Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions

[Banglar Bir]

The Irrawaddy’s fake story fuels anti-Rohingya feelings

By Jacob Goldberg
Coconuts Yangon
October 17, 2017
A story published by The Irrawaddy spent less than a day online yesterday when it was discovered that what the story’s authors presented as current news actually took place over a year ago.

In the Myanmar-language story, titled “Weapons plundered from Bangladeshi refugee camp guards,” The Irrawaddy reformulated a report by AFP and published by the Daily Mail about armed attackers raiding a security post at a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.
The attackers killed one Bangladeshi guard before they made off with 11 rifles and 570 rounds of ammunition. Police told AFP that Rohingya refugees themselves were being considered as suspects in the attack.

“The miscreants could be hiding inside the camp,” a police inspector said.

The report fits neatly into the Myanmar government’s narrative about the refugee crisis. It raises suspicions about Rohingya refugees and their alleged links to militant groups, whose activities the Myanmar government uses to justify its continued displacement of the Rohingya from their homes.
Rarely does this narrative go unquestioned in Myanmar publications, but in this case, serious doubts were raised for one simple reason – the report was false. The attack was not carried out on October 13, 2017, as The Irrawaddy claimed, but on May 13, 2016.

The inaccuracy was caught by Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin, who called attention to it on Twitter. The story was removed from The Irrawaddy’s website less than an hour later.
[URL='https://twitter.com/nslwin']Ro Nay San Lwin
✔@nslwin[/URL]
Fake and fabricated news posted by @IrrawaddyNews was caught by me. @MailOnline posted a news on May 13, 2016. Here's the link -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3588551/Attackers-kill-guard-Bangladesh-Rohingya-refugee-camp.html … -
The incident happened on May 13, 2016. Today Irrawaddy Burmese posted the translation of Daily Mail's news

When asked about the story, The Irrawaddy’s Myanmar-language editor Ye Ni said: “It was a mistake. The regional desk translated it as they thought it was in October 2017. When we realized that was an old story, we took it down.”

Whether it was an honest mistake or not, the false report fueled anti-Rohingya sentiments among The Irrawaddy’s readers. Before it was deleted, one Mandalay-based Facebook news page with over a million followers shared the story, inviting commenters to warn of the rising threat of “Bengali terrorists.”

It was also shared by former information minister Ye Htut, who has thousands of followers on Facebook and now works as a visiting senior fellow at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. (He eventually deleted the article from his timeline.)

The confluence in the messaging of The Irrawaddy and the military-affiliated former information minister would be surprising to those who recall that The Irrawaddy has its roots in Myanmar’s pro-democracy struggle and was once considered the most professional and trusted news source in the country.

However, in the weeks since the Myanmar army’s mass displacement of Rohingya Muslims from the country began, the independent outlet has quickly adopted the government’s script.
A few days after the ARSA attacks on August 25, the online publication introduced a policy of using the word “Rohingya” in its English-language reporting and “Bengali” – a term that implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – in Burmese.

Several of the publication’s employees have resigned since the policy was introduced.
Nay San Lwin, the Rohingya activist, said he has written to The Irrawaddy’s chief editor Aung Zaw to correct this inconsistency.

“He never responded to me and keeps using ‘Bengali’ in the Burmese version and ‘Rohingya’ in English to please their funders…Some of the news they post in Burmese is complete propaganda,” he said.
In September, editor Aung Zaw told CNN that “Rohingya is not an ethnic minority that belongs to Burma.”

Yesterday’s fabrication, Nay San Lwin said, was “the worst in The Irrawaddy’s history,” but it was also the culmination of a process that has been changing the entire media landscape in Myanmar since 2012, when communal violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists ignited a Buddhist-nationalist fervor that has become a major force in the country’s politics.

He said: “All the [local media outlets] have changed since 2012. BBC Burmese, VOA, and RFA are biased. They have tried many times to use the term ‘Bengali,’ but as I keep complaining to them through media directors, they use ‘Rohingya’ sometimes and mostly refer [to us] as ‘Muslims.’”
A report published by the Myanmar Institute for Democracy last week found that The Irrawaddy’s coverage of the first two weeks of the Rakhine crisis “mainly relied on the news released by the Information Committee, the Sate Counsellor Office, the President Office, and the Chief of Defense Office.”

“The problem with all Burmese media is racism,” said Nay San Lwin. “If the Rohingya were Buddhist, I’m sure they wouldn’t take the military’s side.”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/the-irrawaddys-fake-story-fuels-anti.html

 

[Banglar Bir]

Thousands of stranded Rohingya refugees in Anujumanpara (Zero line between Myanmar and Bangladesh border )Cox Bazar Bangladesh.
Most of the refugees escaped from Myanmar into the zero line area on late night Sunday 16 October and early morning Monday 17 October.

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[Banglar Bir]

Aung San Suu Kyi reveals the strategic plans for Rakhine
Larry Jagan, October 19, 2017

At long last Aung San Suu Kyi has finally revealed the government’s new strategic plans for the trouble state of Rakhine. This is essentially the long-promised roadmap constructed around the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission on Rakhine, but without any timetable. Instead a new overarching committee, with Aung San Suu Kyi at its head, has been establish to oversee the implementation of these recommendations.

Since Kofi Annan submitted his report more than six weeks ago, the government has been working on a blue print to tackle the underlying causes of communal violence and mistrust in the strife -torn region of western Myanmar, as well as provide immediate humanitarian assistance to more than half a million Rohingya Muslims, who have fled across the border to Bangladesh over the past eight weeks.

A civilian-led agency – with foreign assistance — has been created, the National Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine State, which will deliver aid to the refugees, oversee their return and help resettle them. Aung San Suu Kyi made the announcement last Thursday in a televised address to the nation.

All along Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan was to implement Kofi Annan’s recommendations, according to government insiders, but the fresh violence that erupted the day after Kofi Annan made the commission’s recommendations public — and led to the exodus of thousands of Muslims to Bangladesh – threw a major spanner in the government’s intentions, creating perhaps the greatest humanitarian crises in the country’s history.

Law and order needed to be restored, before dealing with the return and resettlement of the refugees. The provision of humanitarian assistance to the refugees – in Bangladesh and Rakhine – was also the government’s immediate priority, before tackling the broader issues.

Aung San Suu Kyi has wrestled with what to do in Rakhine ever since the insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army [ARSA] in late August. “She always appreciated the desperate plight of the Muslims, and is appalled at the seriousness of the situation in Rakhine, but was at a loss to know how to fix the problems [till now],” a senior advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi involved in the government’s plans told SAM on condition of anonymity.

