BY JOHANNA SON (COLUMNIST)
Having had a place to flee to -- the
part of Bangladesh to the west of their home state of Rakhine in Myanmar -- was
life-saving in the months after Aug 25, 2017, when streams of people were
escaping military operations and, as has been confirmed subsequently, crimes of
rape and arson.
The second anniversary of the
Rohingyas' exodus from Myanmar has come and gone, exposing how Southeast Asia's
biggest humanitarian disaster in recent times has become a festering wound that
all see but cannot or will not salve, much less heal.
But today, the state of the Rohingyas'
"permanent temporariness" is starting to take its toll.
There is restiveness among the nearly
913,000 refugees -- most of them Rohingya -- now living in 35 overcrowded,
overstretched and squalid camps in Cox's Bazar district, going by the accounts
of humanitarian workers, journalists and analysts.
News photos showed a sea of some
200,000 Rohingya refugees holding a non-violent protest on Aug 25, calling for
the return of their citizenship rights and their homes in Myanmar. Just days
before, a third schedule for the return of some Rohingya fizzled out, after no
one showed up.
A UN fact-finding mission is due to
complete work shortly, gathering evidence useful for the prosecution of
Myanmar's military for genocide and related crimes during its "cleansing
operations" after armed attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
(Arsa), which sent the Rohingya fleeing across the border. This criminal
trial-level evidence has been given to the UN Independent Investigative
Mechanism for Myanmar.
But the use of international
mechanisms of accountability, ranging from the International Criminal Court
(Bangladesh is a party to it even if Myanmar is not) to the International Court
of Justice, remains at the level of discussion. While the UN Security Council
can refer issues to the ICC, opposition from China and Russia is expected.
DEADLOCK
"So many things are broken and
need to be rebuilt, foremost trust all round," Moe Thuzar, a fellow at the
Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said in an interview.
"The various issues surrounding
Rohingya refugee living conditions, justice for the violations visited upon
them, repatriation and resolution of the conflict in Rakhine state are in a
state of deadlock," Su-Ann Oh, also of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute,
said in her analysis of the Rohingya crisis after two years. "It is very
likely that this standoff will continue into the medium- and long-term
future."
Forced into statelessness by Myanmar's
laws over nearly four decades and then by physical displacement, the Rohingya
are a throwaway people who face a prison-like world -- the only choice being
whether it is inside Myanmar or outside.
"What makes the situation even
more complex these days is the attitudes in Myanmar that continue to view the
Rohingya as 'others', the differences in how Myanmar authorities and the
Rohingya view citizenship and ethnicity aspirations of the Rohingya, and the
uncertain security situation in Rakhine state," Moe Thuzar said.
MYTH OF REPATRIATION
These assessments point to the fact
that the Rohingyas' ejection from Myanmar is for good. Yet much of the world,
Asean included, talk and act like repatriation will happen one day, even if the
process is rocky or slow.
"The international community and
Bangladesh have stop protecting the myth that they are going back," Fiona
MacGregor, a journalist who has been covering the Rakhine issue, said at the
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand this month.
But deviating from the repatriation
"script" is a tall order for many countries, as this would require
them to discuss the idea of third-country resettlement that they have little
political stomach for. At present, 99% of the world's refugees are not taken in
for resettlement.
"The international community
failed the Jewish people. It failed in Kosovo, Bosnia, Sudan. Now it is failing
in Rakhine, the Rohingya people," Sam Naeem, a Rohingya activist and
interfaith campaigner, said at the September launch of a report called
"Tools of Genocide: National Verification Cards and the Denial of
Citizenship of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar".
"The assumption for Rohingya
repatriation stems from the reality that the current global climate -- with
regard to irregular migration, particularly that arising from situations of
conflict or persecution -- has little appetite for third-country
repatriation," Moe Thuzar pointed out. "Bangladesh has also made it
clear that this is a heavy burden on the country's resources."
As it is, humanitarian groups worry
about Bangladesh's plans to relieve congestion by moving refugees to Bhasan
Char island. Bangladeshi diplomat Shahnaz Gazi called the Rohingya the
"world's most persecuted minority" at the FCCT event. But she also
said: "Just because it's an island, doesn't mean it's a bad place. We will
not do anything to make their situation even more difficult."
In early September, Bangladesh ordered
a shutdown of mobile phone services and a stop to the sale of SIM cards in the
camps.
Then there are the realities that come
with keeping nearly one million people in situations where, apart from lacking
basic services, they have little rights left. They cannot work, they cannot
freely move about. Their children do not get formal education.
Some 55% of the refugees are children,
and 52% are women and girls, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in
Bangladesh. Births, said to number at 60 each day, are not being registered, so
children do not have identity papers to apply for refugee status.
"Older children and adolescents
who are deprived of opportunities to learn or make a living are at real risk of
becoming a 'lost generation', ready prey to traffickers and those who would
exploit them for political or other ends," said a July briefer by the UN
Children's Fund (Uniced).
About 16% of children between 3-14
years old and 81% of those aged 15-24 have no access to education, according to
figures cited by the UN's ReliefWeb information service on global crises and
disasters.
The year 2019 has seen Asean play its
most visible role yet in the Rohingya crisis. But this role does not figure in
discussions among Rohingya campaigners.
Asean sent its secretary-general to
Rakhine in December 2018. In March this year, an Asean team carried out an
initial needs assessment visit in what the current Asean Chair, Thailand,
called "the first ever mission to Rakhine".
Is Asean's role under-appreciated?
Perhaps so, "because no immediate results that meet the international
humanitarian community's main concerns, as well as those of the Rohingya, are
visible", Moe Thuzar said.
At this point, the international
community might as well be another planet for the Rohingya. But making this
connection real to the refugees and give them "a sense of agency" is
crucial, not least if international prosecution is pursued, said Kingsley
Abbott of the International Commission of Jurists in Bangkok.
"The world sees in us
nothing," Ambia Perveen, a Rohingya medical doctor who is with the
European Rohingya Council, said at the FCCT discussion. "Everybody's
saying 'you are Muslim, go to the Islamic countries', or 'go to the Middle East
countries'. At the Parliament for Europe, 'go to Asia'. Asia says 'local
problems, we cannot intervene'. Aung San Suu Kyi has also made a beautiful
pitch in front of the international community. So our fate is played by
everyone -- unfortunately."
Johanna Son, Bangkok-based
editor/founder of the Reporting Asean programme, follows Southeast Asian
issues.
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Don’t forget to read more below:
UN FFM Report: 600,000 Rohingya still in
Myanmar at 'serious risk of genocide': https://lnkd.in/grp4Gvg
Can China Able to Help Find a Durable
Solution for the Rohingya Refugees Crisis? https://lnkd.in/g6qy_qK