Bangladesh’s interim chief Muhammad Yunus has warned that his nation can not present further assist for the 1.5 million Rohingya refugees it shelters, calling on the worldwide group to work on a roadmap for the voluntary return of the persecuted minority again to their homeland in Myanmar.
Talking in Cox’s Bazar on Monday at a two-day convention marking eight years for the reason that mass expulsion of the principally Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the Nobel peace laureate unveiled a seven-point plan geared toward securing the refugees’ protected and voluntary return.
“Their proper to return to their very own dwelling and homeland must be secured,” he mentioned, urging all events to develop “a sensible roadmap for his or her protected and dignified, voluntary and sustainable return… The time is for motion proper now.” Yunus additionally appealed to donors to reverse declining funding, stressing that elevated assist was important to maintain life-saving help programmes.
His proposals name for a right away finish to violence in Myanmar, the creation of dialogue platforms to ease tensions between ethnic teams, and stronger involvement from ASEAN and regional powers to revive stability.
Yunus urged governments worldwide to face agency in opposition to Myanmar’s “heinous crime of ethnic cleaning” and to rethink their relations with the nation’s army regime.
He additionally known as for renewed momentum in accountability efforts on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) and Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC), insisting that justice was central to ending the genocide and guaranteeing the Rohingya’s protected return.
Practically 800,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 following a brutal army crackdown that the United Nations has described as genocide.
1000’s extra have arrived since. “The influence on our financial system, assets, atmosphere, ecosystem, society, and governance has been big. I thank our host group and the folks of Bangladesh for his or her wholehearted assist and large sacrifices,” Yunus mentioned.
Repatriation stays harmful
Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Cox’s Bazar, mentioned hundreds of Rohingya marched to demand justice and repatriation as they noticed the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.
“Individuals right here we’ve been speaking to, they’ve been out demonstrating across the camps right this moment. They’re calling for 2 issues. One is for justice for the genocide in 2017, eight years in the past to today. Secondly, about repatriating them. They completely wish to go dwelling. That is on the high of everybody’s checklist of calls for right here,” he mentioned.
Cheng added that ongoing preventing throughout the border made any repatriation effort troublesome. “It’s nonetheless a really unstable state of affairs inside Myanmar. So what Bangladesh or the remainder of the worldwide communities can do to get them dwelling at this stage may be very arduous to see.”
On Monday, greater than rights teams in a joint assertion known as on the worldwide group to pursue accountability for genocide and different atrocities dedicated in opposition to Rohingya folks in Myanmar.
“Eight years on from the beginning of the Myanmar army’s genocidal assaults in opposition to Rohingya, not a single individual has been held criminally accountable. It is a deep stain on the world’s conscience,” mentioned Patrick Phongsathorn, Senior Advocate at Fortify Rights.
“It’s not too late to handle this injustice. The UN Safety Council ought to instantly refer the state of affairs in Myanmar to the Worldwide Prison Courtroom, and all UN Member States ought to discover each doable avenue to pursue justice for the Rohingya.”
The Cox’s Bazar convention comes earlier than a UN convention in New York on September 30, however prospects for a protected and swift return stay slim.
Bangladesh has registered greater than 150,000 new arrivals since early 2024, whilst preventing in Rakhine worsens and world funding dries up following United States President Donald Trump’s freeze on humanitarian help.
The World Meals Programme, which relied on US contributions for nearly half its 2024 funds, warned this month that 57 % of households in central Rakhine can not meet primary meals wants.
Contained in the camps, meals scarcity is a every day wrestle. Refugees reside on a month-to-month ration card value about $12.
In 2022, the ICJ, the best courtroom of the UN, superior a separate case in opposition to Myanmar, introduced by The Gambia, that investigates accountability for the genocide in opposition to the Rohingya.
The prosecutor of the ICC in 2024 requested a global arrest warrant for Myanmar’s army ruler, Senior Common Min Aung Hlaing, for the persecution of the Rohingya.