This dilemma was also compounded by an ongoing tussle between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military over the strategy for dealing with the situation in Rakhine. The army has continued to insist that the government declare a ‘state of emergency’ in Rakhine, which would give them added powers to control the situation on the ground. This has been something the civilian leader has continuously resisted — even cancelling her planned trip to the UN in New York last month to ensure the military did not get their way.

Now Aung San Suu Kyi and her government have come up with concrete plans, with the civilian administration firmly in control. She made it clear in her speech, that this is a Myanmar-led initiative — though there will some international participation, including from ASEAN, Japan, the UK and parts of the UN – and that it is a national project. The World Bank has also been asked to participate, as well as the private sector, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and both local and international Non-government Organisations (NGOs).

Aung San Suu Kyi is taking personal responsibility, by chairing the newly created committee. This is also meant to underline the government’s total commitment to delivering on its promises ad resolving the situation in Rakhine.
The plans centre around three phases: humanitarian relief, rebuilding the destroyed villages and reconstruction. This includes creating schools for all ethnic and religious groups in Arakan; there will be a mixture of Buddhist and Muslim teachers, and both the Myanmar language and the local languages will be taught. The plan also involves providing high standard hospitals and clinics as recommended by Kofi Annan’s Commission.

The penultimate stage will be resettlement. The repatriation of the refugees from Bangladesh will follow the terms agreed with the UN and Bangladesh in 1990, when Muslim refugees who fled the military crackdown at the time, were allowed to return. Of course also involves a process of verification, which has already begun. The longer-term objective is to bring development to the region and establishing a durable peace, she said in her speech.The military will have a role, a government insider told SAM: they will be invited to participate, but mainly to provide security. Aung San Suu Kyi is adamant that this is to be a civilian led process of reconciliation.

The humanitarian response is already in full swing, according to senior government officials. A new government-led mechanism, established in cooperation with the Red Cross Movement, has also already started distributing humanitarian assistance, according to these officials. It is a regional ministerial committee, led by the national Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Dr Win Myat Aye. He is also the vice chairman of the new committee under Aung San Suu Kyi. This is to ensure decisions are streamlined and there is strong coordination between all those involved in looking after the welfare of the refugees and their resettlement in Rakhine.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been stung my recent international criticism of her and her government’s perceived failure to deal with the terrible situation in Rakhine – even before this latest outbreak of violence. Over the past year or so, the Nobel laureate has been heavily criticized for failing to denounce the army’s brutal crack down in Rakhine state, which has contributed significantly to the exodus of Muslim refugees. She has been disappointed and angered by the international community’s response.

This was also reflected in her speech last Thursday. “There has been a lot of criticisms against our country. We need to understand international opinion,” she said. “However, just as no one can fully understand the situation of our country the way we do, no one can desire peace and development for our country more than us.”

While this new initiative is intended to address the whole problem of Rakhine, the government’s hope that it will also deflect the virulent criticism of the Myanmar authorities, and help the country avoid any moves to re-introduce sanctions as result of the situation in Rakhine — in particular at the Security Council later this month. She studiously avoided criticizing, or even mentioning the allegation against the military in her speech.

Contrary to popular opinion, especially abroad, this does not indicate that she has sided with the military. Or as some activist, analysts and diplomats suggest, that she is in their pocket. “It is part of a detailed strategy, on her part,” according to a close confidante of Aung San Suu Kyi. “But rather wants to concentrate on the future. “Rather than rebutting criticisms and allegations with words, we will show the world by our actions and our deeds. In the Rakhine state, there are so many things to be done,” she said in her speech.

“She wants to move away from inflammatory and divisive remarks. She wants to take the steam out of the argument and language, which dominates the narrative,” he said. Her message – to the whole nation — emphasized Buddhist values. “I have no doubt that all of them [the people of Myanmar here and abroad] will come forth to help us with Metta (loving kindness) and Thitsa (Truth).”

The aim is to mobilize the nation behind the Buddhist tenets of love and kindness, and to wrestle Buddhism out of the hands of extremists, according to an advisor involved in the preparing the speech. “Our people are well known for their generosity and philanthropy and have even been ranked as number one in the world,” she said in her speech. “We will put to good use this generous nature of our people, systematically.”

So what Aung San Suu Kyi envisages is a coherent civilian-led national solution. But, as she stressed in her speech, this new initiative is to be judge “by our actions and our deeds” not words. She also appealed to the nation to recognize that this enterprise was not for Rakhine alone, but the whole nation. She understands that the future of the country and its democratic transition may depend on it, according to government sources close to Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I believe that we will be able to utilize the strength of will, determination, and knowledge; bravely and energetically,” she told the nation. “We will use the power of truth and purity, so that this Enterprise will be worthy of being called a ‘milestone’ in our history.”
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/19/aung-san-suu-kyi-reveals-strategic-plans-rakhine/

 

[Banglar Bir]

ROHINGYA TARGETED BY ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ARAKAN/RAKHINE STATE
BN 2017 / 2016: 12 October 2017
Updated 13 October 2017

On 25 August 2016, violence dramatically escalated in northern Arakan/Rakhine State, after insurgents staged a major coordinated attack against security forces outposts. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the offensive, in order to “liberate our people from dehumanized oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes”

The ensuing military clearance operations killed hundreds of people and forced over 507,000 civilians from all communities to flee their homes. Independent reports documented that "operations" mostly involved the Tatmadaw indiscriminately burning Rohingya villages and opening fire on their residents, with some instances of villagers joining the militants to fight the security forces. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein declared “[t]his turn of events is deplorable.

It was predicted and could have been prevented”.
He noted that “decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations, including the very violent security responses to the attacks since October 2016 [see Escalation of violence], have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism, with everyone ultimately losing”.

The latest wave of deadly violence in Arakan State did not happen overnight.
Independent accounts, including a flash report issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) on 3 February 2017, showed that, since 9 October 2016, the Tatmadaw has targeted Rohingya with “unprecedented” violence.
Burmese authorities, including military Commander-in-Chief Sr Gen Min Aung Hlaing and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have repeatedly denied the accusations of human rights violations [see Government “terrorist” narrative].

