Asean and Rohingyas

The Statesman
Editorial
New Delhi
November 5

Leaders of the Association of South-east Asian Nations meet annually to work out common positions on pressing issues, but also maintain a policy of non-interference in each other’s affairs.

 Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (C) holds the gavel for ASEAN chairmanship in 2020 during the closing ceremony of the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on November 4, 2019. (Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP) 

Beyond the international grandstanding in Bangkok, quite the most robust statement to emanate from the Asean summit was the UN Secretary-General’s appeal to the Myanmar government to take responsibility for the plight of 730,000 Rohingya refugees from Rakhine state. Mr Antonio Guterres has called upon the government in Naypidaw to deal with the “root causes” of their flight to Bangladesh and work towards their safe repatriation. The United Nations, represented as it was by its head, has raised awareness of the international rights of the Rohingya Muslims, who for several years have been buffeted from shore to shore in their quest for hearth and home.

Bangladesh’s troubling Rohingya relocation plan

ASIATIMES

Opinion

By Phelim Kine

In its Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, Bangladesh has generously provided a modicum of safety and dignity to the Rohingya refugee survivors of the Myanmar military campaign of widespread and systematic violence in late 2017.

But the durability of that safety and dignity is now in doubt.

Last week, the Bangladeshi government announced that in November it will begin to relocate up to 100,000 of those more than 740,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. The Bangladeshi government’s motive for the planned relocation is to relieve desperate overcrowding in the Cox’s Bazar camps.

But the choice of Bhasan Char has raised serious concerns about the health and safety of Rohingya who relocate there.

Asean opting out of Rakhine efforts

Bangkok Post
Opinion

125 Oct 2019
writer: Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, 

Laetitia van den Assum, 

Kobsak Chutikul & Dinna Wisnu

When Asean foreign ministers last met in Bangkok on July 31 and discussed the Rakhine crisis, their conclusions reflected the lowest common denominator of the bloc's membership. Two years after the enforced mass exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, Asean is at risk of becoming irrelevant to the search for solutions.

Asean has been providing humanitarian and development assistance to Rakhine state, but its reluctance to recognise the underlying causes of the crisis gives Myanmar the opportunity to shield behind a shaky Asean consensus. It thus may be making matters worse.

The 74th UNGA Highlights The ‘Disquiet’ World We Live In – OpEd

eurasiareview
September 29, 2019
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Flags in front of United Nations building in New York City

The 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opened the past week amid simmering tension in the Middle East over recent attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, which Saudi Arabia and the United States blame on Iran. It also came just days after millions of young activists and their supporters marched in thousands of cities worldwide to demand greater action on climate change.

OPINION: ‘I escaped genocide but I cannot escape Australia’s immigration policies’

SBS Dateline
By JN Joniad
23 September 2019
 

In 1982, the Myanmar government introduced regulations denying citizenship to anyone who could not prove Burmese ancestry dating back to 1823. Now, the United Nations has officially called Rohingya a ‘stateless’ ethnicity. As of today, nearly one million Rohingyans have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military began ethnic cleansing. JN Joniad, a Rohingya man, told Dateline his story. 

 

In Myanmar, I was given a ‘White Card’. I needed this card to travel within my own town. I was banned from going to other cities and I couldn’t get a passport. I had, effectively, a temporary residency permit in my own country.

Bangladesh does about-face on Rohingya

ASIATIMES

Sabria Chowdhury Balland

September 18, 2019
Opinion

Two years ago, Bangladesh took in nearly 750,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees who had been driven out of Myanmar by a military crackdown. These attacks were referred to as ethnic cleansing by the United States, whereas United Nations investigators referred to them as crimes against humanity.

At that time, many questioned whether Bangladesh, a country with a population of more than 160 million and a developing economy, could take in such a large number of refugees. Considering that the refugees were fellow Muslims escaping severe human-rights violations, the foremost concerns may have been related to the humane aspect of the issue. However, the practicality of how Bangladesh would manage such a huge influx of refugees economically and socially was also of tremendous concern.

The Rohingya are a people of nowhere. They shouldn’t be abandoned.

