Rohingya crisis may cause regional conflict

The recent concern expressed by the UN human rights chief—that Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority has the potential to spark regional conflict should be taken seriously by the international community and especially the countries in this region. The UN human rights chief has warned that "if the Rohingya crisis were to spark a broader conflict based on religious identities, the ensuing disputes could be a cause for great alarm".

The reason for his misgivings is that so far no realistic solution has been agreed upon by Myanmar, the country that has forced 700,000 of its citizens to flee their homes after experiencing unbelievable violence and take refuge in Bangladesh. Already there are more than three lakh Rohingyas in Bangladesh as a result of previous exoduses. While the generosity of Bangladesh has been lauded by the international community, this does not help to solve the problem of continuing to give shelter to almost one million people in a country that is already burdened with overpopulation, poverty and acute scarcity of land. International aid agencies, local NGOs and the government itself have all been working together but all their resources are overstretched, to say the least.

So far the repatriation deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar does not give much reassurance regarding the safe return of all the refugees to their homeland. There is no guarantee that once they go back, they will be treated with dignity, given full citizenship rights and that they will get back their homes. Myanmar has also refused entry to international humanitarian organisations to assess the situation. In the wake of such hopelessness, tensions will mount within the refugee camps giving fodder to potential militancy to erupt with spillover effects to neighbouring regions. Is this a risk worth taking? It is about time countries that have greater influence on Myanmar, start putting greater pressure on it to abide by the basic repatriation prerequisites, acknowledge the atrocities caused by its army and some citizens and take back the Rohingas giving them full citizenship rights. This they must do for their own security and that of the region.