The outbreak of violence took place just hours after the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State – also known as Annan Commission – released its final report, jeopardizing the implementation of its recommendations. The Annan Commission – inaugurated on 5 September 2016 at the behest of Aung San Suu Kyi and chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan – was mandated with providing recommendations to secure peace and prosperity in Arakan State. Its final report, which did not name the Rohingya at Aung San Suu Kyi’s request, urged Burma to eliminate all restrictions on the people’s ability to gain citizenship, move freely and participate in politics.
Refugee and humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh

The military “clearance operations” prompted a new exodus of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. On 31 August, UN sources estimated that more than 27,000 people had crossed the border, while 20,000 more remained stuck in an unoccupied area between the two countries.
On 3 September, the estimated number of new arrivals was 73,000, while on 8 September it was over 270,000. The most recent report on 3 October put the figure at 507,000, but high mobility has been making it impossible for aid agencies to verify these numbers.

This added to the pre-existing displaced population, estimated at around 164,000 by the ISCG – chaired by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Among these, nearly 34,000 long-term displaced Rohingya were officially registered as refugees at Kutupalong and Leda camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and approximately 87,000 arrived as a result of the clearance operations that followed the 9 October 2016 attacks in Maungdaw Township.

About 100 Rohingya, including women and children, were known to have drowned between 25 August and 14 September in boat disasters that occurred as refugees tried to cross the border during the monsoon period. On 28 September, another boat capsized in rough waters. The bodies of 23 people were retrieved, but 40 others were missing and presumed drowned. Many were likely to be children too weak for the strong currents. The latest incident occurred on 8 October, when a boat sank in the Naf River with nearly 100 people on board. At least 12 died, including 10 children.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that vast majority of refugees were women and families with children, in poor condition, exhausted, hungry and desperate for shelter. The surge of refugees, many sick or wounded, strained the resources of aid agencies and communities. More than half of the refugees now live in squalid conditions, crammed into makeshift sites composed of plastic sheets, lacking clean drinking water and sanitation. The hazardous conditions were intensified by some of the worst monsoon floods in recent years. Emergency Coordinator at Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) Robert Onus said the scale of the crisis was “...impossible to describe unless you see it with your own eyes”.

The Bangladesh government sought help to deal with the influx. PM Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh wanted refugees to return home and called for Burma to allow their safe repatriation. She offered to create “safe zones” for Rohingya in Arakan State, but rights groups warned that safety could not be ensured and segregation could only worsen the conflict. On 2 October, Bangladesh and Burma announced that a joint working group would discuss the repatriation of refugees. On 4 October, Amnesty International (AI) said that it is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that refugees are not forced back to Burma as long as they remain at risk of human rights violations.
Full Briefing Note...
http://www.altsean.org/Reports/BN 2017 2016 Rohingya Briefer.php

 

[Banglar Bir]

'No pictures, no words can explain Rohingya plight'
How two Al Jazeera journalists experienced the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
16 Oct 2017 21:26 GMT
@msaifkhalid @showkatshafi and @jasminbauomy.
Read more:
They look at us with hope, but we can only document their despair
Cox's Bazar: Chaos all around at Rohingya camps
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Source: Al Jazeera News
http://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2...plain-rohingya-suffering-171016124920701.html

 

[Banglar Bir]

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[Banglar Bir]

UN rights chief threatens to push for intervention over Myanmar's Rohingya crisis
Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, The UN human rights chief, is threatening to seek the Security Council's intervention if the perpetrators of the Rohingya crisis are not punished. Al-Hussein spoke with Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna.

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[Banglar Bir]

‘Rohingya numbers will probably reach a million before the flow of people stops’
Afrose Jahan Chaity
Published at 06:09 PM October 19, 2017
Last updated at 11:54 PM October 19, 2017

Director general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), William Lacy Swing, during his visit to refugee settlements in Cox's Bazar on October 16, 2017 |Abdul Aziz/Dhaka Tribune
More than 582,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine state since late August
William Lacy Swing, director general of International Organization for Migration (IOM), arrived in Dhaka on October 15 on a four-day official visit. He travelled to Cox’s Bazar refugee camps to see for himself the Rohingya crisis unfolding in South Asia, which has been dubbed the fastest-growing humanitarian emergency by the UN.

More than 582,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine state after Myanmar military launched a violent “clearance operation” targeting the mainly-Muslim ethnic minority. The UN has described the violence as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and said the “systematic crackdown” aimed at driving the Rohingya away from their homes permanently.

The UN investigation also found that the “clearance operations” had in fact begun earlier, possibly in early August, contradicting the military’s claim that it launched the crackdown in response to insurgent attacks on police posts and an army base on August 25.

Bangladesh had already been hosting an estimated 400,000 Rohingya refugees, who crossed the border over the years to escape targeted violence in the Buddhist-majority country, which does not recognise them and calls them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

IOM’s Director General Swing speaks to the Dhaka Tribune’s Afrose Jahan Chaity about the current situation and what his organisation is doing to tackle the issue.
How would you describe the scale and magnitude of the Rohingya crisis at the moment, both for the refugees and host country?
It is the fastest-growing refugee displaced persons crisis in this part of the world right now. It’s been the speed, scope and size of the arrivals that have overwhelmed all of us trying to provide assistance. But I think under these circumstances, the response of the Bangladesh government, the prime minister and people of Bangladesh, has been quite extraordinary. We are grateful for that.
What role is IOM playing in all this?
We have been doing this (providing assistance to refugees) since September 2013. Now many more partners are coming in. We are concentrating primarily on shelter, medical and logistical services and providing non-food items, basic things like pots and pans, and blankets, to help them (Rohingya), and doing whatever we can with our partners to support them.
How IOM is coordinating the relocation process of the Rohingya people?
We would suggest the government to shift them to manageable sized camps, not to some large mega camp or some offshore facility, where we can provide the support they require. That would allow us more control over gender based violence and providing health services.
What should be the official status of the Rohingya people? Are they displaced migrants or refugees?
Well, we are part of the UN which considers them to be refugees. So we call them refugees. But the [Bangladeshi] government I think calls them “forcefully displaced persons from Myanmar”. I don’t think it’s the designation that counts, [rather] it’s the response that matters. [But] we are all working together to try to help them.
Is the amount of relief sufficient?
At present, no, not enough. Because we have been overwhelmed by the numbers. And this why the donors are holding a pledging conference on October 23. It will be co-sponsored by the European Union and Kuwait, and the three agencies – IOM, UNHCR, and OCHA – will be responsible to raise fund.
For how long will the relief distribution continue?
We do not know. Because, the number [of refugees] is still growing. We already have 850,000 of them, approaching 900,000 and will probably reach a million before the flow of people stops.

A large number of Rohingya refugees are in dire need of aid. How is IOM prioritising needs to provide relief?

