Make Rohingya issue a priority

Twenty-three Nobel laureates and global leaders have urged the members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to urgently put the persisting Rohingya crisis on the Security Council's agenda and to call upon the UN secretary-general to visit Myanmar as a priority.

“If the current secretary-general is able to do so, we would urge him to go; if not, we encourage the new secretary-general to make it one of his first tasks after he takes office in January,” reads an open letter sent to the president of the UNSC and to all its member states.

The dignitaries, who have made the joint plea for the Rohingyas, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, include the likes of Professor Muhammad Yunus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai, Shirin Ebadi and Arianna Huffington.

The signatories that include 13 Nobel laureates and 10 other business people, philanthropists, activists and politicians of global repute expressed concern that Rohingya persecution in Myanmar bears the hallmarks of genocides and past tragedies like the ones in Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, and Kosovo.

They urged the United Nations to do everything possible to encourage the Myanmar government to lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid so that people receive emergency assistance.

“Access for journalists and human rights monitors should also be permitted, and an independent, international inquiry to establish the truth about the current situation should be established,” they said.

Their fervent plea came at a time when “a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity is unfolding in Myanmar”.

They observed, “Over the past two months, a military offensive by the Myanmar Army in Rakhine State has led to the killing of hundreds of Rohingya people. Over 30,000 people have been displaced.”

“Houses have been burned, women raped, many civilians arbitrarily arrested, and children killed. Crucially, access for humanitarian aid organisations has been almost completely denied, creating an appalling humanitarian crisis in an area already extremely poor.”

The open letter said, “Thousands [of Rohingyas] have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, only to be sent back. Some international experts have warned of the potential for genocide. It has all the hallmarks of recent past tragedies -- Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo.”

The dignitaries expressed frustration at Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's non-initiative in ensuring rights of the Rohingyas.

In the letter, they said, “Despite repeated appeals to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, we are frustrated that she has not taken any initiative to ensure full and equal citizenship rights of the Rohingyas. Daw Suu Kyi is the leader and is the one with the primary responsibility to lead, and lead with courage, humanity and compassion.”

They said, “It is time for the international community as a whole to speak out much more strongly. After Rwanda, world leaders said 'never again'. If we fail to take action, people may starve to death if they are not killed with bullets, and we may end up being the passive observers of crimes against humanity which will lead us once again to wring our hands belatedly and say 'never again' all over again.”

The signatories include 11 Nobel laureates in Peace: Professor Muhammad Yunus (2006), José Ramos-Horta (1996), Máiread Maguire (1976), Betty Williams (1976), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Oscar Arias (1987), Jody Williams (1997), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Tawakkol Karman (2011), Leymah Gbowee (2011), and Malala Yousafzai (2014), and two Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Sir Richard J Roberts (1993) and Elizabeth Blackburn (2009).

The other signatories are ex-Italian prime minister and foreign minister Romano Prodi and Emma Bonino; The Huffington Post Founder and Editor Arianna Huffington; business leaders and philanthropists Sir Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz; business leader Paul Polman; entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim; SDG advocate and film director Richard Curtis; SDG advocate and fellow of the Voice of Libyan Women Alaa Murabit; and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy.

They referred to the head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the Bangladesh side of the border, John McKissick, who has accused Myanmar's government of ethnic cleansing.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee has condemned the restricted access to Rakhine State as “unacceptable,” they also noted.

The Nobel laureates observed that the Rohingyas are among the world's most persecuted minorities, who for decades have been subjected to a campaign of marginalisation and dehumanisation.

“In 1982, their rights to citizenship were removed, and they were rendered stateless, despite living in the country for generations. They have endured severe restrictions on movement, marriage, education and religious freedom. Yet despite the claims by government and military, and many in society, that they are in fact illegal Bengali immigrants who have crossed the border, Bangladesh does not recognise them either,” they stated.

They further noted that Rohingyas' plight intensified dramatically in 2012 when two severe outbreaks of violence resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands and a new apartheid between Rohingya Muslims and their Rakhine Buddhist neighbours. “Since then they have existed in ever more dire conditions.”

They also observed that the latest crisis was sparked by an attack on Myanmar border police posts on October 9, in which nine Myanmar police officers were killed.

“The truth about who carried out the attack, how and why, is yet to be established, but the Myanmar military accuse a group of Rohingyas. Even if that is true, the military's response has been grossly disproportionate. It would be one thing to round up suspects, interrogate them and put them on trial. It is quite another to unleash helicopter gunships on thousands of ordinary civilians and to rape women and throw babies into a fire,” they said.

The open letter referred to one Rohingya, interviewed by the Amnesty International, who said, “They shot at people who were fleeing. They surrounded the village and started going from house to house. They were verbally abusing the people. They were threatening to rape the women.”

It also mentioned another witness describing how her two sons were arbitrarily arrested: “It was early in the morning, the military surrounded our house, while some came in and forced me and my children to go outside. They tied my two sons up. They tied their hands behind their backs, and they were beaten badly.”

“The military kicked them in the chest. I saw it myself. I was crying so loudly. When I cried, they [the military] pointed a gun at me. My children were begging the military not to hit them. They were beaten for around 30 minutes before being taken away.” She said she has not seen them since.

BANGLADESH DEMANDS EARLY REPATRIATION OF ALL ROHINGYAS

Dhaka has demanded early repatriation of the entire Myanmar population staying in Bangladesh, and expressed Bangladesh's readiness to engage with Myanmar to discuss the process and modalities of repatriation.

The demand was made when Ambassador of Myanmar to Bangladesh Myo Myint Than was summoned by Secretary (bilateral and consular) Kamrul Ahsan at the foreign minister yesterday afternoon, reports our diplomatic correspondent.

During the meeting, Kamrul expressed deep concern at the continued influx of Muslims from the Rakhine state into Bangladesh. He mentioned that around 50,000 people from Myanmar had taken shelter in Bangladesh since October 9, 2016.

There are around 3,00,000 Myanmar nationals staying in Bangladesh for years, he said.

He also requested the Myanmar government to urgently address the “root cause” of the problem in the Rakhine state so that Rakhine Muslims do not have to seek shelter across the border.

Bangladesh also protested the unprovoked attack and firing on a Bangladeshi fishing boat named “FV JANIVA KHALEDA 1” that left four Bangladeshi fishermen seriously injured on December 27, 2016.

The boat was fishing off the southeast of the Saint Martin's Island within Bangladesh's territorial waters when people on a Myanmarese trawler opened fire on them.

Kamrul mentioned that the Myanmarese trawler, with armed people on board, took the Bangladeshi fishing boat along with the fishermen, including the injured ones, to a nearby patrolling Myanmarese Navy vessel. Myanmar navy personnel seized the belongings of the fishermen and released them after four hours.

The secretary demanded appropriate investigation into the matter and bringing the responsible to justice. He also sought assurance that the Myanmarese Navy would abstain from attacking innocent fishermen of Bangladesh in future.