Rohingya mark five years in Bangladesh

THOUSANDS of Rohingya refugees held ‘Genocide Remembrance Day’ protests last Thursday (25) across a huge network of camps in Bangladesh, marking five years since fleeing a military offensive in Myanmar.

Rallies were held in many of the camps, with refugees holding banners, shouting slogans and demanding a safe return to their home state of Rakhine in western Myanmar.

“Today is the day thousands of Rohingya were killed,” young leader Maung Sawyedollah said as he led a rally in Kutupalong – the world’s largest refugee settlement.

“Only Rohingya can understand the pain of August 25. Five years ago this day nearly one million Rohingya were displaced. On this day in 2017, more than 300 of our villages were burnt down to ashes,” he said.

“All we want is a safe and dignified return to our homeland,” said Sayed Ullah, another community leader.

“Unfortunately, our cries have fallen on deaf ears. The international community is not doing anything. Here in the camps we are languishing in tarp and bamboo shelters and barely surviving on handouts,” he added.

Many protesters also demanded the repeal of a 1982 law that stripped them of their citizenship in Myanmar, where they are widely seen as foreigners.

In August 2017, around 750,000 of the mostly Muslim minority streamed over Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar to escape the military onslaught. It now the subject of a landmark genocide case at the UN’s top court.

Today there are nearly a million Rohingya, half of them under 18, in rickety huts in camps. Several attempts at repatriation have failed, with Rohingya refusing to return without security and rights guarantees.

Rohingya community leaders complain that the security situation in the Bangladeshi camps is also deteriorating, with at least 100 people killed in violence since 2017.

“Voluntary and sustainable repatriation is the only solution to the crisis,” said Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen.