By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) – Tens of hundreds of Rohingya refugees rallied in camps in Bangladesh on Sunday on the seventh anniversary of the army crackdown that pressured them to flee, demanding an finish to violence and protected return to Myanmar.
Greater than 1,000,000 Rohingya stay in squalid camps in southern Bangladesh with little prospect of returning dwelling, the place they’re principally denied citizenship and different rights.
1000’s extra are believed to have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in current weeks, as preventing escalates between troops of the ruling junta and the Arakan Military, the highly effective ethnic militia that recruits from the Buddhist majority.
Refugees, from kids to the aged, waved placards and chanted slogans within the camps in Cox’s Bazar, many sporting ribbons bearing the phrases ‘Rohingya Genocide Remembrance’.
“Hope is home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar,” the placards learn.
“Enough is enough. Stop violence and attacks on the Rohingya community,” refugee Hafizur Rahman mentioned.
The newest assaults are the worst violence towards the Rohingya since a 2017 Myanmar military-led marketing campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent, pressured greater than 73,000 to flee throughout the Bangladesh border.
Densely populated Bangladesh says repatriating the refugees to Myanmar is the one resolution. Native communities have been more and more hostile as funds for the Rohingya have dried up.
Bangladesh is in no place to simply accept extra Rohingya refugees, de-facto overseas minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain informed Reuters this month, asking India and different international locations to do extra.
Hossain additionally known as for extra worldwide stress on the Arakan Military to cease attacking the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
The UN kids’s company UNICEF has raised alarm over the worsening scenario in Rakhine, citing growing studies of civilians, particularly kids, being caught within the crossfire.
It mentioned that seven years after the exodus from Myanmar “about half a million Rohingya refugee children are growing up in the world’s largest refugee camp”.
“We want to return to our homeland with all the rights. The United Nations should take initiatives to ensure our livelihood and peaceful coexistence with other ethnic communities in Myanmar,” Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher mentioned.
