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

Rohingya Crisis

par | Jan 3, 2018 | Rohingyas

The International Crisis Groups (ICG) has picked the Rohingya crisis for its ignominious list of the top 10 conflicts around the world to watch in the coming year, warning of persistent risks for both Myanmar and Bangladesh.
More than 650,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Buddhist majority Myanmar for Bangladesh to escape what the Belgium-based think tank calls the military’s “brutal and indiscriminate” response to a late August attack on security force posts in Rakhine State by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
Rights groups and journalists have collected a litany of reports of mass rape, arbitrary killings and arson from the refugees, prompting the UN to call the military’s behavior “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Myanmar’s military absolved itself of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation.
In picking the crisis for its list, published Tuesday, the ICG warns that it has entered “a dangerous new phase, threatening Myanmar’s hard-won democratic transition, its stability, and that of Bangladesh and the region as a whole.”
It says the government has heavily restricted humanitarian aid to northern Rakhine and continues to hold onto a “hardline stance” toward the Rohingya, albeit with broad popular support stoked by racist rhetoric from Buddhist nationalists and state and social media. The West’s moves to revive sanctions sent the right signal, it adds, but were unlikely to do much good.
Last month, Social Welfare Minister U Win Myat Aye told the Irrawaddy that Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to start bringing refugees back home by the end of January.
But the ICG says most refugees were unlikely to return “unless Myanmar restores security for all communities, grants the Rohingya freedom of movement as well as access to services and other rights, and allows humanitarian and refugee agencies unfettered access.”
In private, it says, Bangladesh admits the plan is doomed but has done little to prepare for the refugees’ stay, raising the risks of conflict between the newcomers and outnumbered locals facing rising prices and falling wages.
As for Myanmar, the ICG warns that a regrouped ARSA or other transnational groups could use the refugee camps as fertile recruiting grounds and launch cross-border attacks that would likely ratchet up already tense Muslim-Buddhist relations in Rakhine and even spark outbreaks of violence elsewhere should the attacks reach beyond the state.
“Acknowledging the crisis, implementing recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and disavowing divisive narratives would put the Myanmar government — and its people — on a better path,” it concludes.
As reluctant bedfellows in the Rohingya crisis, Myanmar and Bangladesh share the ICG’s list of conflicts to watch in 2018 with Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel, Syria, North Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and the US-Saudi-Iran rivalry.

By The Irrawaddy 3 January 2018.

Liens vers MSF

Dossier MSF Rohingya : Chapitre 1
Dossier MSF Rohingya : Chapitre 2

 

 

Rohingyas Myanmar Bangladesh

par | Jan 2, 2018 | Rohingyas

La crise des Rohingyas au Myanmar.

 

Lire ICI

 

https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/myanmar/292-myanmars-rohingya-crisis-enters-dangerous-new-phase

 

Executive Summary

Three months after militant attacks triggered a brutal army operation targeting Rohingya Muslim communities in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, more than 624,000 have fled to Bangladesh, one of the fastest refugee exoduses in modern times. In addition to unimaginable human suffering, the crisis has transformed Myanmar’s domestic politics and international relations and will have a huge impact on the regional security landscape.
Myanmar is rapidly losing what remains of the enormous international good-will that its political transition had generated. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in particular has been widely criticised for failing to use her moral authority and domestic legitimacy to shift anti-Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar and the government’s current course. Meanwhile, the exodus continues and will likely soon reach its tragic end point: the almost complete depopulation of Rohingya from northern Rakhine State.
As the world struggles to define a response, and as the crisis enters a new, fraught and highly uncertain phase, several important elements need to be borne in mind. First, there needs to be continued insistence on the right of refugees to return in a voluntary, safe and dignified manner. At the same time, the grim reality is that the vast majority of the Rohingya in Bangladesh will not be going home any time soon. This presents the enormous humanitarian challenge of sustaining lives and dignity in the largest refugee camp in the world. It also presents grave political and security risks that need to be addressed, including potential cross-border attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militant group and possible transnational terrorism.
Second, it is important to recognise that Myanmar’s political direction has been set and will be extremely difficult to change. The strength of the national consensus is hard to overstate: the government, military and almost the entire population of the country are united on this issue as on no other in its modern history. This will make it extraordinarily difficult to move official policy. Any imposition of sanctions thus requires careful deliberation: they can help send a welcome signal that might deter others around the world contemplating similar actions, but they are unlikely to produce positive change in Myanmar and, depending on what precisely is done, could make the situation worse.
This report examines the lead-up to the ARSA attacks on 25 August 2017, revealing new and significant details about the group’s preparations, and the attacks themselves. This is based on research in Myanmar and Bangladesh since October 2016, including interviews with members of ARSA, analysis of WhatsApp messages sent by the group and its supporters, publicly-posted videos and interviews with villagers in Rakhine State and recently-arrived refugees in Bangladesh. Much of the research has been done by experienced personnel fluent in the Rohingya language.  The report also assesses the impact the crisis will have on Myanmar. Finally, it discusses some possible international policy responses.

