Arakan News Agency
Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge in Bangladesh say they are desperate to stop living as refugees and return to their homeland in Myanmar.
“The Rohingyas have been seeking temporary shelter in Bangladesh only to save their lives from a genocide-like situation in Myanmar. For most of us, life as refugees is very hard in Bangladesh. Arakan (Rakhine), where our Rohingya community has lived for centuries, is our ancestral homeland. We want to go back to Arakan,” said Mohammad Shaker, a Rohingya leader in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.
Nurul Islam, a Britain-based Rohingya rights activist and community leader, said whenever anti-Rohingya violence erupts in Myanmar, the international community has taken a keen interest to see that they get safe passage to other countries. But he alleges outside powers do not follow up to help the refugees return to their homeland.
“It appears many in the international community think if all Rohingyas are evacuated from Myanmar, the problem of our community will be solved. They are wrong,” said Islam, chairman of Arakan Rohingya National Organization.
“The Rohingya crisis will never be resolved until our community members are able to return to their homeland in Arakan.”
Since a Myanmar military crackdown began in Arakan state seven weeks ago after Myanmar blamed the killing of 9 policemen to Rohingya, several thousands more Rohingya men, women and children have landed in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that “on humanitarian ground” some of the Rohingyas fleeing the current violence have been provided refuge.
“We shall try to host these people as long as possible. Then we shall start a dialogue with Myanmar so that they can return to their home. We hope Myanmar will take them back, eventually,” Kamal said.
But Rohingya community leader Islam alleged the ongoing violence against the Rohingyas in Arakan is “state-sponsored.”
“The Burmese security forces are entering the Rohingya villages and indulging in killings, rape and arson in ways as violent as possible, as we have seen in the past weeks. This level of indescribable torture is aimed at terrifying the entire community to an extreme level so that all Rohingyas flee the country,” Islam told media. “No Rohingya refugee can dare return to Burma in such situation. But, the final line from us is that we want to return to our homeland in Arakan.”
