The Rohingya: World's Least-Wanted People

Rohingya Muslim patients are treated at Sadar Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 25, 2017. Photo: ReutersKhatun and her newborn are among 62 cases of HIV – made up by a majority of women but also including at least 11 children – that have been confirmed in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps along Bangladesh’s southeastern border, according to Dr. Shaheen Chowdhury, the resident medical officer (RMO) of a government-run hospital in Cox’s Bazar, where the mother and baby are being treated.

One of the 62, a woman, has since died of AIDS. Physicians and other health experts estimate that thousands of refugees in the camps are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, but have yet to be diagnosed.

“If we come to grips with the actual scale of the problem, it would be very frightening,” Chowdhury, who is overseeing the treatment of HIV positive Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, the southeastern district that houses the refugee camps and settlements, told BenarNews.

Myanmar – from where 615,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, according to the latest U.N. estimates – has Southeast Asia’s second highest prevalence of HIV after Thailand, with about 230,000 people of the total population of about 51 million, living with the virus as of 2016, according to UNAIDS. Myanmar is one of 35 countries that together account for 90 percent of new infections globally.

“We estimate that at least 5,000 Rohingya, who have arrived in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, are HIV-positive,” Chowdhury said.

A military crackdown Myanmar’s Rakhine state spurred the ongoing influx of refugees. It followed attacks on police and army posts there that were blamed on Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents. About 1 million Rohingya refugees, including those who fled earlier cycles of violence in Rakhine, are sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh.

Stigma

Abdus Salam, a government-appointed civil surgeon in Cox’s Bazar, said more than 2,000 doctors, interns and others were working to detect HIV at the refugee camps in the district.

“A lot of the Rohingya are either unaware they are HIV-positive or they try to hide it due to the stigma attached with the disease,” Salam told BenarNews.

However, of the 62 confirmed cases, only five – like Khatun – were unaware they were carrying the virus, Chowdhury said.

“The remaining 56 cases were detected in Myanmar and the carriers knew they were HIV-positive when they entered Bangladesh,” he said, adding that in many cases, the “reuse of disposable syringes” seemed to be the cause of transmission.

“It is a possibility that hospitals in Myanmar intentionally did this to harm the Rohingya population, but I don’t know. There is no way to confirm that,” he said.

The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and refers to them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Its security forces have been blamed for carrying out killings, rapes and arson against the community for decades, in what the U.N. has described as “textbook ethnic cleansing” of the persecuted Muslim minority.

61 being treated

While Senoara Khatun declined to be interviewed out of fear her neighbors would shun her if they came to know that she was HIV-positive, her husband, Shajahan, said she frequently fell ill over the last three years.

“Every time we went to a hospital [in Rakhine] they gave her some injections and sent her back. But she never got better,” he said. “We didn’t even know what HIV was until we came to Bangladesh.”

Chowdhury said five of the 61-HIV positive Rohingya who were being treated at his hospital were at “stage three,” meaning they wouldn’t last much longer.

“All HIV patients, including those at stage three, visit the hospital for their antiretroviral treatment and go back to the camps,” he said, adding that hospital staff also provided counseling to the patients and their guardians to help them maintain a positive state of mind.

Shajahan visits the Cox’s Bazar district hospital, which is about 50 km (31 miles) from his camp, almost every week.

“The counselor here tells me about HIV and guides me on ways we can help my wife and my baby lead a near normal life despite the infection. My only aim is to keep my wife and child alive and happy for as long as I can,” he said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Rohingya Mohammad Hashim carries his mother to shore after getting off a boat at Dakhin Para in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 2, 2017. Photo: BenarNews

Nuruddin, who did not want his full name disclosed, admitted to taking his boat to the Myanmar side after dark to pick up Rohingya.

“[It takes] a little under two hours each way,” the 56-year-old former fisherman told BenarNews, as he stared blankly at a group of men struggling to bring their fishing boat ashore. “I don’t like fishing anymore. I make more money now than I did fishing.”

Asked how much he charged each Rohingya for the boat ride to the Bangladeshi side, he said: “Sometimes 3,000 taka (U.S. $36), sometimes 4,000 ($48), sometimes even more. It depends on how much they have. Whatever they have, I take.

“I have to take out the cost of fuel. Besides, it’s a risky journey. So many people have died in these waters,” he added.