We are doing it in partnership with the government, UN agencies, and some of the large non-government organisations. We are all partners, we are doing it together, trying to strengthen our coordination so that everybody can be part of the action to assist the people.
What is the biggest risk at this moment?
The biggest need and risk right now is the shelter. Because they (Rohingya refugees) have taken a long trip here, walking through a very difficult trail. When they get here, they really need to have shelter right away. That’s a major challenge when you have nearly 900,000 people. That means you have to build 200,000 shelters.

The government has made 3,000 acre of forest reserves available for the refugees. They have said they can increase the area if needed. We are very grateful for that and are working together with the government to build shelters. We have already built more than 40,000 shelters, enough for 250,000 to 260,000 people. We need more money now.

The good news is that the WHO has already vaccinated nearly 800,000 people to prevent outbreak of diseases.

The other thing we have to worry about is gender-based violence because the majority of the refugees are women and children. The big concern is ensuring that they stay healthy and they are not in any way sexually exploited, or abused. That’s very important.
How should IOM prepare to tackle the situation if Rohingya refugees end up staying here for an indefinite period?
There is no humanitarian solution to political problems. The answer really lies in Myanmar. They are from Myanmar and they need to be able to go back voluntarily under safe conditions. The emphasis initially should be on assistance to keep them safe and sound here and also on [their] return [to their homeland], as soon as that can be done.

They (the refugees) won’t go back if we cannot have them (Myanmar) create the conditions that guarantee that they (the Rohingya) can come back safely. They have been living there for a long time. They have lost their homes and livelihood. They have to reconstruct villages that have been burnt down. How do people who own the land can get their land back should be part of the issues to be discussed during negotiations [with Myanmar].
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ill-probably-reach-million-flow-people-stops/

 

[Banglar Bir]

12:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:49 PM, October 19, 2017
The tale of a persecuted people
Shaer Reaz
Their mass exodus into Bangladesh and attempted entry into Thailand, Malaysia and other nations to escape a brutal ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Myanmar military junta has been termed the "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis."

They have been termed the "most persecuted minority in history" by the United Nations. Their history is one filled with sectarian violence and a struggle with identity that is unique in the modern worlds. This is the story of a systematically oppressed people—the Rohingya.
Click below to see the full timeline:
See In the shadow of violence for the full list of articles on this special issue of Star Weekend.
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/the-shadow-violence/the-tale-persecuted-people-1475383

 

[Banglar Bir]

'Unimaginable pain': Inside the Rohingya crisis - The Stream

Al Jazeera English
A woman raped and her baby thrown into a fire.
A teen shot and his neck slashed.
A 9 month-old baby burned and fighting for her life after the Myanmar army set her village on fire.

These are just a handful of the atrocities that Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom and photographer Fadi El Binni reported on while covering the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya people.

More than 500,000 Rohingya have poured across the border from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh since August, fleeing what the military calls a "clearance operation" against a small Rohingya armed group but what the United Nations has called a "well-organised, coordinated and systematic" campaign of killing, torture and rape directed at the Muslim minority.

Jamjoom, El Binni and fixer Rahat Azim Shaon have spent the last two weeks shuttling between refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the epicenter of the humanitarian crisis. "It is suffering and pain and trauma on a scale that’s so massive that it’s almost unfathomable," says Jamjoom. "I want everyone to see what I saw, even family and friends, just to understand the situation, how difficult it is for these people.

I covered the refugee stories before in Greece and Turkey, but I didn’t see something like this in my life," adds El Binni.

So what are the human stories behind the headlines and what is it like to be in the middle of one of the world’s biggest humanitarian emergencies? We’ll ask Jamjoom, El Binni and Shaon when they join The Stream to update us on the crisis and share the stories they uncovered.

 

[Banglar Bir]

Debate in the House of Commons on the persecution of the Rohingya
17th Oct 2017

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[Banglar Bir]

Bangladesh Registers Thousands of Orphans in Rohingya Refugee camps

A Rohingya refugee boy sits on the ground at Tang Khali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh,
By Joe Freeman, Muktadir Rashid
Voice of America
October 19, 2017
YANGON — The Bangladeshi government has registered thousands of orphans in Rohingya refugee camps as officials and aid groups attempt to figure out a plan to deal with large numbers of unaccompanied minors.

Nearly 600,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have left Myanmar since attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25, sparking a military response that rights groups and the United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing.

A majority of those who have fled are children, and many may have lost their parents in Myanmar or along the way. Children in UNICEF's child-friendly centers have drawn gruesome pictures of military raids and violent attacks on villagers, though Myanmar vigorously denies targeting civilians.
WATCH: UNHCR Drone Footage of Rohingya Refugees
Difficult task
Pritam Kumar Chowdhury, the deputy director of the Social Welfare Department in Cox’s Bazar district, said there may be more than 15,000 orphans, though he says verifying individual claims is difficult with scant additional information.

“In Bangladesh, when we identify any orphan, our officials visit their house to confirm it. But here it is not possible to go to Myanmar to verify the claims. So whatever they are saying we are collecting that information,” he told VOA, adding that the government is also talking to neighbors and people whom the children may have traveled with from Myanmar.

“But there is no evidence, rather we are depending on the verbal statement. We are maintaining our strategy to complete the formalities.
We are not claiming it is 100 percent correct but it is not all a wrong list.”

Rohingya Muslim children, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, stretch out their arms out to collect chocolates and milk distributed by Bangladeshi men at Taiy Khali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sept. 21, 2017.

Jean-Jacques Simon, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said in an email that out of the 14,740 children registered as "orphans" with the government, half of the cases have been reviewed and entered into the Ministry of Social Welfare database.

There were only 15 known cases of children actually living completely alone in the camps. UNICEF says it is in contact with the government at the local level "to know where these 15 children are right now and to ensure their protection."
Chaotic situation
The dusty roads of the camps and makeshift settlements in southern Bangladesh are teeming with children, some attended by adults and others not, and the chaotic situation makes them vulnerable to abuse and other risks.

“We really need to have a space for the children,” said Dr. Erum Mariam, the director of the BRAC Institute of Educational Development.

BRAC, an NGO based in Bangladesh, has helped organize clothing donations for children, build child-friendly spaces, and provide on-site counsellors.

Rohingya children walk to their tents after fetching drinking water at a makeshift camp near Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct. 3, 2017.

“We are really working on many different levels now,” she said.
The government has also floated the idea of building orphanages, and discussed the idea with aid groups this week, Mariam said.

If the idea does move forward, it’s important to have the capacity to make it work, she added.
“There has to be so much engagement with the children, and understanding, understanding the trauma,” she said.

