Rohingya offered shelter
ANGLADESH has agreed to free land for a new camp to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, who have fled violence in Myanmar.
The new camp will help relieve some pressure on existing settlements in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly 300 000 Rohingya have arrived since August 25.
“The two refugee camps we are in are beyond overcrowded,” said UN refugee agency spokesperson Vivian Tan.
Other new arrivals were being sheltered in schools or huddling in makeshift settlements with no toilets along roadsides and in open fields. Basic resources were scarce, including food, clean water and medical aid.
More refugees were arriving. Hundreds more were seen streaming through the border at Shah Puri Dwip on Monday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered 810 hectares near the existing camp of Kutupalong to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers.
That was according to a Facebook post by Mohammed Shahriar Alam, a junior minister for foreign affairs.
He said the government would begin fingerprinting and registering the new arrivals.
Aid agencies have been overwhelmed by the influx of Rohingya, many of whom are arriving hungry and traumatised after walking days through jungles or packing into rickety wooden boats in search of safety in Bangladesh.
Many tell similar stories of Myanmar soldiers firing indiscriminately on their villages, burning their homes and warning them to leave or to die.
Some say they were attacked by Buddhist mobs.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s human rights watchdog demanded that the atrocities by Myanmar authorities against Rohingya be prosecuted.
“This genocide needs to be tried at international court,” National Human Rights Commission chairperson Kazi Reazul Haque told a news conference in Cox’s Bazar.
“The killing, arson, torture and rape… by the Myanmar military and border guards is unprecedented,” he said.
He said stronger action was needed from the international community, including the UN, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
He also called on China and India to play a larger role in mitigating the crisis.
In the last two weeks, the government hospital in Cox’s Bazar has been overwhelmed by Rohingya patients, many of whom suffered gunshot wounds and bad infections.
At least three were wounded in landmine blasts and dozens drowned when boats capsized during sea crossings.
The violence and exodus began on August 25 when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect their ethnic minority from persecution by security forces in the majority Buddhist country.
In response, the military unleashed what it called “clearance operations” to root out the insurgents.
Accounts from refugees show the Myanmar military is also targeting civilians with shootings and wholesale burning of Rohingya villages in an apparent attempt to purge Rakhine state of Muslims.
Before August 25, Bangladesh had been housing more than 100 000 Rohingya who arrived after bloody anti-Muslim rioting in 2012 or amid earlier persecution drives in Myanmar.
Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination and persecution in Myanmar and are denied citizenship despite centuries-old roots in the Rakhine region.
Myanmar denies Rohingya exist as an ethnic group and says those living in Rakhine are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The Dalai Lama said he felt “very sad” about the suffering of Rohingya Muslims and that those harassing them “should remember Buddha”. “I think in such circumstances Buddha would definitely help those poor Muslims.”
He told reporters he had delivered this message to Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, several years ago at a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
While Burmese Buddhists in Myanmar also worship the Buddha, they follow a different religious tradition than Tibetans and do not recognise the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader. – AP