On Sept. 28, a boat carrying about 80 Rohingya capsized just 1,000 feet from the shore there, killing at least 50 people – most of them children – in the deadliest accident of its kind since the latest mass exodus of the Muslim minority group from Myanmar began in the last week of August.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in southeastern Bangladesh from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since its military launched a counteroffensive in response to attacks by militants in Rakhine state on Aug. 25, according to the latest estimates from the United Nations.

Nuruddin said he undertook two trips a day during the initial days of the refugee crisis, picking up anywhere between 25 and 40 Rohingya during each visit.

“But now the police have become very strict. They’ve ordered us not to bring the refugees by boat. So I go at night, about two or three times a week,” he said.

At least 190 people have died since Aug. 25 while trying to cross over to Bangladesh via the Naf River, which lies to the east of Shah Porir Dwip, or the Bay of Bengal.

About 450 arrested, 155 boats destroyed

Deaths from the accidents have prompted local authorities to crack down on boatmen ferrying Rohingya, who in Myanmar are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s military crackdown took place after Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents launched an offensive in Rakhine state. The military operations, labeled as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations, spurred the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh.

Since it began in late August, Bangladesh border authorities have arrested and detained about 450 people suspected of transporting refugees through waters that divide Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Last month, local police seized and destroyed 155 boats, Teknaf upazila (sub-district) police chief Mainuddin Khan told BenarNews.

“Some people are still bringing Rohingya to Bangladesh on boats. We will find them and arrest them soon,” he said.

Bangladeshi border officials describe the ferrying of Rohingya as human trafficking. In September, authorities announced that they would crack down on fishermen who were asking refugees for money to transport them to safety.

Fisherman Mohahmmad Harun, 38, also a resident of Shah Porir Dwip, said he used to take one trip daily to Myanmar to pick up Rohingya during the initial days of the crisis, but had “completely stopped” after the police crackdown.

“The last time I went was about a month ago. I would pick up about 30 to 40 refugees, charging each person between 3,000 taka (U.S. $36) and 4,000 taka ($48). I did that for about one month, but I don’t do it anymore,” he told BenarNews.

Harun’s colleague and next-door neighbor, Nurul Amin, 40, said it was a quick and easy way to make money “as long as we returned safe and sound.”

“I don’t have my own boat, so I used to rent one for 40,000 taka ($481) a day. That meant I would have to make two to three trips to the Myanmar side every day. I used to carry a lot more people on the boat at one time than Harun did so I could make a decent profit,” he told BenarNews.

Both Harun and Amin said that if police allowed them to do so, they would make the trips to Myanmar again to bring the Rohingya to Bangladesh.

“They are suffering there. The army is killing them, burning their villages. We feel happy if we can help them. And if in the process we can make a little extra money, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Amin said.

‘We are desperate, they know it’

But Rohingya refugees who arrived Thursday on mainland Bangladesh refuted the fishermen’s claims.

“There are a two to three Bangladeshi boats waiting on the Myanmar side every night to pick up Rohingya,” Mohammad Hashim, 42, told BenarNews after arriving in Bangladesh with his wife, five sons and his mother. This was his second trip to the country in the last 10 days.

“Two weeks ago, the Myanmar army soldiers came to our village and began firing indiscriminately. Many people, including my cousin, died. Two bullets pierced my father’s arm and shoulder,” Hashim said.

After hiding his family in a forest a short distance from his village, Hashim carried his father on his back for five days until he reached the river, where a Bangladeshi boatman agreed to take him and his severely injured 80-year-old father across the border for 2,000 taka ($24), he said.

But by the time he reached the Chittagong Medical College, his father died.

“I buried him here and went back to Myanmar to bring my family,” he said.

He paid 7,000 taka ($84) for each member of his family to get to the other side.

“We are desperate, they know it. So they charge whatever they want,” the farmer said before making his way to Teknaf in search of a new home for his family.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees crowd a hillside at a makeshift camp in Nikhyangchari, a sub-district of Bandarban, Bangladesh, Sept. 14, 2017. Photo: BenarNews

Mohamud was responding to a question from a reporter for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, on whether the two agencies feared that Rakhine’s entire Rohingya population could spill across the border, if reported atrocities targeting Rohingya civilians went on unabated.

“And we cannot just put our heads in the sand and think everything will be OK,” he said.

800,000 refugees in Bangladesh

The 400,000 refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh during the past three weeks represent more than a third of Rakhine’s Muslim population, based on figures in a report published last month by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, a body appointed by Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The new arrivals also bring the total Rohingya refugee population in southeastern Bangladesh to more than 800,000, including those who fled earlier outbreaks of violence in Rakhine.