Pritam, with the Social Welfare Department, said more concrete options will be considered once officials have a clearer idea of the scope of the problem.
“Their fate will be decided by the government.
But until then, we are concentrating on registration. Whatever the decision will be will come afterwards,” he said.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/bangladesh-registers-thousands-of.html

 

[Banglar Bir]

Rohingya Muslim crisis: What people in Burma are saying about it
Despite widespread international condemnation, the country's leaders appear to maintain support in their home country

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Tuesday 10 October 2017 10:51 BST
The Independent Online
No one in Burma is talking about the Rohingya Muslim crisis
Burma’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims has lead to widespread condemnation from the international community, with the United Nations (UN) calling their treatment “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

But although over 500,000 have fled violence in the south east Asian nation's Rakhine state to seek refuge in Bangladesh in recent months, inside the country, the government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, appears to maintain widespread support.

In its largest city Yangon, the term Rohingya is reportedly not used and they are instead called “Bengali Muslims,” a term which is also used by local media.

Bangladesh vows to support one million Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma
While the Rohingya have lived as one of the ethnic minorities in the country for generations but are not recognised as Burmese citizens in the Buddhist majority country.

“The problem is the political motive behind the term [Rohingya],” U Aung Hla Tun, vice chairman of the Myanmar Press Council, told the BBC. “I used to have a number of Bengali friends when I was young. They never claimed they were Rohingya. They first coined the term decades ago.
“They do not belong to the ethnic minorities [of this country].
This is a fact.”

Another university student told the broadcaster that the international community is getting the “wrong” information about the situation in Rakhine state. They claimed that “the violence is an act of terrorism”.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are now living in camps in Bangladesh.
They started to flee after an attack carried out by Rohingya insurgents in August on police posts and security personnel in Rakhine state saw the military retaliate with violence that left thousands of homes burned to the ground and hundreds dead.

The UN’s human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, has said Burma’s actions against the Rohingya people “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Ms Suu Kyi’s first public address on the Rohingya crisis last month saw hundreds of supporters gather in Yangon to hear the speech which saw her claim that more than half of Rohingya villages had not been affected by the violence. She also invited diplomats to visit the areas and see “why they are not at each other’s throats in these particular areas”.

Rights group Amnesty International subsequently accused Ms Suu Kyi and her government of “burying their heads in the sand” and of telling “uthruths” following the leader’s response to the crisis.
But she was nonetheless widely supported by those in the crowd.

One woman in the crowd called May Nyi Oo, who wore stickers depicting Ms Suu Kyi’s image on her cheeks, told The Guardian that “worldwide, a lot of fake news and rumours are spreading”.
She also referred to the Rohingya as illegal immigrants who “are not our people”.
READ MORE
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Many people in Burma have appeared reluctant to talk about the Rohingya crisis, but continue to support Ms Suu Kyi’s decisions about the issue.

Thet Mhoo Ko Ko, who works in his family’s business, told Al Jazeera last month that he believes Ms Suu Kyi needs more time “and then she will be able to make things much better”.
“The Rakhine [situation] is a problem and it is very worrying,” he added.

A survey carried out in September by the Myanmar Survey Research company also found that 75 per cent of people believed the country is heading in the right direction, Al Jazeera reported.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...state-buddhists-mayanmar-latest-a7992256.html

 

[Banglar Bir]

Rohingya crisis: Opt for multilateral negotiation
Interminable influx into Bangladesh of thousands of Rohingya Muslims—-whose number is approaching 600,000—-seems not to stop as Myanmar’s trigger-happy military in tandem with 87.9 per cent Therav?da Buddhist slaughterers are hell-bent on exterminating and hounding out the entire minority Muslims.

The UN, the EU, the OIC, Malaysia are ardently active to combine forces with Dhaka; but our Government and Foreign Ministry appear to be inconspicuous and diffident and are acting rather slowly, sporadically and in fits and starts.

Common sense dictates that our diplomatic machinery needs a shot in the arm and stimulus to mobilise world opinion for which PM Hasina should personally meet heads of governments of Russia, China, the US, UK, France i.e. all the UNSC permanent members so that they take steps with due seriousness and urgency.

Home Minister is leaving for Yangon on October 23, but it is hard to say if it would be useful.
If our Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali thinks the crisis can be solved bilaterally then it may perhaps be a pipe dream. We do not think he will cut any ice in dealing with a neighbour where the rulers are bloodthirsty hook, line, and sinker regarding Muslims.
We see no wisdom in pursuing bilateral approach to such a colossal behemoth of a crisis, so we wish to reiterate that involvement of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan, the EU and the OIC is a must.

Suu Kyi has opened the way for people like Wirathu to act with absolute impunity.
Ashin Wirathu, the monk who dubs himself the “Burmese bin Laden” and leads the viciously anti-Muslim 1969 Movement.
Wirathu had recently visited Rakhine State, giving hate-filled anti-Muslim speeches to crowds of thousands in which he calls for expelling the Muslims from the country. [Vide The Rohingya and Myanmar’s ‘Buddhist Bin Laden’ by Alex Preston, 12 February 2015 gq-magazine.co.uk/ article/myanmar-rohingya-muslim-burma]

Although the rulers of Myanmar misrepresent the history, to set the record straight, the Rohingyas have had a well established presence in Burma since the twelfth century.

The Rohingya were once counted as a part of the Mrauk-U (Mrohaung) kingdom in Arakan which stood independent of both the Burman kingdoms in the Irrawaddy delta and central Burma as well as Bengal and the Moguls to the west. Muslim traders came to the area in the eighth century when the local dynasty was seated at Wesali, not far from contemporary Mrauk-U and some of the traders settled along the shores. More Muslim sailors made their way to the Arakan region during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

In the 1400s, when Mrauk-U was invaded by forces of the Burman kingdom at Ava, King Narmeikhla sought help from Bengaland expelled the invaders with the help of a Muslim army. The link between Bengal and Mrauk-U from this point solidified, to the extent that the Mrauk-U king began to use Muslim court titles along with traditional ones.
Buddhist kings ruled Mrauk-U but Muslim officials often played a significant role in the court. Indeed, the inclusion of a variety of ethnic minority and religious officers in courts was a common practice throughout the mainland Southeast Asian sub-region. [Vide hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-01.htm]

Meanwhile, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs has viewed dozens of burned and destroyed villages in northern Rakhine during his recent tour by air, and called on Myanmar to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by security forces.

The final report of the Advisory Commission chaired by Kofi Annan dated 23 August puts forward recommendations to surmount the political, socio-economic and humanitarian challenges that currently face Rakhine State. It builds on the Commission’s interim report released in March of this year. [Vide rakhinecommission.org/the-final-report/]

The Commission members have travelled extensively throughout Rakhine State, and held meetings in Yangon and Naypyitaw, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Geneva.

