No way, we won’t go

Rohingya refugees shouting slogans, with one holding a piece of paper that says ‘ We never return without our citizenship and our rights’, during a protest against a disputed repatriation programme at the Unchiprang refugee camp near Teknaf, Bangladesh. Frightened and angry Rohingya refugees are forcing Bangladesh to call off efforts to start sending back some of the hundreds of thousands of the stateless Muslims to Myanmar.

CoX’S bAZAR: About 1,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees demonstrated at a camp in Bangladesh against plans to repatriate them to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled army-led violence last year.

At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox’s Bazar, a Bangladeshi refugee official implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.

“We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food.

“We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we’ll take you to the border, to the transit camp,” he said yesterday.

“We won’t go!” hundreds of voic- es, including children’s, chanted in reply.

Bangladesh authorities said the repatriation of some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya would begin if people were willing to go, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. But it’s not clear whether there are any volunteers.

Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam declined to say what Bangladesh authorities would do if refugees refused to go, but according to a UN-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

“If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them three days’ worth of food before handing over to Myanmar authorities,” he said.

The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August, after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts.

The scale, organisation and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as “Bengalis” who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar.

Nearly all have been denied citi- zenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists yesterday said the conditions are not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

“Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return,” Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families had already been taken to a transit camp in preparation for their return.

Bangladesh authorities have said they’ve worked with the UN refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.