Helping The Rohingyas: Dhaka did its part, now it’s up to the world
Bangladesh has done its part and now it is up to the world to help the Rohingyas, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo said yesterday.
“Bangladesh has certainly done its part when it comes to the Rohingya crisis, responding with empathy to a group of people who fell victim to hatred. Now it is up to the world to help keep it that way by making sure that Bangladesh does not shoulder this burden alone,” she said.
The top UN diplomat in the country was speaking at an event titled “The Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Towards Sustainable Solutions -- A Book Launch and Policy Colloquium” at the capital’s Brac Centre Inn.
The programme was jointly organised by ActionAid Bangladesh, the Centre for Peace and Justice and the Centre for Genocide Studies. The book is a compilation of the papers presented at an international conference on the Rohingya crisis in Dhaka in April last year.
Yesterday’s event was held two days after the second anniversary of the Rohingya influx. The Rohingyas fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine and took shelter in Bangladesh.
After August 25, 2017, over 743,000 Rohingyas arrived in the country. With them, Bangladesh now hosts some 1.1 million Rohingyas.
Two repatriation attempts -- one on November 15 last year and the other on August 22 this year -- have failed as the Rohingyas refused to return, arguing that the situation in Myanmar was not safe and that there was no guarantee of citizenship.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is facing immense economic and environmental challenges to continue to provide shelter to the Rohingyas.
About two-thirds of the funding appealed in the United Nation’s 2019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingyas in February is still unmet and its December deadline is looming close.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, $330 million was received till Friday, which is 36 percent of the $920 million requested.
Addressing yesterday’s programme as a guest of honour, Mia Seppo said the various aspects of the solutions to the Rohingya crisis include response, protection and justice. The problems faced regarding the crisis today are complicated and inter-related.
“The people of Bangladesh as well as the people of Myanmar, including the Rohingya refugees in this country, deserve the world’s support in confronting these problems,” she said.
The solutions, however, need to be sustainable and they take time and thoughtful consideration.
“A key role for the international community is the range of tools we can provide to the government’s leadership. Different communities need different kinds of support.
“We need to be smart in ensuring that how we plan, fund and implement programmes is tailored to the specific problems we are trying to address. The UN is committed to getting this right for both the refugees and the people of Bangladesh.”
Mia Seppo also said the humanitarian agencies must continue to have the resources and space they need to serve the peoples’ most urgent needs.
She said Bangladesh has done sophisticated work in using the full range of diplomatic tools at their disposal in the international forums. “As a UN representative, I would encourage more countries to engage like this.”
On holding accountable the perpetrators of crimes against the Rohingyas, she said the UN was working to that end. “Impunity cannot be acceptable for the serious human rights violations that are alleged to have occurred.”
Speaking at the programme, Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, director of Centre for Genocide Studies at Dhaka University, said Bangladesh needs to have deeper political engagement with Myanmar as well as the important allies of both the countries -- China, Japan and India -- for a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis.
Apart from the Bangladesh government, national and international civil societies and NGOs as well as human rights organisations also need to keep up the pressure from within and outside Myanmar.
He said a sustainable return of the Rohingyas was possible if Myanmar amended the existing laws regarding Rohingya citizenship and rights and created a safe zone in Rakhine with deployment of security personnel from China, Japan and India along with the Myanmar security forces.
It is important to identify the investors in Myanmar and flag them internationally, drawing the attention of global rights bodies. With this process, Prof Imtiaz said, the world will know who are doing businesses with a country which committed “genocide”.
He also sought initiatives to wake up cultural personalities, singers, poets and civil society members so that they can speak up in favour of the Rohingyas.
Prof Imtiaz reiterated that Myanmar was not at all serious about the Rohingya repatriation. “Myanmar has so far been staging drama.”
Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Benoit Prefontaine, said his country was working internationally to build consensus. He said most of the countries agreed to work together to address the crisis -- both in solving the humanitarian problem in the Rohingya camps as well as changes within Myanmar.
“Those who have done serious human rights violations should come under accountability,” he added.
Bangladesh Foreign Ministry Secretary (bilateral, Asia-Pacific) Mahbub Uz Zaman, Centre for Peace and Justice Executive Director Manzoor Hasan OBE, Justice Dr Syed Refaat Ahmed of the Supreme Court, NGO Affairs Bureau Director General KM Abdus Salam and ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir also spoke.
Comments