Cox’s Bazar: Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in dozens of camps in Bangladesh marked the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding a safe return to their previous home in Rakhine state.
The refugees gathered Monday in an open field at a camp in Kutupalong, in the Cox’s Bazar
district in southeastern Bangladesh, the site of a large refugee camp. They carried banners reading “No more refugee life” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution.” They were marking what they called “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.” “We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar,” one of the protesters, 19-year-old Nur Aziz, told The Associated Press. “The rights they are enjoying in Myanmar as citizens of the country, we too want to enjoy the same rights.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, urged the international community to facilitate a process for their safe return as he addressed a three-day conference on the Rohingya that began a day earlier in Cox’s Bazar.
International dignitaries, United Nations representatives, diplomats and Bangladesh’s interim government discussed supporting refugees with food and other amenities and how to speed up the repatriation process.
Yunus said that that the “relationship of Rohingyas with their homeland cannot be severed.” “Their right to return to their homeland has to be secured,” he said. “Therefore, we urge all parties and partners to work hard for charting a practical roadmap for their speedy, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return to their homes in Rakhine as soon as possible.” Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017 following insurgent attacks on guard posts in
Rakhine state.
The scale, organisation and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the UN.