No silver-bullet solution for Rohingya crisis
UN Security Council team visits refugees
A UN SECURITY Council team visiting Bangladesh pledged yesterday to work hard to resolve the crisis involving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, who have fled to the country to escape military-led violence in Myanmar.
The diplomats, who visited the sprawling camps and border points where about 700 000 Rohingya have taken shelter, said their visit was an opportunity to see the situation for themselves.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said he and his fellow team members would not look away from the crisis after their visit, though he warned that there were no simple solutions.
“It’s very necessary to come and see everything that’s happening here in Bangladesh and Myanmar. But there is no magic solution, there is no magic stick to solve all these issues,” he said at a media briefing in the Kutupalong refugee camp in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar.
The team members will conclude their three-day visit to Bangladesh today, when they leave for Myanmar.
The recent spate of violence in Myanmar began when Rohingya insurgents staged a series of attacks on August 25 on about 30 security outposts and other targets.
In a subsequent crackdown described by UN and US officials as “ethnic cleansing”, Myanmar security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of Rohingya homes.
Thousands are believed to have been killed.
The diplomats, comprising representatives from the five permanent Security Council members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US, and 10 non-permanent member states – talked to some 120 refugees, including rape victims.
Peru’s ambassador to the UN, Gustavo Adolfo Meza Cuadra Velásquez, said he and his fellow team members were ready to “work hard” and were “deeply concerned” about the crisis.
The refugees are seeking UN protection to return home.
The UN refugee agency and Bangladesh recently finalised a memorandum of understanding that said the repatriation process must be “safe, voluntary and dignified… in line with international standards.”
Karen Pierce, the UK’s ambassador to the UK, said the Security Council would continue to work to enable the refugees to return to Myanmar.
Rohingya are denied citizenship in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, where they’ve faced persecution for decades. They’re derided as “Bengalis”, and many in Myanmar believe they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Most of them live in poverty in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, next to Bangladesh.
Thousands of refugees gathered at the Kutupalong camp to welcome the visiting delegation. They carried placards, some of which read, “We want justice”.
“We are not Bengali, we are Rohingya. They have killed my family members, they tortured us, they will kill us too,” said one of the refugees, 29-year-old Mohammed Tayab, standing in front of a tent where he was waiting to meet the UN team.
Tayab, who was on crutches, said he was shot by Myanmar troops in his right leg.
His brother, an uncle and a nephew were shot dead by the soldiers, he added.