"[W]hat the country is facing is a quite serious humanitarian situation. As I said, 400,000 people in about two to three weeks is a very, very large number of people to have to respond to,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner George Okoth-Obbo, who had toured refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh a day earlier, told reporters as he sat with Mohamud at the briefing in Dhaka.

“We all acknowledge that, while a lot of work has been done, there is a lot more which still has to be done. We have to step up the approach,” he said, although both officials commended Bangladesh for its efforts in letting in the wave of new arrivals, despite a huge number of refugees already sheltering in the southeast.

Rohingya refugees try to grab relief supplies on the street in front of the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 12, 2017. Photo: Jesmin Papri/BenarNewsAsked whether the international community had done enough to respond to the situation, which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday had described as “catastrophic,” Mohamud replied, “[M]y honest opinion is not yet. We like to see more be done.”

“Are we looking at 600,000? Are we looking 700,000? Are we looking at a million people arriving before end of this year?” the IOM official said, adding, “That is something putting all of us in a very difficult position in how we are going to respond to this crisis.”

When the influx began, humanitarian agencies originally predicted that as many as 80,000 refugees could cross into Bangladesh, but more than four times that figure have come over from Rakhine in less than three weeks, Mohamud said.

‘Unprecedented crisis’

Also on Thursday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bangladeshi officials would call for the Rohingya problem to be resolved when she attends the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Dutch Ambassador Leoni Cuelenaere meets Rohingya children during a visit to a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 13, 2017. Photo: BenarNewsHasina’s government has called on Myanmar to stop the violence in Rakhine that has pushed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh, and to take back all the refugees.

“Bangladesh has been confronting an unprecedented crisis to provide humanitarian assistance to lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of Rohingya, and their repatriation to their own country,” Ali said in a statement, which was read out during a news conference at the foreign ministry.

“At this critical moment, Bangladesh will place its proposals at the General Assembly of the United Nations for the settlement of the Rohingya problem, raising the main causes of the crisis before the international community,” the minister said.

Diarrhea, other illnesses reported

Meanwhile, in southeastern districts of the country inundated by the wave of arrivals since late August, humanitarian agencies say they have been struggling to provide shelter and relief to refugees because the fast-moving volume of newcomers has strained resources.

Eighty percent of the patients are children and 90 percent of them have been suffering from diarrhea and fever. Photo: Jesmin Papri/BenarNewsAccording to a BenarNews correspondent in Cox’s Bazar district, the camps and makeshift settlements that are sprouting up on hillsides lack clean water and sanitation, and cases of diarrhea are spreading among the refugees.

“Eighty percent of the patients I have been treating are children and 90 percent of them have been suffering from diarrhea and fever,” Abdus Samad, one of two local volunteer doctors in the Tanbru area near the Myanmar border, told BenarNews on Thursday.

The International Committee of the Red Crescent has also been providing medical treatment to refugees in different parts of Cox’s Bazar.

“Over the last several days, our medical teams have given treatment to some 3,000 patients. Most of them have been suffering from diarrhea, fever and other diseases,” Dr. K.M. Abdullah Al Masud, a field officer with the Red Crescent, told BenarNews.

He attributed the outbreak of illness to a lack of clean drinking water and people defecating in the open.

“Diarrhea can spread in an epidemic form unless potable water and proper sanitation systems are put in place,” Masud said.

ARSA denies terror links

Across the border, Myanmar security forces and militia in Rakhine have been accused of targeting Rohingya civilians in atrocities such as killings and burning of Muslim homes and villages, according to eyewitness accounts from refugees arriving in Bangladesh.

RFA cartoonist Rebel Pepper’s take on a recent announcement by the terrorist group al-Qaeda vowing to defend Rohingya Muslims.Defending itself against the allegations, the Myanmar government has blamed an insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), for much of the violence.

Coordinated attacks by ARSA insurgents on Myanmar border police posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered the latest cycle of violence.

On Sept. 10, ARSA declared a unilateral ceasefire for a month to allow humanitarian agencies and NGOs to deliver aid to affected parts of Rakhine, but Myanmar authorities rejected the offer of a truce.

On Thursday, ARSA issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” over reports of some 400,000 people having fled “horrors that are inhumane and beneath dignity of all human beings.”