The Washington Post
Opinion 

By Editorial Board

September 13 

Rohingya refugees at a camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Aug. 25. (Rafiqur Rahman/Reuters) 

TWO YEARS ago, Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown of fire and violence against the Muslim Rohingya population of Rakhine state in the western part of the country. In the attacks, which the United States has described as ethnic cleansing and U.N. investigators called possible crimes against humanity, civilians were killed, their villages burned to the ground and some 750,000 people fled for their lives.

Rohingyas Should Go Back to Their Motherland

daily sun
Editorial
A.K.M. Atiqur Rahman
30 August, 2019

Motherland is always like a heaven to each and every human being in the world. I had the opportunity to take part, as a Freedom Fighter, in our Liberation War in 1971 as well as to visit a number of countries during my diplomatic career. I understand the basic difference being in my motherland and in a foreign country. One may pass a financially well off life in a foreign country, but he cannot feel the same mental advantages there like in his motherland. Motherland is the mother of all mothers. It is really difficult to find a person who does not love his or her mother. A child is nothing but a mother’s flesh and blood. It is the natural binding that starts from the day a child grows in the womb of a mother. This is the truth; it does not matter whether a mother is financially poor or rich.

Two years on: no home for the Rohingya

ASIATIMES  

Opinion

By Phil Robertson
August 28, 2019

Time stands still for more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims, who are still unable to return home two years after being driven out of northern Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing widespread killings, rape, and the burning of their villages at the hands of the Myanmar military. The recently failed attempt to repatriate refugees underscores just how inadequate the conditions are for their return.

A United Nations-backed fact-finding mission has found sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior military officials for grave crimes, including genocide. Yet the Myanmar government continues to defy the UN Human Rights Council by denying these rights violations ever took place and refusing to investigate seriously and prosecute these crimes or cooperate with international efforts.

Is public opinion turning?

Dhaka Tribune

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
August 27th, 2019

 The hill cutting and deforestation near Camp no 20 in Balukhali, Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar, as seen on Sunday, to clear the way for more Rohingya refugee camps, poses a twofold threat: one to the environment, and another to the refugees themselves as these hills become more vulnerable to landslides Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Government appears helpless, at least for now

When the Rohingyas streamed into Bangladesh two years ago, fleeing the pogrom against them by the Myanmar military, sympathy for their plight was high in Bangladesh.

When the PM said a nation of 170 million could feed one million more in need, her words echoed the public sentiment, and were widely applauded.

KYAW HLA AUNG: ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROHINGYA CRISIS, I HAVE A SIMPLE REQUEST | OPINION

Newsweek
KYAW HLA AUNG
ON 8/25/19

I remember a time without discrimination. I remember a time where the Rohingya people could vote, go to school, travel freely between cities and form political parties. That was before. Today, our identity has been stolen from us.

As we mark the second anniversary of the conflict that drove us from our homes, I still maintain my faith in humanity. Our capacity for good and empathy is boundless. I choose to believe this because the alternative is inconceivable to me. Even through our struggles—past and present—I have seen the power of everyday heroes in my community and yours that can save us.

Two years on, has the world forgotten the Rohingya children?

South China Morning Post
Opinion

David Skinner

Published: 20 Aug, 2019

The Rohingya children who fled rape, torture and killings are not a lost generation – but they are in danger of becoming a forgotten one

Rohingya Muslims, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait to receive aid at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Photo: AP

Fatima is acutely aware of the importance of school. The 13-year-old fled Myanmar two years ago with nothing. She now lives in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar with her parents, two sisters and grandfather. She has faced difficulties most children her age never will. She wants to be a teacher, but not just any teacher. She wants to teach girls because when girls are educated, they teach others.

No turning point yet

The Daily Star   
Opinion
Mohammad Zaman
August 18, 2019

Rohingya refugee children carry supplies through Balukhali refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, October 23, 2017. Photo: Hannah McKay/Reuters

In recent weeks, there have been a flurry of diplomatic activities in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, starting with the high-level visit of Myanmar delegation led by Myint Thu, Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Cox’s Bazar. The repatriation of the Rohingyas was a major topic at the 2019 meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) held recently in Bangkok. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also visited Bangladesh and Rakhine state. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in Japan and later in China to press hard the Rohingya repatriation case, where she was assured that Beijing would “do whatever is required” to help resolve the Rohingyas crisis.

