ROHINGYAS ARE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES – NOT ONLY OF BANGLADESH !!!!!
- infinidea2024
- May 18
- 6 min read
______ Infinidea Special
The Rakhaine State in Myanmar bears varied strategic importance to Bangladesh, regional and the global powers. The Rohingyas are an indigenous Muslim minority from Rakhine. Roughly 3.5 million Rohingyas are dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017, the majority of the Rohingyas in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State, where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. Ethnically, linguistically, and religiously, they diverge from Myanmar's dominant Buddhist population. Denied citizenship, most members of the group are left without legal documentation, effectively rendering them stateless.
The latest Rohingya exodus began in August 2017, when clashes erupted in Rakhine after a militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), led by Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, claimed responsibility for attacks on several police and army posts. The junta declared the outfit a terrorist organization and retaliated with a brutal crackdown, devastating hundreds of Rohingya villages and forcing nearly a million to flee.
Rohingyas seeking refuge at Cox's Bazar as FDMNs in Bangladesh are in a country with scarce resources. They are sheltered in camps covering an estimated 8,000 acres of land. These FDMNs joined around 300,000 people already in Bangladesh from previous waves of displacement.
The Arakan Army (AA), a largely non-Rohingya rebel group fighting for an autonomous Rakhine state, launched a series of offensives under Operation-1027 last October against the Myanmar junta, coordinating with other ethnic armed groups. With the long standing conflict, the Arakan Army (AA) has taken full control of the 271 km Border with Bangladesh, controling 15 of the 17 townships in Rakhaine. The AA is considered a staunch anti-Rohingya entity, and its recent actions have specifically targeted indigenous Rohingyas, resulting in significant fatalities and forcing around 10,000 new FDMNs to seek refuge in Bangladesh. Interestingly, a leading Rohingya rebel group, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), allegedly reached an "understanding" with the junta military not to attack each other and to fight their common enemy, the AA.
Bangladesh has long surpassed its capacity to support the FDMNs and cannot continue doing so indefinitely. Despite being a struggling Global South nation aspiring for development, it has borne the brunt of the influx of over a million FDMNs. Local population is fast growing exasperated due to unlawful activities by the FDMNs, dwindling job prospects, and the colossal negative economic, ecological, cultural, and security impacts emanating from their prolonged presence. Currently, a grim and tense situation persists in coastal Cox's Bazar, the southernmost district of Bangladesh. Initially welcoming them with open arms, Bangladesh is increasingly facing a growing unmanageable situation due to the FDMNs' prolonged presence.
All these issues stemmed from the reckless violence of the Myanmar junta, the renewed brutality of the Rakhine AA, and a prolonged global indecision in effectively resolving the issue through the fast repatriation of the FDMNs in Myanmar, ensuring their long-overdue citizenship and basic rights. As a rough comparison, the total refugees coming from North Africa, Syria, Afghanistan, etc, hosted by whole of Europe (with a landmass of 10.53 million km² and a GDP of $24 trillion) amounted to 12.4 million by 2022, with a large proportion accommodated by Turkey (3.6 million) alone. In contrast, the number of FDMNs hosted by Bangladesh (with a meager GDP of $459 billion and a small landmass of only 147,570 square kilometers) is around 1.6 million (including unregistered individuals), with an annual growth rate of newborn FDMN babies at 30,438 (according to UNHCR Fact Sheet Data).
FDMN Plight Comparison with others
The only effective solution to the crisis remains the repatriation of the FDMNs to Rakhine before they are ethnically cleansed or completely evicted due to the ongoing war. Numerous such efforts have been repeatedly vetoed by a Sino-Russian unity in the UN due to respective strategic and economic interests. Even in June 2023, Bangladesh was pressured to suspend a pilot repatriation project for FDMNs to Myanmar, where they were allegedly facing risks posed by the junta. Interestingly, instead of the world body effectively pressuring the junta to take back their own nationals, poor Bangladesh, hosting them, was pressured to halt their repatriation. In a contradictory yet interesting scenario, while the International Labour Organisation rightfully proposed a monthly wage increase of $208 (later settled at $113 or 12,500 BDT) for Bangladeshi garment workers, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) allocation for each FDMN person was reduced from $12 to just $8 (BDT 840) for the entire month. The additional expenditure has to be borne by Bangladesh.