The final report—-the outcome of over 150 consultations and meetings held by the Advisory Commission since its launch in September 2016—- addresses in depth a broad range of structural issues that are impediments to the peace and prosperity of Rakhine State.
Several recommendations focus specifically on citizenship verification, rights and equality before the law, documentation, the situation of the internally displaced and freedom of movement, which affect the Muslim population disproportionately.

Kofi Annan believes the recommendations, along with the interim report, can trace a path to lasting peace and respect for the rule of law in Rakhine State.

Whether or not a coincidence, a twist of fate or an adverse turn of events, Rohingya crisis intensified as Indian PM Modi arrived in Burma for talks. [Vide Max Bearak’s report, 2017 September 5, washington post .com /…/wp/ rohingya-crisis -intensifies- as-indias-modi-arrives -in-burma-for-talks].

Again, in Susma Swaraj’s “very short meeting” with Sheikh Hasina in New York “the Rohingya crisis did not come up for discussion”. Why on earth the best friend and closest neighbour looks the other way while Dhaka is literally in dire straits?

What is more, India is pushing Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. “Our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingyas into Bangladesh”, said an Indian border guard in West Bengal [Vide dailymail.co.uk/ indiahome/ India news/ article -4981898/ Bangladesh-steps- security-India-border-Rohingya-fears.html, dated 15 October 2017].

Given that two of the five permanent members in the UN Security Council refused to adopt any motion to take decisive action against Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas, the world community is yet to reach a consensus.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s five-point plan deserves to be mulled over with due seriousness by the UN.
Besides, the Kofi Annan Commission’s recommendations made earlier have to be implemented in letter and spirit.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=14935

Can India protect Rohingya women and children, SC asks govt
SAM Staff, October 4, 2017

Rohingya refugees who just arrived by wooden boats from Myanmar wait for some aid to be distributed at a relief centre
The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was outside the domain of the judiciary.

Can India live up to its international commitments and protect a large section of humanity comprising Rohingya women, children, the sick and the old who are “really suffering”?

This is the question the Supreme Court wants the government to answer.

The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was not “justiciable”, that is, outside the domain of the judiciary.

But the court rejected this stand outright.

“I, for one, believe, from my past experience of 40 years, that when a petition like this comes to us under Article 32 of the Constitution, the court should be very slow in abdicating its jurisdiction,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who leads the three-judge Bench, said.

The government said its August 8, 2017 communication to all the States to identify Rohingya and aid in their deportation was based on certain “executive parameters” like diplomatic concerns, on whether the county can sustain such an influx of refugees and geographically whether there would be tensions and threat to national security.

It denied saying all Rohingya were terrorists, but only “some of them”.

Faced with stiff resistance from the Bench, the government climbed down and explained saying whether an issue was justiciable or not had to be decided on a case to case basis.
“Obligation to grant asylum is universal”
Senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for the Rohingya community, said the government “has gone out of sync” with its August 8 directive for deportation of Rohingya.

He submitted that the government’s affidavit claiming the question of deportation of Rohingya was exclusively “within its subjective domain and not justiciable” makes “big inroads into what we thought our Constitution was”.

He rubbished the government’s claims that the Rohingya refugees will eat into the resources meant for citizens. “Our Constitution is not made up of group rights but individual rights,” he said.

Mr. Nariman, who introduced himself as a refugee from British Burma, submitted that the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution protected all “persons”, including refugees who fled persecution in their native countries.

He said the obligation to grant assylum was universal. “The Government of India has constantly made efforts to substantiate, enhance the rights of refugees. The August 8 communication is totally contradictory to Article 14. It sticks out like a sore thumb in our nation’s policy towards protecting refugees.”

Mr. Nariman referred to the December 29, 2011 directive, which laid out the standard operating procedure and internal guidelines for Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO), and if necessary take steps to provide the foreign national with a long-term visa. This had to be done irrespective of religion, gender, etc.

He said India had been “supportive of burden-sharing, of providing humanitarian assistance”, citing the Nepal earthquake as an instance.

The court asked the government to address Mr. Nariman’s submissions that humanitarian concerns of children, women, the sick and the old outweigh justiciability and cannot be viewed in the same light as “everyone”.

The next date of hearing is October 13.
No blanket claims of terrorism
The Rohingya had said anyone among them found to be a militant can be proceeded against in accordance with law and he or she can be stripped off the status of a refugee under the exclusion clause of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

They were replying to the Centre’s claims that the Rohingya community was a threat to national security, easy prey for radicalisation. Their affidavit in the Supreme Court had referred to India’s strong track record of hosting refugees of different profiles from those from Tibet to ethnic Chakmas and Hajongs.

The Rohingya community, represented by Mohammad Salimullah, the main petitioner who moved the Supreme Court, said the government cannot make a “blanket claim that all Rohingya refugees have terror links”.

The Rohingya countered the government’s claims that India was not bound by the Convention Relating to Status of Refugees, 1951 and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967. They said though India was not a signatory, it was a member of several international instruments/declarations which provide for right to asylum and against forcible repatriation.

India had a legal obligation to protect the human rights of refugees under Article 51(c) of the Constitution, the Rohingya said.
SOURCE THE HINDU
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/04/can-india-protect-rohingya-women-children-sc-asks-govt/
Will India protect most persecuted ethnic minority–the Rohingya?
Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl D’souza
As India aggressively positions itself in a new global order, expecting a seat at the table in places of influence, like permanent membership of the UN Security Council, it must be cautioned that this prominence brings with it, increased international moral and political obligations.

India has recently gained spotlight, in the midst of an international outcry on the brutal crackdown by the Myanmar armed forces, on the Rohingya, a largely Muslim ethnic minority group, in Western Rakhine province of Myanmar.

The Indian government issued a circular in early August, directing all state governments to identify and take steps to expeditiously deport illegal immigrants such as the Rohingya.
The announcement came at a time when the violence in Myanmar was only deepening, with tragic stories of widespread human suffering.
India faces litmus test
This decision reflected a deeper malaise, pointing towards a governmental aversion in receiving these suffering Rohingya refugees –a striking contrast to India’s benevolent tradition of being a host state for centuries, to persecuted refugee populations from war torn neighbouring countries and beyond.
With the Rohingya refugee influx, India faces a litmus test on its commitment to International law in its domestic refugee policy implementation.

The Rohingya have fled the neighbouring countries in waves over the past many years, escaping what has been described as “ethnic cleansing” at the hands of the armed forces.
Successive special rapporteurs have reported patterns of serious human rights violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of the Rohingya, by the state security forces and other officials.

