is beginning to acknowledge the acts of the Myanmar government as genocide. Understanding Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya as genocidal is critical in light of narratives framing the plight of the Rohingya as a “humanitarian crisis” or “ethnic cleansing” and the Myanmar government's consistent denial of abuse.

The latest exodus of Rohingyas that began on August 25, 2017 is an integral part of the realisation of the genocidal agenda. This essay is based on field-work interviews conducted in the first half of October in the Ukhia, Teknaf region by a three-member team of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). The narratives of the survivors provide a glimpse of the gruesome reality that Rohingyas had to endure in their own country and during their flight.

“Suddenly all hell was let loose. We felt keyamat (the last day of judgment) had arrived. We rushed out of the house and began to run aimlessly. My paralysed granddad stayed put at home, hoping the army would take pity on him. Later we learnt he was charred to death when our house was torched,” says Nur Mohammad, 35, from Buthidaung.

The guilt continues to haunt Nur as he struggles to eke out a subsistence in a Kutupalong shack surrounded by hundreds of refugee families of northern Rakhine. Nur was not the only one bearing such burden. There were many.

The indiscriminate torching of property by the army was accompanied by killing, torture and abduction. Young girls were their explicit targets. Many were taken away in military vehicles never to be heard from again; others were raped or gang-raped in public, often in front of near and dear ones. Some were even gored to death. Narrating such experience, 21-year-old Amena from Maungdaw notes, “I am dirty (meaning dark) and poor.

I always wondered why God was so unkind to me. When two good looking sisters of a rich family of our neighbourhood were picked up by the army only then I realised what God had in store for me.”

Rakhine militant Buddhists led by monks were partners in crime of the Myanmar army. The army crafted a clever ploy to divide the communities, and, over the years, the cleavage widened. Not everyone was consumed by the flames of communal hatred as Noor Hakim of Maungdaw (24) informs, “When I begged my late father's Rakhine friend for shelter he didn't say a word. I could see the pain in his eyes. He gave me some money instead and his blessings. I realised that's the best he could do.”

Faced with brutality of epic proportion, residents of Buthidaung started fleeing the area. Their obvious option was crossing the border for safety. Men, women and children endured a lot of hardship on the way. Within days some families ran out of dried food and cans of water that they had managed to carry with them. “It was quite a trek that lasted for days. In order to avoid the scorching sun and detection by the Myanmar army we used to begin (our journey) in the evening, walked through the night braving jungles and streams.

One of our fellow travellers died of snake bite. During the entire journey I do not think my two eyelids met even once as I was scared of my teenage daughter being kidnapped. So far, God was kind to me. I am not sure what fate lies ahead of me,” says Sakhina, 34, a resident of Gundam camp.

The mayhem that accompanied army atrocities in northern Rakhine split many families. Family members did not have the time and opportunity to plan their escape. While some were at home, others were away. Rumana (22) recalls, “When the armed moghs arrived my husband and mother ran in one direction, and I, with my child, in another. More than a week later I learnt that they managed to find shelter in a camp (in Bangladesh) where my relatives were already staying. I contacted them over the phone. I am not sure if I will be allowed to go there but I am dying to see them.”

Over 600,000 Rohingyas have fled Rakhine State for Bangladesh since late August, many walking for days through thick jungles before making the perilous boat journey across the Naf river. Photo: AFP
Twelve-year-old Sharu Shaikh was not that lucky. “As we reached the beach (in Rakhine) there was a huge crowd trying to get into the boat that was about to set sail. My father pushed me onto it. It was packed to the brim, and he and my mother failed to board. (After arriving here in Shah Pori) I waited for the whole day hoping they would come in the boats that arrived (subsequently). I do not know if I would ever get to see them,” he says with tears rolling down his dried cheeks, refusing to take a packet of food that was offered to him by relief workers.

As the Rohingyas gradually settle down in their land of sanctuary despite all uncertainty and difficulties, refugees express their gratitude for the warm hospitality that the people of Cox's Bazar, Teknaf and Ukhia offer. They also recognise the outpouring of support of people from other parts of the country as the young and the old distribute much-needed water, biscuits, food, medicine, orsaline and the like. While they wait patiently for improved shelter and a better relief distribution mechanism to emerge, news of missing children, particularly those of young girls, has become a major source of concern. “I have been told that touts are bringing in offers of job and marriage and many fell prey to their deceit. Young girls had also gone missing when they went to the woods to fetch firewood and water, or respond to the call of nature. I have two daughters and I constantly worry about them,” says Rahim Mollah (55).