Potential options available for resolving the FDMN issue include:
Plausible FDMN Repatriation Solution Infographic
1. Repatriation: The problems of the FDMNs and the Rohingya diaspora worldwide are best solved if they are settled in their ancestral lands in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The FDMNs in Bangladesh desperately want to return to their homes. A tentative course of action may involve:
· Designating a 'safe zone' of 50 km x 50 km (roughly 2,500 sq km) as a "Special Autonomous Rohingya Area (SARA)" within Myanmar (Rakhine State) to safeguard and preserve Rohingya interests. This structure may resemble the "American Indian Reservation" in the USA or the Special Administrative Region (SAR) Oecusse-Ambeno in East Timor, as well as the Chinese "Special Autonomous Regions (SAR)" like Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet (Xizang), and Xinjiang. With a landmass of 36,778.0 km2 and a present population of 3.18 million mainly comprising various ethnic groups, with the Arakanese being the majority (another roughly 1.8 million Rohingyas living as FDMN in Bangladesh and hardly 0.5 million left in Rakhine), sparing a meagre 2500 km2 area would be nascent gesture and should be heartily offered by the mainstream population and the political authority in Rakhine with a desired peaceful environment in mind.
· Initiating a pilot project followed by a comprehensive phased repatriation process, supervised by relevant stakeholders and also by ASEAN (which has ethno-religious similarities with Myanmar and its internal stakeholders) to oversee the materialization of the complete process. ASEAN civil-military observers may continue supervision until a post-junta democratic government takes full charge of the country.
· Engaging the Myanmarese junta, along with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) and AA, which are pivotal in resolving the Rohingya crisis. It is worth mentioning that the NUG has already recognized the Rohingyas as citizens and promised their security and rights.
· Maintaining parallel communications with the junta and the AA to diffuse tension along the border, facilitate FDMN repatriation, and prevent further influx. International bodies may influence them for the smooth materialization of the process.
· The Bangladeshi population and the FDMN altogether very rationally expect the UN, regional and global stakeholders to render support for this most appropriate option – given their long announced support for such absolutely logical step.
It must be analysed with utmost considerations that the land area proposed for the SARA Zone is far less than those allocated for the US, East Timorese and Chinese Reservations/ Special Administrative Regions/ Autonomous Areas, as shown below:
2. Resettlement in a Third Country: This approach, though theoretically plausible, retains many uncertainties regarding any nation's willingness to accommodate the FDMNs, the Rohingyas' willingness to permanently live as a stateless or rootless diaspora, and the overall practicability and feasibility of such an approach.
There are few challenges in the process of the FDMN repatriation. These are:
· The Arakan Army (AA) has brushed aside recent assurances of the Junta’s commitment to Bangladesh to take back 180000 FDMN from Bangladesh, branding it “empty rhetoric” aimed at placating Bangladesh and the international community. This is because more than 90% areas of Rakhine, including the complete Bangladesh-Rakhine border is captured and controlled by the AA, and virtually no Junta authority works in Rakhine.
· No clear roadmap/ decision are available regarding the timeframe, modus operandi and further details of the FDMN Repatriation.
· Even more alarming is, there is no mentioning of the repatriation of the leftover majority of the FDMN.
· By now, the Rohingyas recruited by the Junta Military to fight against the AA has automatically become the enemy of the AA. As such, this factor also is a consideration, that needs to be properly negotiated by Bangladesh to solve the repatriation issue.
· A "Humanitarian Corridor" for Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, potentially facilitating their return, is allegedly being explored by the UN. This involves a humanitarian aid channel from Bangladesh to Myanmar, requiring "authorization and cooperation" from the Myanmar government. It needs to be ensured that if materialized, this corridor should only be used for such “Humanitarian” support for the FDMN in Bangladesh.
Overall, the prolonged absence of a practical and sustainable solution to the FDMN issue is sure to result in local, regional, and global strategic consequences-a phenomenon that equally warrants long-overdue appropriate global attention.
Explore documentary on the proposition for the FDMN Repatriation in Rakhaine:
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A related article was published in Bangladesh in The Daily Observer on Friday, 20 September, 2024 https://www.observerbd.com/news/491006
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