Le calvaire d’Hassina – jeune Rohingya

par | Fév 26, 2018 | Rohingyas

Le calvaire d’Hassina jeune Rohingya

La famille d’Hassina n’a jamais su lui expliquer pourquoi un tel sort était réservé aux Rohingya. Son grand-père, un modeste propriétaire terrien, se contentait de lui dire qu’il fallait stocker le moins de riz possible chez eux, par crainte des vols. « Nous nous attendions à une vie de malheur, confie cette femme de 22 ans, mais pas à cela. » « Cela », c’est l’histoire qui la hante depuis des mois et qu’elle évoque d’une voix sombre, le visage éteint, en partie caché par son voile. Assise à ses côtés, sous la tente où elles essaient de survivre, sa belle-sœur Asma la soutient du regard. Dehors s’étend Kutupalong, le plus vaste camp de réfugiés au monde : plus de 688 000 personnes arrivées ici, au Bangladesh, ces cinq derniers mois. A l’horizon se dressent les collines verdoyantes de leur pays, la Birmanie, et plus loin encore, à vingt kilomètres à vol d’oiseau, leur village natal, Tula Toli. Une bourgade de quelques milliers d’habitants où la rivière, un jour de fin d’été, est devenue rouge sang…

L’unique crime d’Hassina Begum, frêle silhouette drapée de beige rosé, est d’être née Rohingya, ces musulmans que les autres Birmans, en majorité bouddhistes, nomment « Bengalis » pour bien montrer qu’ils n’ont pas le statut de citoyen. Le journal officiel Global New Light of Myanmar ne les a-t-il pas comparés à des « puces qu’[ils] abhorr [ent] pour leur puanteur et parce qu’elles [leur] sucent le sang » ? Hassina peut témoigner de cette haine, elle qui n’a jamais connu que la ségrégation.

Dès son enfance, elle est confrontée à cette stricte séparation entre les deux communautés. Bien sûr, il lui arrive de jouer avec des petits bouddhistes, mais ces amitiés se heurtent vite aux frontières religieuses et ethniques. Sa maison et celles des autres musulmans sont distantes de 500 mètres de celles de la minorité bouddhiste locale, les Arakanais.

LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Harold Thibault

Suite de l’article : hassina

 

Rohingya refugees walk at Jamtoli camp

par | Jan 24, 2018 | Rohingyas

Rohingya refugees walk at Jamtoli camp

The UN refugee agency and other groups have urged a rethink of the plan to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar amid fears of forced repatriations and the inability of aid agencies to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands who fled bloodshed at home.
The calls come as Bangladesh delayed the repatriation of the largely stateless Rohingya to Myanmar as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back was incomplete.
“In order for the repatriation to be [done] right, to be sustainable, actually viable … you need to really address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in Geneva, noting that issues like citizenship had not been addressed.
More than 688,000 Muslim Rohingya and a few hundred Hindu Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 last year after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine State, amid witness reports of killings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the delay in the repatriations was a good idea and Washington was concerned about a lack of access for UN organizations.
“People can’t be forced to go home when they don’t feel like they are safe,” she told a news briefing, adding it was only recently that the refugees had been victims of attack.
“I think everybody wants to return home in the long haul, but they want to be able to return home when it’s safe to do so.”
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the plight of the Rohingya was even worse than media portrayals.
“This is a tragedy that’s worse than anything that CNN or BBC has been able to portray,” Mattis said, speaking to reporters during a trip to Indonesia.
Monitoring Mechanism.
Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar’s crackdown as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.
Grandi said it was important to set in place a monitoring mechanism in Rakhine for those returning and noted the UNHCR currently did not have the ability to move freely and perform this role there.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it had set up two reception centers and a temporary camp near the border in Rakhine to receive the first arrivals.
Human Rights Watch, a non-government organization, said on Tuesday that Bangladesh should suspend the plan entirely as it “threatens the refugees’ security and wellbeing.”
The plan has sparked fears in refugee camps in Bangladesh that people may be forced to return despite a lack of guarantees around their security.
“We are not doing anything hurriedly. We are working hard to ensure their safe, dignified and sustainable return to their homeland. We’ll not send anyone until a conducive environment is created for them,” a Bangladeshi official, who participated in the repatriation talks with Myanmar, told Reuters on Tuesday.
He said that some 6,000 refugees, who are currently in no man’s land between the two countries, were likely to be the first sent to the camps being set up in Myanmar.
Officials in Myanmar said they were ready to begin the repatriation process.
“We are right now at the border ready to receive, if the Bangladeshis bring them to our side,” Kyaw Tin, minister of international cooperation, told reporters in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s administrative capital.
He said Myanmar was “prepared to receive 300 people a day” to begin with. He said the repatriation would take place five days a week, and then be reviewed after three months to see if it can be accelerated.
Myanmar’s social welfare, relief and resettlement minister, Win Myat Aye, said the repatriation would take place over the next two years, “or maybe less.”
“Whoever is eligible, we will accept,” he said.

