Hundreds of Hindu refugees eagerly await return to Myanmar

Bangladesh wants the more than 655,000 refugees to start returning by end month

Rohingya Muslims said yesterday they have no option but to fight what they called Myanmar state-sponsored terrorism to defend the Rohingya community, and demanded that the Rohingya be consulted on all decisions affecting their future.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched raids on the Myanmar security forces on August 25, which sparked sweeping counter-insurgency operations in the Muslim-majority north of Rakhine State that led to widespread violence and arson and an exodus of some 650,000 Rohingya villagers to Bangladesh.

The United Nations condemned the Myanmar military campaign as ethnic cleansing. Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejected that.

But since the August raids, the small Muslim group has launched few if any attacks until Friday, when its fighters ambushed a Myanmar military truck, wounding several members of the security forces.

“ARSA has … no other option but to combat ‘Burmese state-sponsored terrorism’ against the Rohingya population for the purpose of defending, salvaging and protecting the Rohingya community,” the group said in a statement signed by leader Ata Ullah and posted on Twitter. Repatriation plan

“Rohingya people must be consulted in all decision-making that affects their humanitarian needs and political future.”

Hindu farmer Surodhon Pal has packed his bags, eager to return to Myanmar after fleeing for Bangladesh during a wave of violence last year, but he is in a tiny minority — most of the refugees are terrified of going home.

Bangladesh wants the more than 655,000 refugees who have flooded into the country since late August to start returning to Myanmar by the end of this month under a controversial agreement between the two nations.

The vast majority are Rohingya Muslims who have faced decades of persecution in Myanmar, which sees them as illegal immigrants, even though many have lived there for generations.

They say they would rather stay in the squalid camps in Bangladesh than return to the scene of violence the US and the United Nations have said amounts to ethnic cleansing.

‘We want assurances’

But a small community of Hindus who lived alongside the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and were caught up in the turmoil say they do want to return.

“We want security and we want food. If the authorities can give us those assurances we’ll happily go back,” Pal, 55, told journalists.

“The Bangladeshi government and the UN looked after us well, but now we have prepared our bags and are ready to return to our country.”

Last month Dhaka sent a list of 100,000 refugees to Myanmar authorities for repatriation after the two governments signed an agreement in November for the process to begin on January 23.

But rights groups and the United Nations say no one should be repatriated against their will and so far only around 500 Hindu refugees have expressed willingness to go.

Modhuram Pal, a 35-yearold community leader, said some 50 Hindus had already returned to Rakhine where they were welcomed by Myanmar security forces.

Hindus who fled the area have said that masked men stormed into their community and hacked victims to death with machetes before dumping them into freshly-dug pits.

Myanmar’s military alleges the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) carried out the massacre on August 25, the same day the rebel group staged deadly raids on police posts that sparked a military backlash. At least 45 bodies have been found in mass graves. The ARSA has denied the allegations, saying it does not target civilians.

But Pal and his fellow Hindu refugees say they will only go back if they are rehoused away from their former villages in Rakhine.