The effort of Bangladesh authorities to register Rohingyas is being viewed by some refugees with suspicion. The registration process was not preceded by any awareness campaign on why it was necessary. Misgivings prevail. Some think it may lead to their forced repatriation to Myanmar. For Roshida Banu (55), who was waiting in the landing station in Kutupalong, the reason is somewhat different, “No, I am not going to register with men in uniform. I am scared of them.” The trauma of having to endure protracted army violence has had a permanent negative imprint in her psyche about the security forces.

A stark contrast between earlier flows of Rohingyas and the current stream is the composition of the refugee population. After talking with key functionaries in refugee management, both in government and in the non-government sectors, we learnt that members of many well-to-do families have also joined the caravan of the destitute.

Mohammad Haroon, who until late August was the owner of several buses, a motor parts store and a modest house in Maungdaw, recounts, “When we were preparing for Eid, little did we know that my family would have to live a destitute life on that auspicious day. Anticipating trouble I managed to send quite a bit of money to my relative in Chittagong through hundi. (After coming to Bangladesh) We had plans to join them but the restrictions on our movement have stalled the plan.” Haroon is hiding with his family of six in a private house in Cox's Bazar in constant fear of being apprehended for violating government stipulation to live in designated site/camps. He dreads at the prospect of being sent to the squalid camps. Haroon is well aware that like graveyards, camps are great levellers.

Visiting the refugee sites one cannot but have an unqualified appreciation of the sacrifice being made by the locals whose daily life is massively disrupted by the almost overnight presence of tens of thousands of uninvited guests. For Renu Bala (41), a local resident of Harinathpur, Kutupalong, hosting refugees of her own faith poses the question, “How could we turn away someone who sought refuge? Yes, it is difficult to share the house with strangers but that is perhaps what God ordained.”

After talking with dozens of refugees in different locations, young and old, male and female, we noted one common stand, “Of course, we will go back.” Nishat Ahmed, a school teacher, argues, “We are grateful for the hospitality extended to us but this is no life. The Myanmar government did not respect our Rohingya identity, nor does the Bangladesh state. The international community is an accomplice to Myanmar's genocide. One day their leadership will be made to stand on the dock along with the Myanmar army and Suu Kyi.”

Hopefully, Rohingya refugees do not have to wait for long for that day to arrive.
CR Abrar teaches international relations at the University of Dhaka. He coordinates the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). This essay is based on field visits to Ukhia, Teknaf in October 2017. CR Abrar acknowledges the contribution of fellow team members Dr Jalaluddin Sikder and Marina Sultana.
http://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/caravan-the-dispossessed-1493692

 

[Banglar Bir]

AJ+
18 November at 09:08 ·
Myanmar’s military is terrorizing the Rohingya with gang rape.

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[Banglar Bir]

11:11 AM, November 21, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:24 PM, November 21, 2017
Amnesty accuses Myanmar of imposing ‘apartheid’ on Rohingyas

A Rohingya refugee men carry sewer rings at Balukhali refugee camp in Ukhia district of Bangladesh on November 20, 2017. Photo: Munir UZ ZAMAN / AFP
AFP, Yangon
Myanmar’s suffocating control of its Rohingya population amounts to “apartheid”, Amnesty International said on Tuesday in a probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.
Read More: How 'humanitarian technology' can help deal with Rohingya crisis
Distressing scenes of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps have provoked outrage around the world, as people who have escaped Rakhine state since August recount tales of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar troops.
Also Read: Myanmar Exodus: Rape being used as a weapon of war
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed in principle to repatriate some Rohingya but disagree over the details, with Myanmar’s army chief saying last week that it was “not possible” to accept the number of refugees proposed by Dhaka.

The Amnesty report, published on Tuesday, details how years of persecution have curated the current crisis.

A “state-sponsored” campaign has restricted virtually all aspects of Rohingyas’ lives, the Amnesty study says, confining them to what amounts to a “ghetto-like” existence in the mainly Buddhist country.

