Kaladan News

 

Date: 18th August 2004

 

Local People Demanded to Repatriate the Rohingya Refugees

 

Cox’s bazaar, August 18:  A local refugee repatriated committee from Ukhiya under the Cox’s Bazar district demanded to the Government to repatriate the Rohingya refugees as early as possible to their home, according to a local Daily Cox’s Bazar paper on 6th August 2004.

 

The said committee organized and held a meeting at Ukhiya Government Primary School on 5th August and discussed about the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and they demanded to the government to repatriate the refugee, paper further said.

 

Mr. Nurul Hoque Khan presided over the meeting while reporter Roton Barowa was carrying out as a master of ceremony. Kokhon Barowa, Mofiz Uddin Noman, Abul Boshor, Sayed Nurul Titu, Abul Fazal, Mohammedul Hoque Khan, Abdul Rahim Sowdhury,Rano Barowa and Sayedul Islam Pramuk were giving speeches in the meeting, reported by Azker  Desh Bidesh on 7th August 2004.

 

All the speakers in the meeting highlighted that the existing of Rohingya refugees, theft, robbery and other kinds of crimes are increased day by day in the surrounding areas of the refugee camps with the cooperation of local people. Besides, they are involved in destroying the natural forest, in gunrunning, selling liquor items, smuggling and other criminal activities, they alleged, paper further added.

 

When asked a refugee leader said, “ We do not commit above mentioned crimes, these all are fabricated and false allegations. We are confined in refugee camps and have no opportunity to commit such kinds of crimes. We have only one crime that is when the government forcibly repatriate us, we resist it by any means and we have no rights and places to express oppression of concerned authorities.”

 

On 16th August 2004, the UNHCR and the refugee camp officials were discussing at the office of the Kutupalong Camp-in-Charge about the repatriation of Rohingya refugees. But, this was not known officially to refugees so far, said another refugee leader from refugee camp. 

 

Only three families of eleven members of refugees were repatriated since last three months---May 2004 to July 2004. At present, 19,988 refugees are taking refuge in two refugee camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara in southern Bangladesh. Bangladesh Government has decided to resume the repatriation process and a list of 8,398 refugees has been sent to the Burmese Government to verify, of them 6,000 refugees were verified to accept by the Burmese government, said a local paper,

 

The rest of the refugees will be repatriated by the cooperation of two countries---Burma and Bangladesh--- together with UNHCR, said a local people of Ukhiya.

 

Rohingyas are not economic immigrants in Bangladesh, if in Burma the Fundamental Rights of the Rohingyas were not violated, if they were not subjected to ethnic cleansing and discrimination, if they were allowed equal opportunities like other nationals in Burma---they would not like to live in Bangladesh. They cannot be pushed back to Burma so long their Fundamental Rights are denied and Fear exists in Burma. Bangladesh authorities must understand and honor the Rights of the refugees and respect the Dignity of Human Species, said CDS-BLA-HRF Human Rights Campaign on August 4,2004.

 

Refugees are now in fear that those who are vocal and /or are conscious about their refugee rights will be implicated in various false and fabricated cases.

 

The root causes of the continuous of Rohingya into Bangladesh are found in the Burmese Government’s policies of exclusion and discrimination against the Rohingya Muslims. Since 1996, thousands of Rohingya, both repatriated refugees and new arrivals, have continued to flee to Bangladesh, but as access to the camps was denied to them, they became invisible refugees labeled as economic migrants, the above Human Rights group further added. ##

 

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