 

Bangladesh/NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — PALONG KHALI, – By Reuters 24 January 2018

Delayed Rohingya Return

par | Jan 24, 2018 | Rohingyas

Delayed Rohingya Return

Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, set to start on Tuesday, because the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior Bangladesh official said.
The decision comes as tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of what they say is a lack of guarantees of their security.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years, starting on Tuesday. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centers and a temporary camp near the border to receive the first arrivals.
But Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said on Monday the return would have to be delayed.
“There are many things remaining,” he told Reuters by phone. “The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining.”
A Bangladesh Border Guard official said it could be months before the transfers begin.
The International Organization for Migration says the number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since late August now stands at 688,000. The exodus began when the Myanmar military launched a crackdown following insurgent raids on security forces on Aug. 25.
The head of the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said more time was needed to prepare the return of the Rohingya refugees to Rakhine, and urged the two governments to involve it in their efforts to resolve the refugee crisis.
“In order for the repatriation to be right, sustainable, actually viable, you need to really to address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about, including the citizenship issue, the rights of the Rohingya in Rakhine State, meaning freedom of movement, access to services, to livelihoods,” Filippo Grandi told Reuters.
The UNHCR, which is helping to administer the refugee camps, is not involved in the repatriation process.
Grandi said it was especially important to set up a monitoring mechanism in northern Rakhine for the returning people.
The Rohingya have long been denied citizenship by Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority country regard them as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Guarantees.
Myanmar said on Monday it was ready to take back the returning Rohingya.
“We are ready to accept them once they come back. On our part, the preparation is ready,” Ko Ko Naing, director general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told Reuters by phone.
He declined to comment on whether Bangladesh had informed Myanmar about the delay.
At the Palong Khali refugee camp, near the Naf River that marks the border between the two countries, a group of Rohingya leaders gathered early on Monday morning with a loudspeaker and a banner listing a set of demands for their return to Myanmar.
These include security guarantees, the granting of citizenship and the group’s recognition as one of Myanmar’s official ethnic minorities. The Rohingya are also asking that homes, mosques and schools that were burned down or damaged in the military operation be rebuilt.
Bangladesh army troops arrived at the camp and dispersed a crowd of at least 300 people who had gathered to listen to the leaders, according to witnesses who said they saw the army take away one of the Rohingya leaders.
Bangladesh army spokesman Rashedul Hasan said he had not received any information about protests in refugee camps on Monday.
A Bangladesh Border Guard official said there would be no forced repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar and denied they would lose their food ration cards if they remained in the camps.
“This is out of the question. It will be voluntary. But this is not going to be an easy task to send them back as they are reluctant,” the official in the border district of Cox’s Bazaar told Reuters.
Myanmar has said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees before they are allowed to return to their “place of origin” or somewhere “nearest to their place of origin.”
The country’s state media reported over the weekend that authorities in Rakhine were making final preparations to take back the first batch of refugees.

 PALONG KHALI, Bangladesh — By Reuters 23 January 2018

Temporary Camp Will House 30,000 Rohingya

par | Jan 16, 2018 | Rohingyas

Myanmar is building a camp to temporarily house 30,000 Rohingya Muslims targeted for repatriation after fleeing violence in Rakhine State, state media reported on Monday, as Myanmar and Bangladesh met to discuss how to implement a repatriation deal.

More than 650,000 Rohingya have headed across the border to Bangladesh after a sweeping Myanmar Army counteroffensive in response to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25.

The crackdown has been described by the United States and UN as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar rejects.

Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh met on Monday to discuss a repatriation deal signed on Nov. 23. The meeting in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, is the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the agreement.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said a camp in Hla Po Khaung in northern Rakhine will be a temporary transition camp for people who are to be “accepted systematically” for repatriation.

“The 124-acre Hla Po Khaung will accommodate about 30,000 people in its 625 buildings,” the newspaper said, adding that some 100 buildings will be completed by the end of January.

Aung Tun Thet, chief coordinator of Myanmar’s Union Enterprises for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development, told Reuters that the camp in Hla Po Khaung will be a “transition place” for Rohingya refugees before they are repatriated to their “place of origin” or the nearest settlement to their place of origin.

“We will try to accept all of those who are coming back to Myanmar,” he said, adding that to verify returnees’ residency, they will be sent to assessment camps in Taungpyoletwei or Ngakhuya before they are moved to the Hla Po Khaung camp.

Soe Aung, permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said returnees will spend “at least one or two months” in Hla Po Khaung before their new homes are built.

It is unclear, however, how many returnees would qualify for citizenship in Myanmar. The authorities have said Rohingya Muslims could apply for citizenship if they can show their forebears lived in Myanmar. But the latest deal — like the one in 1992 — does not guarantee citizenship.