The new statement came out two days after the global terrorist organization al-Qaeda announced that its fighters would come to the defense of Rohingya Muslims, according to security analysts, including BenarNews columnist Zachary Abuza.

“ARSA feels that it is necessary to make clear that it has no links with Al Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria … Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other transnational terrorist group, and we do not welcome the involvement of these groups in the Arakan [Rakhine] conflict,” ARSA said.

“ARSA calls on states in the region to intercept and prevent terrorists from entering Arakan and making a bad situation worse,” it added.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

"We’ve never changed our stand," Aung San Suu Kyi said, adding that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's goal has been national reconciliation "from the very beginning."

"We have never criticized the military itself, but only their actions. We may disagree on these types of actions," said Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent more than a decade under house arrest before her election victory in 2015.

The military has come under severe criticism from the international community for its security crackdown against the Rohingyas in Myanmar's Rakhine state since Rohingya militants staged deadly attacks on police posts on August 25.

Army-led security operations have left more than 1,000 dead according to U.N. figures and sent more than 500,000 people”—roughly half the Rohingya population in Rakhine state”—fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh, triggering an international humanitarian crisis.

Rights abuses condemned

On Tuesday, in her first address to the nation since the crisis flared, Aung San Suu Kyi condemned rights abuses in Rakhine state and said that violators will be punished, but did not criticize the powerful military or address U.N. accusations of ethnic cleansing.

She insisted that military "clearance operations" ended on Sept 5.

Britain says it has suspended its military training program in Myanmar, and French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned "unacceptable ethnic cleansing" in Rakhine, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to all military operations in the state.

In her interview, Aung San Suu Kyi said her party had tried in 2012 but failed to revoke a key provision in Myanmar’s constitution that would have removed the military’s effective veto on legislative reform.

Two Rohingya boys gather firewood and cross the “no man’s land” separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, Sept. 10, 2017. Photo: BenarNews

"We did this openly within the bounds of the law. We’ll continue to bring changes within the parliament. I’ve stood firm with the military before, and still do now," she said.

Under Myanmar's Constitution, Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president and has no effective role in security issues, although her NLD party scored a landslide victory in 2015 elections. The military runs three key security-related ministries, has an allocation of 25 per cent of the seats in Parliament, and appoints one of two vice-presidents.

Aung San Suu Kyi pointed out that Myanmar wants to work with the international community to resolve the Rohingyas crisis, citing her invitation Tuesday to the diplomatic corps to visit Rakhine.

"Nobody can live in isolation in this age," she said. "Globalization is the norm and we need to have enough courage to associate globally too. So, if we prohibit outside visits, it will be like we have something to hide."

Human rights investigators from the United Nations, which has labeled the Rohingya one of the world's most persecuted minorities, say they need "full and unfettered" access to Myanmar to investigate the Rohingya crisis, but Aung San Suu Kyi's government renewed its rejection of the probe on Tuesday.

"We continue to believe that instituting such a mission is not a helpful course of action in solving the already-intricate Rakhine issue," Myanmar's U.N. ambassador Htin Lynn told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Reported by Khin Maung Soe of RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Nyein Shwe and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Richard Finney.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Q: What are Myanmar’s most important challenges?

A: As the whole world knows, the biggest one now is the situation in Rakhine state. And then there is the peace process [to bring about a cease-fire with ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy since independence from the British in 1948]. The world thinks the Rakhine situation is the most important. But for us, peace [with the rebel groups] has been the most challenging.

Q: What’s the peace situation then?

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi was in an interview with Radio Free Asia, Sept. 19, 2017. Photo: RFA

A: We believe that it will finally be successful. But this will take time. If we look at other peace processes, they never go smoothly. Because there was no peace in the beginning, we are now working for peace. Overall we can say it’s not too bad.

Q: How is the economic situation in Myanmar?

A: In the earlier part of the year, before the Investment Law was passed, foreign investments were very slow. After that law was passed, it had to be followed by by-laws and a Companies Act. And after that we had to deal with laws pertaining to foreigners. These all are connected, and we understand that after everything is in place we can expect more investments.

Q: What’s your assessment of the current Rakhine situation?

A: The Rakhine situation was not calm and peaceful long before we came into power. However, now that the world’s attention is focused on it, it has become overly sensitive to handle. It is always the case when a situation is given a lot of attention, that it becomes difficult and sensitive. People have been criticizing and faulting each other. If you just look at it narrowly instead of effectively, instead of solving the problem you can make it worse. As I said this morning, we should look at the good points too. There are villages where people get along. We need to find out why and how. We have to encourage them and make their ties stronger.

