Rohingya crisis: Int'l community must do more
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a recent interview with Reuters accused—and rightly so—the Myanmar authorities of using delaying tactics to block the Rohingya repatriation process. She also expressed her government's inability to take in nearly a million Rohingya refugees permanently in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh opened its borders on humanitarian grounds to these refugees fleeing the Rakhine State of Myanmar, their ancestral land, after a violent crackdown on them by Myanmar's brutal security forces.
The responsibility to pressurise Myanmar's military regime to take back these refugees lies with the international community. Bangladesh alone cannot do that.
With a huge population of 160 million, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It's simply impractical and unfair to ask the country to accept a million more on a permanent basis. Providing for these refugees dispersed in makeshift camps in Cox's Bazar is straining the country's resources and discontent is fast brewing among locals. The world must come forward and extend a helping hand.
Myanmar's military junta must not get away with committing what many have called ethnic cleansing and even genocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to launch an investigation into the military operation that led to the Rohingya exodus into Bangladesh. The world community must express their unconditional and unequivocal support for the investigation.
Tahfim Hasan
Chittagong University
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