Arakan News Agency
Ibrahim Mohamed, one of the founders of the European Rohingya Council, stressed the continued injustice of the Myanmar authorities to Muslims in Arakan province.
“The Rohingya Muslims who have not had the opportunity to go to Bangladesh and are still in Arakan province are sending us news of the continued oppression of the Myanmar authorities against them,” he said in a statement to Anadolu on the crisis of the Rohingya Muslims.
According to the some sources, violations by the Myanmar authorities involved house-burning, rape, murder and intimidation of Rohingya Muslims.
“First of all, we have to think about the reasons why the Rohingya Muslims went to Bangladesh, where they abandoned their homes and villages and fled to save their lives,” he said.
“The return of refugees to their homes is good, but only if the United Nations and the international community are involved in such an agreement,” he said.
He explained that Muslims in his country are still exposed to the injustice of the Myanmar authorities, according to some who are being contacted.
In this regard, he said that his brother lives in the villages of Arakan, that he speaks to him every day, and that many of the villages have been displaced by their families.
“The Myanmar government continues to demolish homes and schools abandoned by Muslims,” he said, adding that the authorities want the Rohingya Muslims to live in the camps upon their return.
He pointed out that about 120 thousand Rohingya Muslims are still living in the camps against the backdrop of the violence carried out by the Buddhists in 2012, adding that “the latest agreement includes the return of those also, but none has returned so far, how will we trust this agreement?”
On the other hand, Mohammed said that difficult days await Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh as monsoon rains approach, hoping the Bangladeshi authorities will move to find safer places for refugees.
In another context, Mohammed expressed his deep gratitude to Turkey for its diplomatic efforts and humanitarian activities towards the Rohingya Muslims since the beginning of the crisis.
“Turkey is the only country that has supported the Rohingya Muslims with all its heart. It has made efforts at the level of the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and is cooperating with the Bangladeshi government to support the refugees,” he said.
The Turkish network “TRT” provides them with educational services in the field of media, in order to give them the opportunity to claim their rights through the media.
He also criticized the international community’s position on the crisis of the Rohingya Muslims, calling on him to act as quickly as possible and to take the necessary measures against perpetrators of crimes and assassinations.
According to recent statistics from the United Nations, the number of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh to escape the injustice of the Myanmar authorities as of 25 August last, 665 thousand refugees.
According to the same statistics, the number of Muslims in the Rohingya in the seventies of the last century by 2 million people, but this figure fell to less than 300,000 people, fleeing the systematic killings.
On the other hand, the number of villages of Rohingya Muslims burned 350 villages, according to satellite images taken by a number of international human rights organizations.
The Myanmar and Bengali governments signed an agreement on the return of Rohingya refugees on 23 November. Those wishing to return to Myanmar must have documents confirming their subsistence prior to their arrival in Bangladesh, but this seems very difficult as the authorities have withdrawn their citizenship from the Rohingya minority since 1982.
The agreement also provides for the consent of the Myanmar authorities to the documents given by the United Nations to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
According to the agreement, the deportations were to begin two months after the signing, but this was later postponed, and so far no concrete steps have been taken.