Denied citizenship, Rohingya are stateless and excluded from positions of authority, facing restrictions in movement, education, marriage, occupation and religious freedoms, at the mercy of an ultra nationalist Buddhist government.

The systematic human rights violations and lack of opportunities have triggered irregular migration flows of Rohingya from Rakhine state to neighbouring countries, including India, where an estimated 40,000 refugees currently reside, in make shift refugee camps.

Two Rohingya refugees in India moved the Indian Supreme Court seeking refugee protection for the Rohingyas settled in India.
They replied on several landmark cases where the courts have upheld the rights of refugees against deportation in like circumstances, holding that, “the state is bound to protect the life and liberty of every human being, be he a citizen or otherwise”.
In reply to this petition, the government says that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants and enjoy no fundamental rights under the constitution and that the court has no authority to entertain a petition on their behalf.
Constitution guarantees protection
However, the Indian constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to all persons residing in the country irrespective of nationality.
These rights to equality and the right to life, protect the Rohingya refugees in India from arbitrary deportation, since they have fled their home country due to untold violence and bloodshed.
Further the constitution of India under Article 51©, a Directive Principle of State Policy also requires fostering respect for international law and treaty obligations.

Though India has not signed the Refugee Convention it has ratified and is a signatory to various international declarations and conventions that recognise the principle of non refoulement, that prohibits the deportation of refugees to a country where they face a fear of persecution.
Recognised as a principle of customary international law its application protects life and liberty of a human being irrespective of nationality.

The prohibition of refoulement to a danger of persecution under international refugee law is applicable to any form of forcible removal, including deportation and would hence apply squarely to the deportation that is being proposed by the Indian government.
Despite these constitutional and international obligations, the government’s threat to identify and deport the Rohingya refugees is untenable and deeply disconcerting.

India’s refugee protection guidelines from 2011 stipulates the standard operating procedure for issuing long term visas to those refugees who are fleeing persecution on account of race, religion, sex, nationality, ethnic identity, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
The government in response to questions on refugee policy has reiterated this stand in statements made in the house of parliament, as the procedure for dealing with refugees fleeing persecution.
This has been India’s stand in granting special status to refugees as distinct from its treatment of illegal immigrants.
India has a strong track record of hosting refugees of different profiles and has the experience in extending humanitarian protection while balancing national security interests and the concerns of its citizens.
Trumped up partisan charges
In 2014 however, the BJP government led by Narendra Modi came to power in India.
Since then the BJP and various organisations associated with it loosely called the Sangh Parivar, started asserting that India must be a Hindu state and began a strident campaign against Muslims in particular.

In keeping with its anti-Muslim stance, the present government issued a notification in 2015, providing an exemption to minority communities without valid travel documents, from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, from the provision of the Passport (entry into India) Rules 1950 and the Foreigners Order 1948.
The absence of the Muslim community from the list of those communities exempted by this notification is conspicuous.
Such a biased and discriminatory stand would close the door to the Rohingya who are largely a Muslim minority community even though they may be regarded as the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority.

Instead of choosing to fulfil its international humanitarian obligations, the Hindu fundamentalist political establishment has chosen to play to its base by vilifying this persecuted community, reinforcing their Muslim identity and with a broad stroke and little evidence paining them all terrorists and a threat to national security?

Can they be ejected arbitrarily from the country, for being Muslim, with total disregard for the life threatening persecution they have fled, undertaking arduous journeys, losing family members on the way, malnourished, widowed, orphaned and destitute?
Yet the government stresses a potential threat from this community when there is no evidence to show any sign of radicalisation or terror links.

An orchestrated social media campaign led by the right wing organisations is creating a communally charged rhetoric to exclude the Rohingya from refugee protection measures in India. Simultaneously the government is translating this false narrative into incoherent arguments and seeks to expel the Rohingya refugees on trumped up charges of terrorism.
Striking dichotomy
In all this, it is interesting to note the striking dichotomy in India’s stand vis a vis refugee protection at international platforms especially at the United Nations and India’s domestic policy implementation.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR since 1995, India has reiterated its commitment to work with the UNHCR and the international community to address the international protection challenges of refugees.

Indian ambassadors have made forceful submissions at general debates of the UNHCR Executive Committee, on “India’s assimilative civilisational heritage and inherent capabilities as a state with a good record of non refoulement, hosting and assimilating refugees”.
India has a tradition of welcoming refugees and migrants from conflict countries, by extending a cooperative engagement.
Indian representatives have even stressed India’s commitment to host refugees entirely using existing resources.

The Rohingya refugees being largely Muslim, fleeing a genocide like situation at the hands of a Buddhist majoritarian regime, taking refuge in India since 2011-2012, receive no acceptance from a right wing fundamentalist government.
The present government’s policy towards these refugees has been to whip up a communal frenzy by branding the Rohingya as Muslim refugees who pose a threat to law and order and national security.

Whether the government’s stated policy aims at refoulement of the Rohingya refugees in actual practice, is still uncertain.
What is certain is the government’s domestic political agenda of communal polarisation for political gains.
A sad retreat for a country with a golden tradition of refugee and migrant protection, blown away for political vantage.
Prashant Bhushan is senior public interest advocate at the Supreme Court of India. Cheryl D’souza is an advocate and they are the Counsels for the petitioners in the case against the government of India’s proposed deportation of Rohingya Refugees. [The Wire]
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=24&date=0#Tid=14963

 

[Banglar Bir]

In Grim Camps, Rohingya Suffer on ‘Scale That We Couldn’t Imagine’
BEN C. SOLOMON
BALUKHALI, Bangladesh — Up to their ankles in mud, hundreds of Rohingya refugees fought to the front of the crowd outside of their makeshift camp. An open-bed truck full of Bangladeshi volunteers was passing by, tossing out donated goods at random: small bags of rice, a faded SpongeBob SquarePants T-shirt, a cluster of dirty forks.

Entire families sloshed through the rain hoping to grab whatever they could. One boy, no older than 6, squeezed his way to an opening where a pair of oversize men’s jeans came hurtling off a truck. He had to fight off an older boy before he could run off with the prize.

There were already more than 200,000 ethnic Rohingya migrants stuck in camps like this one, Balukhali, in southern Bangladesh. But over the past month, at least 500,000 more — more than half of the Rohingya population thought to have been living in Myanmar — are reported to have fled over the border to take refuge, surpassing even the worst month of the Syrian war’s refugee tide.