Do not turn away from the horrors that the Rohingya face

THE GLOBE
AND 
MAIL
Opinion
Bob Rae
Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Published August 2, 2019

Canadians were shocked two years ago to learn of the rape, violence, and genocide in Myanmar. And while we’ve done a great deal, the work has just begun – and we cannot lose that fire

Bangladesh, September, 2017: Rohingya refugees carry supplies along a muddy path after fleeing neighbouring Myanmar. Today, two years of humanitarian crisis have driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority, into teeming refugee camps.

Bob Rae is special envoy to Myanmar, senior counsel at OKT LLP, and teaches public policy and law at the University of Toronto. He was previously the premier of Ontario and a federal member of Parliament.

Integration should not be a one-way street

Frontier
MYANMAR
Opinion
Saturday, August 03, 2019
By THAN TOE AUNG | FRONTIER

Advocates of interfaith harmony gather at central Yangon's Mahabandoola Park in May 2016. (Steve Tickner | Frontier)  

It’s time for us to embrace the idea that you can wear a beard, kurta or hijab, and have a Muslim name, and still be fully Burmese.

ONE OF Burma’s most prominent monks, Sitagu Sayadaw, once observed that Muslims are “guests” and Buddhists are “hosts”, and that “the guests must obey the hosts”. Similarly, I have heard Buddhists say that Muslims in Burma (a name I use in preference to Myanmar) need to respect Buddhist culture and “assimilate” into it.

Thailand Offers Persecuted Rohingya Little Hope

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Sunai Phasuk Senior Researcher,

Asia Division SunaiBKK


Prime Minister’s Racist Comments Reflect Inhumane Asylum Seeker Policy

Rohingya refugees sit behind bars at a police station in Satun province, southern Thailand on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Sumeth Panpetch 

Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s racist slurs directed at the Rohingya are bad enough. But they are made even worse because they reflect the Thai government’s cruel policy toward Rohingya asylum seekers who take perilous journeys to escape persecution and serious abuses in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

An uncertain fate

Dhaka Tribune
Tribune Editorial , Opinion
July 25th, 2019

 Photo: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Ethnic cleansing operations on a scale that took place in Rakhine state cannot and should not be swept under the rug

While the arrival of a high level delegation from Myanmar today to convince the Rohingya to return home sparks some renewed hope for successful repatriation, sadly, the overall task remains more complicated than one of simple persuasion.

Asean and the Rohingya

Tue Jul 23, 2019

Opinion

After fighters attacked security targets in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state on August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military responded by killing and maiming thousands of Rohingya civilians, raping hundreds of women and girls, and burning entire villages to the ground.

Almost two years after the military-led “clearance operation” that forced more than 745,000 Rohingya men, women and children to flee and seek refuge in Bangladesh, this humanitarian crisis seems more intractable than ever.

Systematic state discrimination against the Rohingya, making them stateless and without rights, and recurring state-sanctioned violence spurred various influxes of refugees into Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1990s.

A deeper relationship between Dhaka and Beijing

Dhaka Tribune 

Opinion

Muhammad Zamir
July 21st, 2019

Photo: DHAKA TRIBUNE

Can China help in addressing the Rohingya crisis?

The ties between Bangladesh and China have evolved into a deeper relationship over the last few years. This dynamic has intensified in its diversity through greater connectivity within the sub-regional and regional paradigms. This has opened doors within this matrix. It has also generated endeavours towards cooperation in diverse areas.

New Sanctions A Positive Step In Responding To The Rohingya Crisis

Forbes
Olivia Enos Contributor
Policy 

                  Young Rohingya man carrying senior Rohingya woman in refugee camp. Getty

In a welcome move, the U.S. Department of State issued sanctions against four senior Burmese military officials. One of those sanctioned is Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, the man directly responsible for atrocities committed against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Burma.

While State’s action stopped short of financially sanctioning military officials, it subjects them to a travel ban and represents a positive step toward accountability.