Abduction, torture, persecution of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh

By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

(March 02, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders] founded in 1971 sends medical personnel to some of the most destitute and dangerous parts of the world and encourages them not only to save lives, but also to condemn the injustices they see. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. In a campaign that seems to have accelerated since October, the groups say, ethnic Rohingya refugees who have been living for years in Bangladesh are being seized, beaten and forced back to Myanmar, which they had left to escape persecution and abuse and which does not want them.

“Over the last few months we have treated victims of violence, people who claim to have been beaten by the police, claim to have been beaten by members of the host population, by people they’ve been living next to for many years,” said Paul Critchley, who runs the Bangladesh program for the aid group.

“We have treated patients for beatings, for machete wounds and for rape,” he said, quoting a report issued Thursday that describes the situation as a humanitarian crisis. Some had escaped after being forced into a river that forms the border with Myanmar, formerly Burma. “This is continuing today.”

In its report, Médecins Sans Frontières said that a year ago 90 percent of the people in the makeshift camp were already running out of food.

“Malnutrition and mortality rates were past emergency thresholds, and people had little access to safe drinking water, sanitation or medical care,” the report said.

The Rohingya is a Muslim ethnic group of the Northern Arakan State of Western Burma. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated in two bordering townships of Arakan to Bangladesh, namely Maungdaw and Buthidaung, and is spread in three townships of Akyab, Rathedung and Kyauktaw. It is thought, according to Rohingya history, that in the beginning of the 7th century AD, merchants from the Arab World, Mughal Empire and neighbouring Bengal began to settle in Arakan territory. In the 19th century, the British captured control of Arakan after the first Anglo–Burmese War and many more Bengalis from British East Bengal came to settle in Arakan.

According to Amnesty International, the Muslim Rohingya people have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese junta since 1978, and many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh as a result.

"The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burma citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade."

"In 1978 over 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the ‘Nagamin’ [‘Dragon King’] operation of the Myanmar army. Officially this campaign aimed at "scrutinising each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally." This military campaign directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution."

"During 1991-92 a new wave of over a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. Rohingyas were forced to work without pay by the Burmese army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labour of Rohingya civilians by the security forces."

As of 2005, the UNHCR had been assisting with the repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps have threatened this effort.

Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees have remained in Bangladesh, unable to return because of the negative attitude of the ruling regime in Myanmar. Now they are facing problems in Bangladesh as well where they do not receive support from the government any longer. In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued byAcehnese sailors in the Strait of Malacca, after 21 days at sea.

Over the years thousands of Rohingya also have fled to Thailand. There are roughly 111,000 refugees housed in 9 camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. There have been charges that groups of them have been shipped and towed out to open sea from Thailand, and left there. In February 2009 there was evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea. A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities also in February 2009 told harrowing stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at open sea. By the end of February there were reports that of a group of 5 boats were towed out to open sea, of which 4 boats sank in a storm, and 1 boat washed up on the shore. February 12, 2009 Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said there were "some instances" in which Rohingya people were pushed out to sea.

"There are attempts, I think, to let these people drift to other shores. [...] when these practices do occur, it is done on the understanding that there is enough food and water supplied. [...] It's not clear whose work it is [...] but if I have the evidence who exactly did this I will bring them to account."

The prime minister said he regretted "any losses", and was working on rectifying the problem.

Bangladesh has since announced it will repatriate around 9,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in the country back to Burma, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats. Steps to repatriate Rohingya began in 2005.

It is thought, according to various indigenous ethnic groups of Burma, the local Arakanese people and the Burmese military government that waves of later Bangali migrations to Arakan started in the 19th century after the British occupation.

Bangladesh, like India, Thailand and Pakistan, is not one of 147 nations to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, the global treaty that defines who is eligible for refugee status and what rights they are guaranteed. As a result, Dhaka has not registered a single refugee since 1991, and, as one of the most impoverished nations in the world, does not have the financial resources to cope with such a huge number of people. "We are a poor country and we have our own issues to deal with," says one local from Cox's Bazaar district, where the greatest concentration of Rohingyas lives.

From 1991 to 1992 almost 250,000 Rohingyas from the Arakan state in Burma fled to Bangladesh to escape from forced labor, rape and religious persecution at the hands of Burmese military. Although repatriation was enforced from 1993 to 1997 the outflow continues. According to Bangladeshi officials and NGOs, there are about 100,000 undocumented Rohingyas in Bangladesh taking daily wage jobs as farmers, vendors, rickshaw drivers, and construction workers. Images Asia, a Thailand-based NGO, conducted research on the situation of Rohingya women. The report reveals stories of Rohingya women being trafficked from the camps to Bangladesh and then into Pakistan. The lack of a durable solution to the problem continues to make the Rohingya population vulnerable to abuses, both in Burma and in Bangladesh.