As international leaders squabble over whether to punish Myanmar for the military’s methodical killing and uprooting of Rohingya civilians, the recent arrivals are living in abjectly desperate conditions.

This is not so much a defined camp as a dense collection of bamboo and tarp stacks. When I visited, children were wandering in the mud looking for food and clothes. There are worries about cholera and tuberculosis. With no toilets, what’s left of the forest has become a vast, improvised bathroom.
While the flow of refugees has greatly slowed in the past week, aid organizations are still overwhelmed.

“It’s on a scale that we couldn’t imagine,” said Kate White, the Doctors Without Borders medical emergency manager in Bangladesh. “This is a small piece of land, and everyone is condensed into it. We just can’t scale up fast enough.”

For decades, the Muslim Rohingya of Myanmar, a minority concentrated in the western state of Rakhine, have faced systemic repression by the country’s Buddhist majority, and particularly by the military. But what happened in August, when the military and allied mobs began burning whole Rohingya villages, was so much worse that the United Nations is calling it ethnic cleansing.

Across the camps, the escaped all have accounts of fire and cruelty.

Anwar Begum, 73, sat on the ground, her arm limp below the elbow. She was in constant pain and could hardly focus her eyes. The army, she told me, set fire to her village in Myanmar and cleared the people out. As the civilians fled, one soldier singled her out, saying, “You’re not welcome in Myanmar,” and smashing her elbow with the butt of his rifle. As her family dragged her away, the soldier had one last thing to say: “Bring that to Bangladesh.”

What was once a loose network of camps has become a sprawl. Acres upon acres of forest have been razed to make way for small cities of huts, made from cheap black tarps covered in mud. Across the camp, men are building them as fast as they can.With existing camps beyond capacity, the Bangladeshi government is racing to convert land into settlements for new arrivals.
Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times

Every medical treatment post here has a line that snakes nearly around the camp. Local doctors and foreign aid organizations like Doctors Without Borders are scrambling to set up more clinics but can hardly keep pace.

With just one main road connecting most of the district, aid groups are struggling to reach the most remote camps. In Taink Khali, a nearly 30-minute hike off the main road, an Australian aid agency called Disaster Response Group was setting up a mobile clinic in a tiny shack. Dozens of women and children were waiting quietly in the hot sun.

“We’re the first aid these people have seen,” said Brad Stewart, operations manager for the aid group, a small medical assistance organization that most often serves backpackers in Nepal. His team of four ex-military Australians were taping a bottle of hand sanitizer to a tree.

“The immediate attention is going to the more established camps,” he said. “Out here, we’re just a drop in a very large bucket.”

For the hundreds still coming, they face a dangerous boat ride across the river border into Bangladesh. On Thursday, dozens of Rohingya, many of them children, were killed as a trawler carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal.

Their bodies washed up on the bay alongside some survivors.

“The women and children couldn’t swim,” said Nuru Salam, 22. He had tried to cross with his entire family when the boat tipped in the sea. His son had died and he was waiting to find his wife’s body. “There are still many more bodies to come.”
Helping the Rohingya

A partial list of aid groups working to ease the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The physical challenges here are steep enough. But the Rohingya crisis has shaken the entire region, exacerbating already severe sectarian and political strains and worsening the relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar, in particular.

This is not the first wave of Rohingya that Bangladesh has had to absorb. In 1978, around 200,000 Rohingya fled into the country. Most returned to Myanmar after the two governments hammered out a repatriation deal. Another influx came in the early 1990s, as well as in 2012 and in October of last year.

Even before this latest exodus from Myanmar, the stresses being placed on this already poor country were considerable. Yet some of the locals have shown remarkable kindness.

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“I see that the host community here has been incredibly positive,” said Karim Elguindi, head of the World Food Program’s office in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “I’m still surprised by the humanitarian response of the government and the community.”

Mr. Elguindi has worked in Darfur, the strife-torn region of western Sudan, and he noted that while the sheer concentration of arriving Rohingya was unprecedented and the terrain challenging for aid distribution, the Rohingya could at least count on basic security once they made it to Bangladesh.

“Compared with Darfur, here they speak the same language,” he said. “The refugees in Darfur were in I.D.P. camps,” referring to internally displaced persons. “They were still among enemies. Here, they are relatively safe.”

With existing camps beyond their capacity, the Bangladeshi government is racing to convert an additional 2,000 acres of land into settlements for the new arrivals. But a report from a network of United Nations agencies warned that Rohingya refugees had already arrived at the site before adequate infrastructure and services had been set up. The local authorities have begun limiting Rohingya refugees to the camps, setting up police checkpoints to prevent them from leaving.
The Rohingya crisis has exacerbated sectarian and political strains in the region.
Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times

On Sunday, a Bangladeshi cabinet minister said that the government did not plan to give refugee status to the newly arrived Rohingya — a stance that is complicating efforts to get them more aid. The Bangladeshi government has said it hopes that Myanmar will eventually take back the Rohingya.

The Myanmar government, however, has said that it will only repatriate those with the correct documentation to prove they are from Rakhine. It is unlikely that most of the Rohingya who recently fled to Bangladesh brought such papers with them, if they ever possessed them at all.

So far, the bulk of the aid effort has fallen to groups of Bangladeshi volunteers. Touched by the stories they have seen on local television, many across the nation have started donation campaigns and driven long distances to give what they can to struggling refugees.

“We couldn’t just sit at home,” said Abul Hossain, a volunteer who lives six hours north of the camps. “Last week we asked everyone in our village to donate. We drove all night to bring it here.”

Mr. Hossain and his neighbors had hoped to hand the goods over to government workers or foreign aid organizations like the United Nations, but they say they have not been able to find any.

“We’ve been driving around since the morning looking for anyone to take this,” he said. “So now, we’re just handing it out ourselves.”

This has proved a dangerous method. Last week, CNN reported that a woman and two children were killed in a stampede as a group of Bangladeshis threw food from a truck.

Since then, assistance has improved significantly. Food distribution points have been set up by the Bangladeshi government to try to lessen the need for the volunteer truck visits. But it is still a challenge.

“There are no roads. We’ve been carrying our equipment in the heavy rain,” said Ms. White, from Doctors Without Borders.

Near his truck at the entrance to the camp, Mr. Hossain unloaded some of his goods as the lines grew around him.

“We expect these people will return home one day. For now we will help them — they are our brothers and sisters.” Then his index finger went up. “But maybe not forever.”

Hannah Beech contributed reporting from Bangkok, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Follow Ben C. Solomon on Twitter: @bcsolomon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/...id=facebook&mccr=edit&ad-keywords=GlobalTruth