Comprendre la crise des Rohingya en Birmanie

Comprendre la crise des Rohingya en Birmanie

par | Sep 14, 2017 | Rohingyas

En près de deux semaines, ils sont quelque 379 000 Rohingya à avoir fui la Birmanie pour trouver refuge au Bangladesh, échappant ainsi aux violences qui frappent l’Etat d’Arakan (appelé Rakhine par le gouvernement). Quelle est l’origine de cette crise qui dure depuis des dizaines d’années ?

LE MONDE | 13.09.2017 à 19h42 • Mis à jour le 14.09.2017 à 09h59 | Par   Romain Geoffroy   Romain Geoffroy

L’ONU estime que près de 379 000 personnes ont fui le pays depuis fin août. Le Conseil de sécurité a réclamé à la Birmanie d’agir pour faire cesser une « violence excessive » contre les Rohingya.
D’où viennent les Rohingya ?
Un peu plus d’un million de Rohingya vivent actuellement dans l’Etat d’Arakan, dans le nord-ouest de la Birmanie. Ces musulmans sunnites vivent dans un pays où plus de 90 % des 52 millions d’habitants sont bouddhistes.

Lire aussi  :   Tensions et violences dans le nord Myanmar

Certains historiens considèrent que les Rohingya descendent de commerçants et de soldats arabes, mongols, turcs ou bengalis convertis à l’islam au XVe siècle. Voir le Monde Diplomatique
Dans le pays, l’origine même du nom de « Rohingya » est controversée. Les historiens birmans soutiennent que personne n’en avait entendu parler avant les années 1950. Ceux-ci renforcent la position du gouvernement, qui estime que les Rohingya sont arrivés au moment de la colonisation britannique, à la fin du XIXe siècle, et qu’ils sont donc des émigrés illégaux du Bangladesh voisin.

Apatrides depuis 1982, victimes de nombreuses restrictions
Une loi de 1982 instaurée par la dictature militaire a rendu les Rohingya apatrides. Ils n’ont pas été reconnus comme faisant partie des cent trente-cinq ethnies répertoriées en Birmanie. Aujourd’hui encore, le gouvernement birman ne reconnaît que les « races nationales », celles présentes dans le pays avant l’arrivée des colons britanniques, en 1823.

« il existe des tensions de longue date » entre les Rohingya et « la communauté bouddhiste du Rakhine », et « la ségrégation communautaire [y est] institutionnalisée ». Le document met en avant de nombreuses restrictions auxquelles les minorités musulmanes doivent se plier : Rapport commission Européenne  – – mis à jour en mai

« Ils ne peuvent pas voyager sans autorisation, ni travailler en dehors de leurs villages, ni même se marier sans l’autorisation préalable des autorités, et n’ont pas accès en suffisance à la nourriture, aux soins de santé et à l’éducation. »

Le document européen ajoute qu’« en conséquence de la limite du nombre d’enfants autorisés pour les couples rohingya, des milliers d’enfants se retrouvent sans certificat de naissance car ils n’ont pas été déclarés ».

La privation de droits ne s’arrête pas là. Les Rohingya ont été officiellement interdits de vote lors des dernières élections générales de novembre 2015 et « n’ont eu droit à aucune représentation politique ».

