12/26/2016
Ongoing mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh
187 refugee boats in December (Press Release)
With an unprecedented wave of assaults the armed forces have attacked unarmed Rohingya civilians since October 2016. Since then, many Rohingya in the north of Rakhine state in Burma are living in fear of torture, rape, murder, abduction, and arbitrary destruction of their houses. Hundreds of them have already lost their lives – and more than 35,000 have fled since the outbreak of violence. Photo: Onnes via iStock [icon picture]
According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the mass exodus of persecuted Rohingya from Burma continues at Christmas. During the last three days – as the Bangladesh border authorities reported – 445 Rohingya refugees were kept from entering the country or sent back to Burma (Myanmar) shortly after crossing the border. Bangladesh’s border soldiers also brought up a total number of 187 refugee boats on the Naf River since the beginning of December 2016. The passengers were sent back to Burma. Despite major efforts to the secure the borders, about 30,000 Rohingya managed to reach the neighboring country and have been living in Bangladesh without official permission ever since. The human rights organization demanded that the borders must be opened for Rohingya refugees and that they must be granted temporary refuge in Bangladesh. “It is inhumane – as well as a violation of the Geneva Refugee Convention – not to provide shelter for the persecuted Rohingya,” explained Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Asia-expert, in Göttingen on Monday.
Many of the refugees reported that there is a climate of fear and intimidation in the north of Rakhine state, their native region. Burma’s military forces are no longer setting fire to their houses, but many of the villages are largely destroyed, and many of the people have fled. According to official data from Burma’s authorities, 768 houses were burned down – but local human rights activists are sure that the actual number of houses set on fire by the Burmese army exceeds 1.800.
There was an especially severe wave of destruction in the vicinity of Buthidaung, a city in Maungdaw district. During the last two weeks, the Burmese border police officially tore down 250 houses that were inhabited by Rohingya, stating that the houses had been built without permission and that they had not been marked on the maps of the border police. However, some of the houses were more than 30 years old.
While houses of the persecuted Muslim minority are being destroyed, the border police approved of the construction of seven new villages for the Buddhist Rakhine in the district. The Rohingya fear that these new villages might be built on their traditional homeland. In the scope of the conflict, the Rakhine often accuse the Rohingya of living in Rakhine state as illegal immigrants, and the Burmese authorities refuse to recognize the Rohingya as citizens of Burma.
Header photo: Onnes via iStock