Myanmar government officials have said the 1992-1993 repatriation deal, which followed a previous spasm of violence in Myanmar, would accept those who could present identity documents issued to the Rohingya by governments in the past.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare and education. They are considered illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh.

Bangladesh officials have said it was unclear when the first refugees could actually return as the two countries need to work out how to jointly verify the identities of returnees.

United Nations agencies and human rights watchers have voiced skepticism about the resettlement plans and demanded a more transparent process to safeguard the Rohingya’s voluntary return.

Myanmar, Bangladesh :Rohingya Repatriation Plan

par | Jan 16, 2018 | Rohingyas

Hamid Hussain, a 71-year-old Rohingya Muslim farmer, first fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in 1992. He went home the next year under a repatriation deal between the two neighbors, only to repeat the journey last September when violence flared once more.
Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh meet on Monday to discuss how to implement another deal, signed on Nov. 23, on the return of more than 650,000 Rohingya who have escaped an army crackdown since late August.
Hussain is one of many who say they fear this settlement may be no more permanent than the last.
“Bangladesh authorities had assured us that Myanmar would give us back our rights, that we would be able to live peacefully,” said Hussain, who now lives in a makeshift refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh.
“We went back but nothing changed. I will go back again only if our rights and safety are guaranteed — forever.”
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to many basic services such as healthcare and education. They are considered illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh.
The authorities have said returnees could apply for citizenship if they can show their forebears have lived in Myanmar. But the latest deal — like the one in 1992 — does not guarantee citizenship and it is unclear how many would qualify.
Monday’s meeting in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw will be the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the November repatriation agreement. The group is made up of civil servants from both countries.
Two senior Bangladesh officials who are involved in the talks acknowledged that much was left to be resolved and it was unclear when the first refugees could actually return. One of the key issues to be worked out was how the process for jointly verifying the identities of returnees would work, they said.
“Any return is chaotic and complex,” said Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh’s top foreign ministry official who will lead Dhaka’s 14-member team in the talks. “The challenge is to create an environment conducive for their return.”
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said returnees would be able to apply for citizenship “after they pass the verification process.”
Zaw Htay added that Myanmar had proposed that a group of 500 Hindus who fled to Bangladesh and have already agreed to be repatriated, alongside 500 Muslims, could form the first batch of returnees.
“The first repatriation is important — we can learn from the experiences, good or bad,” he said.

Myanmar Sets Up Camps

Bangladesh officials said they would begin the process this month by sharing with Myanmar authorities a list of 100,000 Rohingya, picked at random from among registered refugees.
Haque said Myanmar officials would vet the names against their records of residents before the August exodus, and those approved would then be asked if they wanted to go back.
Refugees without documents would be asked to identify streets, villages and other landmarks near their former homes as proof of their right to return, said Haque.
A Myanmar agency set up to oversee repatriation said in a statement on Thursday that two temporary “repatriation and assessment camps” and one other site to accommodate returnees had been set up. Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, told Reuters earlier this month Myanmar would be ready to begin processing at least 150 people a day through each of the two camps by Jan. 23.
As well as checking their credentials as residents of Myanmar, he said, authorities would check returnees against lists of suspected “terrorists.”
Myint Kyaing declined to comment on how long the repatriation would take but conceded the process after the 1992 agreement had taken more than 10 years.
United Nations agencies working in the camps clustered around Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, have voiced skepticism about the resettlement plans.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration said their offers to help with the process have not been taken up by the two countries.
“Further measures are needed to ensure safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of refugees to their places of origin and to address the underlying root causes of the crisis,” said Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar.
The UNHCR says refugees it has surveyed want guarantees that international agencies will be involved in overseeing the process and more information about the security situation in their home areas.

Who Will Go? Who Will Pay?

While many Rohingya say they want to go back to Myanmar, most of the more than a dozen who spoke to Reuters said they were scared to do so now.
“I am not going back. No one’s going back,” said Hafizulla, a 37-year-old Rohingya man. “We are scared to go back without any UN intervention. They can accuse us later, they can arrest us. They may accuse us of helping the militants.”
The military offensive the refugees fled, which was prompted by Rohingya insurgent attacks on police and army posts, has been described by the United States and UN as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that, saying troops did not target civilians.
“You can have all the agreements in the world, and set up all the reception centers and everything, but it won’t make a difference unless the conditions in Myanmar are such that people feel confident that they can go back and live in peace, and have equal rights,” said a Western diplomat in Dhaka.
The second Bangladesh official, Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Mohammed Abul Kalam, said the “Rohingyas’ reluctance to go back” was an issue that needed to be addressed.
He said the repatriation process would cost “millions of dollars” but funding details had not yet been agreed and were not expected to be discussed at Monday’s meeting.
Japan, one of Myanmar’s biggest aid donors, said on Friday it was giving an emergency grant of around $3 million to help with the return of the Rohingya.

By Reuters 15 January 2018