Bangladesh does not protect Burmese refugees in refugee camps and, according to the human rights organization, does not even take effective action against drug trafficking, human trafficking and murder. The brutalities of the Burmese coup junta in Myanmar also continue. As for the civil war, however, the last ASEAN summit ended (again) in stalemate.
Cox’s Bazar ( / Agencies) – The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Bangladeshi authorities of failing to protect Rohingya refugees, harassed by real armed gangs responsible for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and murder inside the fields. The most important crimes were committed last August, when two Rohingya leaders were assassinated, less than a year after the assassination of Mohib Ullah, a prominent ethnic minority rights activist. Currently there are about a million refugees from Bangladesh in overcrowded camps between Cox’s Bazar and the isolated island of Bhasan Char. Most have been fleeing persecution by the Burmese army since 2017.
Human Rights Watch called for services for refugees to report gang crimes, as Bangladeshi authorities force Rohingya leaders to act as informers to counter armed gangs, but then leave them open to reprisals.
The United States Representative for Civil Security and Human Rights Compliance, Uzra Zeya, and the envoy for South Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, visited a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar a few days ago, where HRW documented at least 26 cases of violence, including murder, kidnapping, torture, rape and forced marriages. And this “only” after collecting 45 interviews and testimonies from as many people between January and April 2023, which were then compared with medical and police reports.
Victims say they face obstacles in obtaining legal and medical assistance, adding that the authorities fail to provide protection, improve security or prosecute those responsible for crimes. “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s past commitments to protect Rohingya refugees are now threatened by violent groups and an indifferent judiciary,” said Meenakshi Ganguly of HRW. He noted that “the increasingly evident intention of the Bangladeshi authorities is to repatriate the Rohingya, but this does not relieve the government of its responsibility to guarantee them protection.”
According to a analysis of the International Crisis Group, deteriorating living conditions in refugee camps have led an unknown number of Rohingya to return to Myanmar, and others to pay for a dangerous boat voyage to Malaysia or Indonesia. In an attempt to ease the pressure on the Cox’s Bazar area, the Bangladeshi government hastened the relocation of the refugees to the uninhabited island of Basan Char, ensuring the construction of concrete houses, and tried to facilitate the repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar, where a civil conflict has been waged for more than two years as a result of a military coup that deposed the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Although an internal report by the local police shows that between 2020 and May this year, 191 firearms and 987 bullets were seized, and that 4,755 Rohingya were charged with more than 1,720 offences, it also claims that 96 Rohingya were killed between 2019 and may 31. Cox’s Bazar Police Assistant Inspector General said his people do not have the resources to stop the conflict between armed groups inside the camp such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). .
“Actually, defenseless Rohingyas are losing their lives due to actions that serve the interests of some law enforcement officers so that the problem is confined here,” they hinted from ARSA, who consider that the police reports are not impartial. The agents believe that most of the crimes that are committed in the refugee camps are settling scores between factions of the displaced community. The Bangladesh Ministry of Defense believes there are 11 armed groups active in controlling drug and people trafficking in the camps. Activists, residents with a certain level of education, and religious leaders are the main targets of these gangs: 16 people belonging to one of these categories were murdered in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, the summit of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded yesterday with a substantial deadlock on all fronts, for the umpteenth time. In fact, the leaders of the region reiterated their condemnation of the current violence in Myanmar and the organization, led in recent months by Indonesia, limited itself to urging the group’s foreign ministers to remain united to face the escalation. of the Burmese civil conflict.