Rohingya influx

If it is too late to take action, Myanmar may complete its ethnic cleansing

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are now in desperate need for all kinds of support including the financial one for their survival. Quoting the United Nations, a report of this newspaper yesterday mentioned that 40 per cent of the entire Rohingya population of Myanmar is now living in Bangladesh, an already over-populated country. Though Bangladesh has opened the door to Ronhingyas and its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina talked warmly that the country would feed these people, the fact of the matter is Bangladesh is a country of limited resources, and it can hardly provide for the survival of these helpless people. In fact, the people who have arrived newly are in dire need of relief materials.  

That is why the international community as well as richer nations individually needs to extend gracious hands for the relief of these people. This apart, it is also urgent to stop Myanmar from perpetrating violence in the Rakhaine state. As of now, it appears that the Myanmarese authorities seem to be oblivious of the international community’s concern against its atrocious activities in Rakhaine. Despite the statement from the UN Security Council condemning the violence and urging Myanmar to stop the ethnic cleansing or genocidal act a couple of days ago, the authorities in Myanmar are blatantly continuing their acts of violence and more and more refugees are entering Bangladesh.

According to the UN itself, since 25 August a total of 389,000 Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh. Sixty per cent of these people are children and in every 24 hours, they are in thousands crossing the border river Naf. Against this backdrop, the international community under the banner of UN should go for tougher action such as imposing sanctions to stop Myanmar. European Union in its parliament already spoke about it, and now is the time for going for the action. If it is late, Myanmar may complete its ethnic cleansing and it would be very difficult then to have these people’s safe return to their native land against an obdurate Myanmar government.

For Bangladesh, the situation has become more problematic as it is not only hosting the refugees, it is tolerating fly of Myanmarese helicopter in its airspace again and again. As of now Bangladesh’s response to violation of its airspace several times is measured and its foreign ministry has rightly warned of ‘unwarranted consequences’ to Myanmar diplomat in Dhaka. The violation of airspace is indeed a matter of provocation and Bangladesh ought to deal with this very carefully.

Rohingya influx

If it is too late to take action, Myanmar may complete its ethnic cleansing

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are now in desperate need for all kinds of support including the financial one for their survival. Quoting the United Nations, a report of this newspaper yesterday mentioned that 40 per cent of the entire Rohingya population of Myanmar is now living in Bangladesh, an already over-populated country. Though Bangladesh has opened the door to Ronhingyas and its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina talked warmly that the country would feed these people, the fact of the matter is Bangladesh is a country of limited resources, and it can hardly provide for the survival of these helpless people. In fact, the people who have arrived newly are in dire need of relief materials. That is why the international community as well as richer nations individually needs to extend gracious hands for the relief of these people. This apart, it is also urgent to stop Myanmar from perpetrating violence in the Rakhaine state. As of now, it appears that the Myanmarese authorities seem to be oblivious of the international communitys concern against its atrocious activities in Rakhaine. Despite the statement from the UN Security Council condemning the violence and urging Myanmar to stop the ethnic cleansing or genocidal act a couple of days ago, the authorities in Myanmar are blatantly continuing their acts of violence and more and more refugees are entering Bangladesh. According to the UN itself, since 25 August a total of 389,000 Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh. Sixty per cent of these people are children and in every 24 hours, they are in thousands crossing the border river Naf. Against this backdrop, the international community under the banner of UN should go for tougher action such as imposing sanctions to stop Myanmar. European Union in its parliament already spoke about it, and now is the time for going for the action. If it is late, Myanmar may complete its ethnic cleansing and it would be very difficult then to have these peoples safe return to their native land against an obdurate Myanmar government. For Bangladesh, the situation has become more problematic as it is not only hosting the refugees, it is tolerating fly of Myanmarese helicopter in its airspace again and again. As of now Bangladeshs response to violation of its airspace several times is measured and its foreign ministry has rightly warned of unwarranted consequences to Myanmar diplomat in Dhaka. The violation of airspace is indeed a matter of provocation and Bangladesh ought to deal with this very carefully.