e_Paper, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

6
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
DT
News
Escaping Myanmar’s
killing fields
• Jacob Judah
CRISIS
Plumes of smoke billow into the monsoon
grey skies. Small groups trickle slowly out of
the heavily forested hills that roll back deep
into Myanmar.
The Myanmar Army’s ferocious campaign
against Rakhine state’s Rohingya
population shows little sign of abating, as
streams of refugees continued to flood into
Bangladesh on Monday.
“We are the survivors,” said Anwara Begun,
44, as she tightly gripped the wrist of
her wincing child. “The military came to the
village and told us to leave; so we fled,” she
recalled.
‘They burned down the houses’
Expressionless, Anwara’s story is similar to
those of the some 73,000 other Rohingya
that the UN estimates have flooded Bangladesh
since the August 25. These Rohingya
refugees speak of villages razed and indiscriminate
killings by the Myanmar security
forces.
On Monday afternoon, the Dhaka Tribune,
from Hill Point near Kanjur, counted
some eleven plumes of smoke on the Myanmar
side of the Naf river.
“They are burning the villages,” said one
man as he watched hundreds of Rohingya
crisscross through the paddy fields. Thousands
are reported to be still moving towards
Bangladesh, or hiding in the dense
jungle in anticipation of the situation improving.
Rakhine militias and the military
are burning the villages so that the Rohingya
are unable to return.
The Dhaka Tribune has seen footage sent
from within Myanmar on Monday that goes
to show villages that had been razed to the
ground. “They are slaughtering us,” said
Hamida, 30. “They told them to lie down
and then shot them in the back.” As Hamida,
from Buthidaung township, recalled events
from August 27, her voice broke slightly:
“My children work at a tea stall. We fled
so quickly that I didn’t have time to find
them.” Hamid’s sons, who are 10 and 13, are
missing.
Fifteen metres up the road, a throng of
two hundred people are ordered by Border
Guard Bangladesh (BGB) soldiers blowing
their whistles and waving their sticks.
Suddenly, there is a rush, as the soldiers
open the back of a blue truck that has pulled
up. When asked for an estimate of the
number of Rohingya in Kanjur, an officer
responded: “No I can’t. I’m not allowed.”
The bearded man, whose eyes darted
wearily across the crowd, said: “We are
sending them to Unchiprong. There’s a new
camp.”
There is no way of knowing how many
people have arrived in Kanjur since August
25. Villagers have said that there has been a
consistent stream of new arrivals over the
past ten days.
Their homes are overflowing with Rohingya,
who have taken refuge on the courtyards
of their hosts. A tiered tension hangs
over muddy paths that lead down to farmers’
fields.
Three hundred metres east of Kanjur,
a dozen men and women sit by the side of
road. They have just crossed into Bangladesh,
and have come from Boli Bazar and
Dompai, both in Maungdaw.
“We were chased by Rakhine militias
after which we hid in the jungle,” said one.
Many, with dust laden faces, carried nothing
but the clothes on their backs.
The electric green of the monsoon lashed
paddy fields of Bangladesh seem a far cry
from what once again, are the killing fields
of Myanmar. •
Thousands of Rohingya civilians, suffering greatly, have fled the violence across the border into Bangladesh
Senior Turkish minister to visit Dhaka
today to discuss Rohingya crisis
• Tribune Desk
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Turkey’s Finance Minister
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will visit
Bangladesh on September 6
to discuss the Rohingya crisis
and how to find a save haven
for them.
In the wake of the persecution
of the Rohingyas,
which has led thousands
to flee to Bangladesh, Mevlüt
Çavuşoğlu will discuss
the Rohingya issue with his
Bangladeshi counterpart
Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali, reports
Milli Gazette.
Earlier, Mevlüt spoke to
Abul over the phone on September
4 to come up with a
solution to end the ongoing
tragedy of the Rohingyas.
The Turkish minister also discussed
their offer to provide
European Commission:
Refrain from violence
against civilians
• Tribune Desk
CURRENT AFFAIRS
The European Commission’s
commissioner for Humanitarian
Aid and Crisis Management
has called on all sides
involved in the Myanmar
conflict to de-escalate tensions
and fully observe international
human rights laws.
Commissioner Christos
Stylianides has also called on
them to particularly refrain
from any violence against
civilians.
Stylianides made the
statement on the humanitarian
situation in Myanmar in a
press release issued on Tuesday
from Brussels, Belgium.
Thousands of Rohingya
civilians have fled the violence
across the border into
Bangladesh.
“We greatly appreciate
the hospitality extended by
the Government and people
of Bangladesh for many
decades. The assistance and
protection of the Bangladeshi
authorities accorded to
these new refugees is crucial
until the situation in Rakhine
State has stabilised and they
can safely return,” he said.
“They must not be turned
back or deported,” he added.
Commissioner Stylianides
further reiterated the European
Union’s commitment toward
supporting every effort
in returning aid delivery to
Rakhine state and to working
tirelessly with all stakeholders
to achieve this.
“Unrestricted humanitarian
access, including for aid
workers, is critical to reaching
350,000 vulnerable people
in Rakhine State,” he said
in the statement.
“They must be allowed to
do their job to try to prevent
the further deterioration of an
already serious humanitarian
situation,” he further said. •
financial assistance to Bangladesh
in this regard. The two
ministers talked about recent
developments with regards to
the Rohingyas.
The phone call was part
of Turkey’s week-long diplomatic
efforts launched
by Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan. Recently,
Erdoğan held phone conversations
with over 20 world
leaders in this regard. •
Mediterranean
ship sails to
Myanmar
to rescue
Rohingyas
• Tribune Desk
CURRENT AFFAIRS
An organisation which has
rescued over 40,000 people
from the Mediterranean is
going to move to Asia to help
the Rohingyas.
The ship is expected to
take about three weeks to
reach the Bay of Bengal, reports
BBC.
The Migrant Offshore Aid
Station (MOAS) is moving
from Malta – where it has
been saving migrants since
2014 – to Myanmar.
The organisation officials
said: “[The boat] will deliver
much-needed humanitarian
assistance and aid to the
Rohingya people, and will
work to provide a platform
for transparency, advocacy
and accountability in the
region.” •
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU