Accordingly to the report of the Advisory Commission on the Rakhine state popularly known as Kofi Annan report, some ten per cent of the world's stateless people live in Myanmar and Muslims in Rakhine constitute the single biggest stateless community in the world. This sentence is a clear indication of the depth of the Rohingya problem. At the time of agreement for preparing the report Kafi Annan had to be promise-bound that the terms Bengali and Rohingya would not be used in the report. However, the suffering, humiliation and total deprivation of human rights of the Rohingya people could be traced from the report where they are mentioned as the Muslim community in Rakhine.
Rakhine state is rich in natural resources but these could not be explored and used for the people of the state. Rakhine state was torn in conflict between the Muslim and Buddhist communities. Under the plea of controlling the conflict, the Union Government of Mynmar came down heavily on the Muslims, better known as the Rohingyas. After the annexation of Burma by the British, their colonial policies to extend rice cultivation required significant labour force, a need which was largely filled by Muslim workers from Bengal. While many came on a seasonal basis, some settled down permanently altering the ethnic and religious mix of the area. From then on, most Burmese people hold a hostile attitude towards the Muslims. After the independence of Burma, the situation could have turned for the better had there been a democratic government in power. But since 1958 Burma has been ruled by the military. Even the present government is a proxy for a civil one where the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is the State Counsellor. One-fourth seats of Parliament are occupied by the military junta with the power of applying veto. No further explanation is required about the military's absolute power. Previously in 1978 and 1991 there was heavy influx of Rohingyas who fled because of atrocities inflicted upon them by the military.
But this time the situation has assumed the character of a macabre genocide. The following paragraph from the Economist dated Sept 09, 2017 should suffice to term the atrocity genocide: "… soldiers and militiamen surrounding villages, raping women, decapitating children, herding men into buildings and setting them ablaze. The Burmese army is letting few outsiders into the northern part of Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh, so it is hard to be certain about the scale of the atrocities. But the UN says that well over 150,000 refugees have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, with 35,000 crossing the border in a single day this week. They are the lucky ones. Satellite images reveal burning villages across northern Rakhine, and bodies have been washing up on the shores of the river that separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. The victims are Rohingyas, a Muslim minority that has been persecuted by the Burmese authorities with varying degrees of ferocity since the 1980s."
Till date, about six hundred thousand Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh. The atrocities have drawn global attention. The UN, EU, OIC and others have condemned the Myanmar government. State Counsellor Suu Kyi cancelled her visit to the UN on the occasion of the annual session of the General Assembly -- probably because of the global protest.
Now Myanmar has taken a cunning stand. It has announced that it wants to take back the Rohingyas. The junta's past activities and attitude towards the Rohingyas are manifestation of the fact that the Rohingyas cannot be handed over to the Myanmar authorities. Based on the 1982 citizenship law, only 4000 Muslims have been recognised as citizens out of a population of around one million in the state. Out of this 1.0 million, Burmese army has been successful in driving more than half a million people into Bangladesh. People are still pouring in. These refugees, if retuned without settling their rights as citizens, will not be rehabilitated in their homes. Maybe they will be kept in camps without freedom of movement and no access to education and medicare. The citizenship law 1982 suffers from serious flaws. It explicitly states that those who prior to its enforcement were already citizens would retain their citizenship. Kofi Annan's report observed that some aspects of the 1982 citizenship law are not in accordance with international standards and norms such as the principles of non discrimination under national law as well as international treaties signed by Myanmar.
Rohingya people can be allowed to return only under an organisation supervised by the UN, maybe UNHCR. It is true that such influx of refugees has created heavy economic, social and environmental problems for Bangladesh. It is apprehended that lingering of this situation may cause deterioration of law and order but Bangladesh does not have any choice but accept these challenges. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that the people of Bangladesh would share food with them. Because of her magnanimous attitude, she has been unofficially conferred the title Mother of Humanity.
Bangladesh needs to conduct diplomacy on several fronts. First, an independent authority, obviously under the aegis of the UNO, should supervise the return of the refuges. They cannot be pushed back into the inferno again. Their citizenship is to be ensured. In this connection it may be mentioned that the global response is in favour of the Rohigyas, and so Bangladesh will have to take this opportunity to solve the problem once and for all. The EU has imposed restriction upon the Burmese Generals' visit EU countries. The US is also thinking of imposing similar restriction. Suu Kyi's spokesman has, however, cautioned that this kind of action may adversely affect the newly developing democracy in Myanmar. But democracy in Myanmar is groaning under the grip of army Generals, so there is no scope for further damage of democracy there. Secondly, possibilities will have to be explored if some of them can be settled in third countries. Till then, adequate relief fund will have to be collected for the refugees. Winter has already arrived. Warn clothes will have to be provided to the children and elderly people, in particular. To look after such large member of refugees is an enormous task but it has to be done given the prevailing circumstances.