The 100-page report, based on two years of research, says the web of controls meet the legal standard of the “crime against humanity of apartheid”.

“Rakhine State is a crime scene. This was the case long before the vicious campaign of military violence of the last three months,” said Anna Neistat, Amnesty’s Senior Director for Research.

Myanmar’s authorities “are keeping Rohingya women, men and children segregated and cowed in a dehumanising system of apartheid,” she added.

The bedrock for the widespread hatred towards the Muslim group comes from a contentious 1982 Citizenship law.

Enacted by the then junta, the law effectively rendered hundreds of thousands of Rohingya stateless.

Since then, Amnesty says a “deliberate campaign” has been waged to erase Rohingya rights to live in Myanmar, where they are denigrated as “Bengalis” or illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

A system of identification cards is central to those bureaucratic controls, and likely to form the basis of the decision on who will be allowed to return from Bangladesh.

The latest wave of persecution has pushed more than half of the 1.1-million strong minority out of the country, with those left behind sequestered in increasingly isolated and vulnerable villages.

Although the Rohingya have been victims of discrimination for decades, the report details how repression intensified after the outbreak of violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in 2012.

Long before the recent mass exodus of Rohingya from northern Rakhine state -- now a virtual ghostland of torched villages and unharvested paddy fields -- they were unable to travel freely, requiring special permits and facing arrest, abuse and harassment at numerous checkpoints.

In central Rakhine state, Rohingya Muslims were driven out of urban areas after the 2012 violence.

They remain completely segregated from the Buddhist community, confined by barbed wire and police checkpoints to camps that Amnesty calls an “open-air prison”.

The Muslim community is widely denied access to medical care, their children are unable to attend government schools while many mosques have been sealed off.

“Restoring the rights and legal status of Rohingya, and amending the country’s discriminatory citizenship laws is urgently needed,” said Anna Neistat.

“Rohingya who have fled persecution in Myanmar cannot be asked to return to a system of apartheid.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

 

[Banglar Bir]

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[Banglar Bir]

12:00 AM, November 30, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:23 AM, November 30, 2017
On the margins of ruin: War and displacement

Life and living on the margins of history has not erased the delicate beauty and resilience of the Rohingya woman. PHOTO: AFP
Rebecca Haque
Not history alone, not literature alone, but my own considerable life experience has convinced me that the world is Manichean, and tragically will forever remain so. Evil has many faces, and man's expulsion from the garden of Eden has tainted the earth with blood spilt in lust and vengeance and vicious hunger for conquest of acres and acres of rich, fertile ground.

Cyclically, mighty civilisations have flourished on the banks of mighty rivers and have perished at the hands of marauding tribes and invading armies, and those same great rivers have overflowed with human blood and carcass. Cain's act and bequest of brother against brother, his murder of Abel, is the original fable of the curse of evil lurking within each human soul.

The mortal frame is a divided box, with opposing, warring desires of the flesh and the spirit, of the mind and the heart, and most unfortunately, yet most powerfully and crucially for the survival of entire civilisations, cultures, and tribes of peoples, the mortal self is itself a complex, convoluted, conflicted unit of light and shadow, of good and evil.

As a child, I have stood many a time on the steps and plinths of the majestic ruins of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, while my love of history books ignited my imagination to fill the emptiness of the rooms and the courtyards and the granaries and the bathhouses and the adjoining fields with living, breathing men, women, and children.

Even my dreams were peopled by sunburnt folk wrapped in white homespun cotton garments. The Indian sub-continent is my geographical space, and I carry my Aryan-Dravidian colour and shape to the Occident and the Orient with pride. Bengal is my birthplace; with my roots firmly attached to the alluvial soil of the Gangetic Plains, I too am the inheritor of a rich culture layered with trajectories of centuries of settlements by Persian and Greek and Arab and Portuguese and Dutch and British voyagers, traders, conquerors.

The bloodlines of the Bengali woman meet all cultures and languages, from the Greco-Roman to the Arabic, from the Hispanic to the Indic, from the Runic to the Hieroglyphic. The profile of the Bengali woman eludes the Cubist frame of Picasso: she is multi ethnic, multi dimensional. A racial chameleon, made from clay and terra cotta, Gandhara, Harappa, and Mohenjodaro.

