More than 100 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Wednesday, with the latest refugees saying army operations are continuing in troubled Rakhine State, raising doubts about plans to send back 655,500 who had already fled. Scores more were waiting to cross the Naf river that forms the border, even as Dhaka prepares to start repatriating next week some of the Rohingya who have escaped from what the Myanmar military calls counter-insurgency operations since late August. In Dhaka, a senior foreign ministry official told Reuters that the deadline of next Tuesday for starting the Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar “may not be possible”. “The return has to be voluntary, safe and dignified,” said the official, who was part of a 14-member team at talks with Myanmar this week about the repatriation. According to the signed deal 1500 Rohingya would take back by Myanmar government per week and then they would be sheltered in a temporary transit camp in Myanmar before being moved to “houses as per their choices”. They would be sheltered in a temporary transit camp in Myanmar before being moved to “houses as per their choices”. (Channel News Asia)

Comment:

The Rohingya issue is not new to the world and it is also not new to Bangladesh. As a neighbouring country of Myanmar, Bangladesh had been witnessing the unspeakable atrocities on the Rohingya Muslims for the last 40 years. Furthermore, the whole world including the human rights organisations and the UN are well aware of the ground reality in the Rakhine state and the position of Myanmar’s army backed by the government towards this persecuted Muslim minority. Moreover, the past repatriation result was nothing but a sick cycle of expulsion of the Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state and then forcefully pushing them back to their land of origin from Bangladesh. Shamefully, to ensure force repatriation, the successive Bangladeshi governments had implemented a series of heinous and inhuman tactics. In 1978, after the exodus of 270,000 Rohingya Muslims, the then government of Bangladesh withheld food ration to ensure their return and 12,000 Rohingya were perished during this repatriation process. Then again from 1992 to 1994, the then Hasina government banned the humanitarian activities of three international NGOs and later used excessive force to ensure the return after protests broke out in the Rohingya camps against force repatriation. And this time again, after the exodus of 650,000 Rohingya Muslims in August, 2017, the current Hasina government hastily signed a repatriation deal full of loopholes with Myanmar to get rid of these unwanted people and hilariously demanding the “safe and dignified” return of the Rohingya population from that very government of Myanmar which is blinded by the extreme form of racism and Buddhist nationalism. Hundreds of Rohingya refugees have already staged protest against this forceful repatriation process in the Kutupalong camp at Cox’s Bazar last Sunday and demanded their citizenship, security and guarantee of life before sending them back to their homeland.

But the question is why the world is not trying to stop the ongoing brutal genocide to stop the sick cycle of expulsion and force repatriation? How could Myanmar regime and its killer army be able to continue this horrific persecution on a targeted community for more than three decades? The answer is simple. Dr. Maung Zarni, a UK based Burmese genocide scholar and a human rights activist, answered this question during an interview with a daily newspaper of Bangladesh by saying, it is because “Ending genocide is not profitable. Working with the killer is profitable. Because the killers have monopoly over natural gas, strategic coastlines, deep seaports, visas, etc.(so) it’s self interest…. that are in play.” This is why the international political players are playing “language games” to undermine the severity of this genocidal crime. That is why instead of describing the atrocious activities of Myanmar army as a “genocide”, the UN named it “ethnic cleansing”. This is why NATO or UN Peace Keeping Forces did not invade Myanmar under the pretext of their so called “war on terrorism” or under the banner of protecting humanity although, according to the doctrine “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)” which was endorsed by all the members of UN at the 2005 World Summit, all member state of UN have a responsibility to protect the Rohingya people from genocidal crimes and to punish the perpetrator government of Myanmar. In fact, the cheap slogans of human rights, saving humanity or “Responsibility to Protect”- only come to avail when these slogans are beneficial to the West as it was in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. But these slogans will never be used to protect the life, dignity or interest of the Muslim Ummah. Allah (swt) says in the Quran,

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا تَتَّخِذُواْ بِطَانَةً۬ مِّن دُونِكُمۡ لَا يَأۡلُونَكُمۡ خَبَالاً۬ وَدُّواْ مَا عَنِتُّمۡ قَدۡ بَدَتِ ٱلۡبَغۡضَآءُ مِنۡ أَفۡوَٲهِهِمۡ وَمَا تُخۡفِى صُدُورُهُمۡ أَكۡبَرُ

“O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater.”

(Surah An-Nisa: 118)

Hence, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar do not need any UN resolution, any repatriation deal under UN supervision or crocodile tears of the shameless Muslim rulers to break the cycle of misery. They only need a righteous Khalifah like Umar Ibn al-Khattab under the second Khilafah Rashidah (Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood who will send the mighty soldiers of the Khilafah to Rakhine state to punish the criminal government of Myanmar and its killer army and break the shackle of endless misery of Rohingya Muslims. The mighty army of the Khilafah will not only free the Muslims of Arakan, rather, it will free the oppressed Muslims all over the world and restore the Ummah’s dignity, security and prosperity by the Will of Allah.

Fehmida Binte Wadud