Pourquoi cette crise revient-elle au cœur de l’actualité ?
Une nouvelle flambée de violences dans l’Etat d’Arakan, souvent en proie à des troubles, a commencé après l’attaque d’une vingtaine de postes-frontières, le 25 août, par des rebelles de l’Armée du salut des Rohingya de l’Arakan (ARSA), faisant douze morts dans les rangs des policiers. Ce groupe rebelle a émergé récemment, face à l’absence d’avancées sur le dossier de la minorité musulmane. Ces attaques ont déclenché une répression de l’armée et fait plus de quatre cents morts, pour la plupart des Rohingya, selon l’armée. L’ONU évoque plus de mille morts.

« Cette fois, les Rohingya birmans sont la cible d’une campagne de déportation systématique, dont l’objectif semble être qu’elle soit totale et définitive. Une fin de leur monde », rapporte Rémy Ourdan, envoyé spécial du Monde à la frontière banglado-birmane. « Ceux qui restent derrière les fuyards sont exécutés, et les villages sont systématiquement brûlés », dit-il encore.

Lire notre reportage      :        « Partez ou vous allez tous mourir  » : sur les routes de la déportation des Rohingya birmans

Le haut-commissaire de l’ONU aux droits humains, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a déclaré que « la situation sembl[ait] être un exemple classique de nettoyage ethnique » :

« Nous avons reçu de multiples rapports et des images satellitaires montrant des forces de sécurité et des milices locales brûlant des villages rohingya, et des informations cohérentes faisant état d’exécutions extrajudiciaires, y compris de tirs sur des civils en fuite. »

Les rebelles rohingya ont déclaré, dimanche 10 septembre, un cessez-le-feu unilatéral d’un mois, mais le gouvernement birman a répondu qu’il ne négociait pas avec des « terroristes ».

Quels sont les précédents épisodes de violence ?
En 2012, des violences intercommunautaires avaient déjà éclaté dans l’Etat d’Arakan, faisant plus de deux cents morts, principalement parmi les musulmans. Des milliers d’entre eux durent alors quitter leur domicile. Plus de cent quarante mille personnes avaient fui cette année-là et cent vingt mille sont toujours déplacées quatre ans après les faits, vivant dans des camps de misère.

Dans un rapport de 2013,  ONG H R W   accusait déjà les autorités birmanes, des membres de groupes arakanais et des moines bouddhistes d’avoir commis des crimes contre l’humanité en menant « des attaques coordonnées contre des quartiers et des villages musulmans en octobre 2012, afin de terroriser la population et de la déplacer de force ». L’organisation estime que les autorités birmanes avaient participé à la destruction de mosquées, lancé des vagues d’arrestations accompagnées de violences et bloqué l’accès des organismes d’aide humanitaire aux personnes déplacées.

Entre 2014 et 2015, « quelque quatre-vingt-quatorze mille personnes (pour beaucoup, des Rohingya) ont fui dans l’irrégularité, à bord d’embarcations précaires, finissant souvent entre les mains de trafiquants et de l’esclavage moderne », rappelle aussi la Commission européenne.

En octobre 2016, une série d’attaques contre des postes-frontières à proximité du Bangladesh fit neuf morts parmi les policiers. Ces attentats, revendiqués par l’ARSA, avaient déclenché une vaste opération de l’armée. Les activités humanitaires avaient alors été suspendues et plus de soixante-quatorze mille Rohingya avaient fui leur village vers le Bangladesh, accusant les forces de sécurité de multiples exactions. C’est le même scénario qui se répète depuis la fin du mois d’août, de façon décuplée.

Où fuient les Rohingya ?
Les Rohingya se sont enfuis en masse à plusieurs reprises au Bangladesh, en Malaisie ou en Indonésie, pour échapper à la répression de la junte birmane alors au pouvoir — notamment en 1978 et en 1991-1992. Plusieurs centaines de milliers de Rohingya vivent encore aujourd’hui dans les camps de réfugiés au Bangladesh, dans une misère absolue. Dans ce pays, ils restent considérés comme des immigrés illégaux.

Aujourd’hui, les Rohingya fuient encore massivement le pays par la mer pour rejoindre la Malaisie, formant le plus grand exode de la région depuis la fin de la guerre du Vietnam.

En mai, la Commission européenne estimait que trois cent mille à cinq cent mille Rohingya vivaient dans des camps de fortune au Bangladesh, en plus des trente-trois mille établis dans deux camps officiels gérés par l’ONU, à Nayapara et à Kutupalong. Depuis le 25 août, l’ONU estime que ce sont trois cent soixante-dix-neuf mille personnes supplémentaires qui ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh.   Link text

Voir notre infographie :  Exode des Rohingya .

