Bangladesh, Cox’s Bazar: the violence of armed gangs against the Rohingya refugees who fled the brutality of the coup junta in Myanmar

COX’S BAZAR (Bangladesh – AsiaNews) – The Ong Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Bangladesh authorities of failing to protect Rohingya refugees, tormented by real armed gangs responsible for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnappings and murders inside the refugee camps. The most significant crimes were committed when two Rohingya leaders were assassinated, less than a year after the murder of Mohib Ullah, a prominent ethnic minority rights activist.

One million refugees from Myanmar. Today there are about a million refugees in Bangladesh living in overcrowded camps between Cox’s Bazar and the isolated island of Bhasan Char. Most have fled persecution by the Burmese military since 2017. Human Rights Watch has called for refugees to be given tools to report gang crimes, as Bangladesh authorities force Rohingya leaders to serve as informants to counter the phenomenon of armed gangs, but are then left exposed to retaliation.

Murder, torture, rape, forced marriage. US Civilian Security and Human Rights Representative Uzra Zeya and South Asian Affairs Envoy Donald Lu visited a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar in recent days, where HRW documented at least 26 cases of violence, including murders, kidnappings, torture, rape and forced marriages. And this “only” by collecting 45 interviews and testimonies from as many people between January and April 2023, which were then compared with the medical reports and police reports.

The intention to repatriate refugees. Victims say they face obstacles in obtaining legal and medical assistance, adding that authorities are failing to provide protection, improve safety or prosecute those responsible for the crimes. “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s past pledges to protect Rohingya refugees are now threatened by violent groups and an indifferent judicial system,” HRW’s Meenakshi Ganguly explained. Which underlines how “the intention, increasingly evident, of the Bangladesh authorities is to repatriate the Rohingya but this does not absolve the government from the responsibility of guaranteeing their protection”.

Many relocated to Bashan Char Island. According to an analysis by theInternational Crisis Group, the deteriorating living conditions in the refugee camps have prompted an unspecified number of Rohingya to return to Myanmar, others to pay for a dangerous passage by ship to Malaysia or Indonesia. In an attempt to ease the pressure on the Cox’s Bazar area, the Bangladesh government has accelerated the relocation of refugees to the uninhabited island of Bashan Char, ensuring the construction of concrete houses, and attempted to facilitate the repatriation of refugees in Myanmar, where a civil conflict has been raging for over two years, which broke out following a military coup that deposed the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The seizure of weapons and bullets. If an internal report from the local police shows that between 2020 and May of this year 191 firearms and 987 bullets were seized and that 4,755 Rohingya were accused of over 1,720 crimes, on the other hand it states that between 2019 and May 31, 96 Rohingya were killed. Cox’s Bazar police deputy inspector general said his parents lack the resources to stop the conflict between armed groups inside the camp such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO).

11 armed groups control trafficking. “In reality, defenseless Rohingya are losing their lives due to actions that serve the interests of some law enforcement officers to confine the problem here”, ARSA said, which considers the police reports biased. Officials believe that most of the crimes in the refugee camps are settling scores between factions in the displaced community. The Bangladesh Defense Ministry believes that there are 11 armed groups active in controlling drug and human trafficking in the camps. Activists, educated residents and religious leaders are the main targets of these gangs: 16 people belonging to one of these categories were killed in the first half of 2023.

Yet another nothing done. In the meantime, the meeting of foreign ministers of theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with a substantial and yet another stalemate on all fronts. In fact, the leaders of the region have reiterated their condemnation of the ongoing violence in Myanmar and the organization, led in recent months by Indonesia, has simply urged the group’s foreign ministers to remain united in facing the escalation of the Burmese civil conflict .