The Rohingya is my sister as much as the Nubian and the Sumerian. Life and living on the margins of history has not erased the delicate beauty and resilience of the Rohingya woman. Displaced by colonial power two hundred years ago, by the same arm of Empire which divided Bengal not once but twice for its own mercantile gain, the Rohingya flowered across the flowing river and the fluid border beyond the boundary of my native East Bengal.

Now, with evil intent and murder disguised in saffron robes and blood rites, the banks of the Naf are deluged sticky-red with desperate, displaced, ruined shards of humanity. Raped, battered, without her man, embracing the old and the sick and the infant, my sister grabs my shore and begs for help. How can I forsake her, my heart cries, even as it cries at my own inability to actively change her destiny.

In the city of the golden pagodas, the “pure Bamar” sits, complacent and contemptuous of our mixed race and wheatish/brown colour. Long months of placid denial of burning and butchering of Rohingya people by the ruling Burman. Long, arduous months of rescuing and sheltering and feeding the hundreds of thousands of refugees swarming into Cox's Bazaar.

We Bangladeshi Bengalis are universally admired for our hospitality; even the poorest landless labourer is a gracious host and will happily share a meal with the starving. The inexorable forces of Nature and the peculiar contours of geography have often made my precious motherland prey to yearly denudation by flood or furious cyclone.

Millions have migrated to other lands and are contributing to the economy of their adopted countries. Millions more, men and women, are struggling alone in distant lands to feed their own families back home in cities and towns and villages scattered across this tiny Bangladesh. The spirit of survival, of the continuity of family and lineage, is strong and unyielding in the heart of the Bangladeshi woman.

Education and equal opportunity for employment in all spheres of professional and vocational work have made us confident. Innately intelligent, inheritors of a centuries-old rich, diverse tradition of arts and culture, song and dance, many Bangladeshi women are leaders and role-models in these times of war and displacement. Succeeding generations of highly educated and dynamic Bangladeshis have won global recognition and accolades through individual achievements.

Significantly, despite the conservative patriarchal attitude of some menfolk, there has been a fundamental reconfiguration of the ancient system of power and gender-relationship from those dark days when Bengali women were tithed in feudal bondage and deprived of the written word. While the struggle continues for those still on the margins of economic parity and social security, for those ruined by violence, for those subjugated by egregious dogma and perverted edict, I admire the efforts of enlightened fathers and brothers and spouses to fight for just rights of the Bangladeshi woman.

Today, as we house and clothe and feed and succour the ruined, forlorn Rohingya, I cannot but feel anxious for our own swiftly depleting resources. The supercilious Bamar has recently, grudgingly, bowed to international pressure for cessation of violence, but expedient political and economic affiliations of superpower nations have in turn forced us into a dubious “repatriation” treaty.

Now, at the risk of undermining our own national security, the onus is upon us to bear the brunt of keeping the Rohingya in Bangladesh, in refugee camps, for years, perhaps decades, perhaps permanently.

The real danger of Rohingya women disappearing inside the dark labyrinth of human trafficking and prostitution is already happening, as verbal and social media messages have indicated. Soon, verifiable statistics will also be available as women's rights activists begin to monitor the situation. Stateless, without a country or national identity or home or a patch of land to call their own, the Rohingya are mostly seen as expendable by the rest of the world.

In contrast, tragically, the Rohingya woman and girl-child, neglected, illiterate, displaced, war-ravaged, but comely of appearance, is apparently seen as profitable commercial commodity by the criminal underworld.

My mind grapples with the horrific proportions of this problem, which has insidiously stretched its tentacles into our public and private spaces. Secret encroachment into our urban and rural spaces and stealing our Bangladeshi identity bring commensurate backlash of anger and rejection directed at the Rohingya.

The perplexing moral dimensions of this problem remind me of the desert fable of the nomad, the camel, and the tent. Apropos with regard to the Rohingya–Bangladeshi–Bengali situation, I look at the photogenic face of the bereft, weeping Rohingya woman, and I think to myself, will I one day become unhoused, naked and defenceless, by offering a bit of space in a gesture of goodwill?
Rebecca Haque is a professor in the Department of English at University of Dhaka.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/the-margins-ruin-war-and-displacement-1498225