Que fait la communauté internationale ?
A la demande du Royaume-Uni et de la Suède, le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU s’est réuni mercredi 13 septembre pour évoquer ce dossier, malgré la résistance de la Chine, principal partenaire économique de la Birmanie. A l’issue de cette réunion a huis clos, le Conseil de sécurité a réclamé « des pas immédiats » de la part du gouvernement birman pour faire cesser « une violence excessive ».

Mardi, Pékin a réitéré son « soutien » à la Birmanie et aux « efforts » des autorités birmanes pour « préserver la stabilité » dans l’ouest du pays.

Des dirigeants de pays à majorité musulmane, dont le Bangladesh, l’Indonésie, la Turquie et le Pakistan, ont exhorté Naypyidaw [capitale du pays depuis 2005] à mettre fin aux violences dans l’Etat d’Arakan. En visite dans les camps de réfugiés, la première ministre bangladaise, Sheikh Hasina, a affirmé que c’était à la Birmanie de « résoudre » cette crise.

Que répond le gouvernement birman ?
Face à une crise sans précédent, le silence de Mme Aung San Suu Kyi, conseillère spéciale de l’Etat et porte-parole de la présidence, passe mal auprès de la communauté internationale. Pressée de réagir, la Prix Nobel de la paix a préféré annuler un déplacement pour l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU prévu à la fin de septembre. Celle-ci a cependant annoncé qu’elle s’adresserait à la nation birmane dans une allocution télévisée le 19 septembre pour « parler de réconciliation nationale et de paix ».

L’an dernier, à la tribune des Nations unies, Mme Aung San Suu Kyi, qui dirige de facto le gouvernement birman depuis avril 2015, avait pourtant promis de soutenir les droits des Rohingya.

Sa tâche est notamment compliquée par la montée de bouddhistes extrémistes ces dernières années et par la grande autonomie de l’armée birmane, qui reste toute puissante dans cette zone de conflit.

L’enfer de la traversée des Rohingyas à la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh

Il y a des Birmans là dans la rivière qui nous demandent de l’argent. Ils nous demandent 5000 takas (50 euros). Seulement après ils nous laissent passer. Et les militaires nous ont tout pris après la traversée : nos bijoux et tout ce qu’on avait de précieux. L’un de mes fils a été tué dans mon village. Beaucoup d’enfants qui fuyaient sont restés coincés dans la boue. Ils ont été découpés en morceaux.Près de 600 000 personnes ont officiellement franchi la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh depuis la fin du mois d’août dernier.

A réécouter  « Nettoyage ethnique » en Birmanie : pourquoi la minorité musulmane Rohingya est-elle persécutée ? Link text 

Mais avant d’atteindre les camps de réfugiés, encore faut-il survivre à la traversée entre les deux pays.

Pour le Choix de la rédaction, Julie Pietri et Marcos Darras se sont rendus à Bahar Para, l’un des points de passage pour ces réfugiés.

Nous avons mis huit jours pour arriver ici. Les militaires nous massacrent. Ils brûlent les villages, volent les récoltes. Pendant la journée, on se cachait d’eux dans la forêt, dans les arbres, sans rien pour nous abriter.

 
• Crédits : Julie Pietri – Radio France

Il y a des Birmans, là, dans la rivière, qui nous demandent de l’argent. Ils nous demandent 5 000 takas (50 euros). Seulement après ils nous laissent passer. Et les militaires nous ont tout pris après la traversée : nos bijoux et tout ce qu’on avait de précieux. L’un de mes fils a été tué dans mon village. Beaucoup d’enfants qui fuyaient sont restés coincés dans la boue. Ils ont été découpés en morceaux. »

 
• Crédits : Radio France

Je ne sais pas où l’on va… Je meurs de faim et de soif. Mon père a été tué. Mon frère a été tué : on essaie de sauver nos vies. Je ne sais pas pourquoi ils nous font ça. L’armée et les bouddhistes nous persécutent depuis longtemps. Là, ils nous disaient : Ce sont nos terres, pas les vôtres. Vous êtes Bengalis, vous devez aller au Bangladesh.

 
• Crédits : Julie Pietri – Radio France