Q: You have said that half the [Muslim] population [in Rakhine state] has fled, and that half or more are still living here. You have requested the international community to cooperate and help.

Myanmar's Minister of Home Affairs Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe (2nd from L), National Security Adviser Thaung Tun (C), and Deputy Minister of Defense Rear Admiral Myint Nwe (2nd from R) prepare to brief diplomats on the violence in northern Rakhine state at a conference in Naypyidaw, Aug. 29, 2017. Photo: RFA

A: Nobody can live in isolation in this age. Globalization is the norm and we need to have enough courage to associate globally too. So, if we prohibit outside visits, it will be like we have something to hide. In the end, we have to rely on ourselves for our country’s development.

Q: What do you think about the comments by the international community including the U.N. on the Rakhine situation?

A: These comments are not good for the country, of course. But we have to find out how much truth there is or what evidence they have. And if it is true, then we’ll have to correct it. If it’s not true, we have to find out why they are saying untruths. Is it because of misunderstanding, or are they intentionally attacking us? We’ll have to find the cause and find an appropriate answer.

Q: May I know the current relationship between you and the military?

A: It’s normal.

Q: Does normal mean it’s the same as before you formed the government?

A: No, there was very little contact between us before, but now we do meet regularly. In some cases we always try to get cooperation.

Q: Regarding the peace issue, it has been said that the military takes a hard-line position. What do you think?

A: There is a difference in looking at the peace process between groups that are armed and those that are not. We have to negotiate on this.

Q: You never gave in to the military while you were under house arrest, but now you seem to have softened toward them. Are they right, or do you have some other objective?

A: We’ve never changed our stand. Our goal has been national reconciliation from the very beginning. We have never criticized the military itself, but only their actions. We may disagree on these types of actions. For example, after 2012 in Parliament, we tried to revoke Article 436 [ which effectively gives the military a de facto veto over any constitutional changes]. We did this openly within the bounds of the law. We’ll continue to bring changes within the parliament. I’ve stood firm with the military before, and still do now.

Q: We are now seeing a lot of extremist Buddhists, including monks. There were some anti-government protests in Yangon and Mandalay recently. And then not too long ago in Pa-an, there was a rally where there was a lot of extreme hate speech. What do you think of this?

Myanmar's military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing meets with non-Muslims to discuss the security situation in Maungdaw township in the country's northern Rakhine state, Sept. 21, 2017. Photo courtesy of Myanmar's Ministry of Defense

A: Hate speech is never good. Spreading hate speech is against Lord Buddha’s teachings. He never encouraged hate speech. Buddhism does not espouse anger, and any kind of extremism is never good. Buddhism follows the middle path. It doesn’t accept any kind of extremes.

Q: What do you think of social media, which is becoming so popular nowadays?

A: Even developed countries with a high level of communications technology have admitted that social media is becoming very hard to deal with. People write whatever they want and use it to spread hate speech, and that has become a big concern with no solution in sight yet.

Q: Some people are saying they have less freedom since your government came into power. What would you like to say? Especially concerning freedom of the media, the arrest of some reporters, etc.

A: These arrests have been made according to existing laws. We don’t have any new ones yet. Lately, Parliament has made some amendments to relax the old laws like Article 66 (D).

Q: Can you tell us how the international community and Myanmar people should view the current situation in the country?

A: They should view it with a sense of responsibility, both the international community and Myanmar people. Our people should know that we in Myanmar have more responsibility. If we want to see our country developed and peaceful, we will have to do it ourselves. We cannot ignore the world, as we are in the age of globalization. Everything is connected, and we cannot ignore this. We need to be in harmony with the world; that is also our responsibility. Simply put, we have to be responsible for our country, and the world has to be responsible for the world. If everybody has a sense of responsibility, then nobody will have any problems. However, having a sense of responsibility is not always easy.

Q: What do you think of current U.S. policies and views towards Myanmar?

A: Any country will change its policy and views toward Myanmar depending on that specific country’s policy and its people’s views.

Q: Is the road to democracy still tough?

A: The road to democracy will never end. Whether or not this is tough is not the main issue. Some think there is an end to democracy. But has the road to democracy in U.S. come to the end? There will never be an end as long as the world exists. Democracy is harder to sustain than other systems because you have to take the will of the people into consideration. We need to give and take when it depends on the will of the people. Dictatorships never have to give and take. They do what they want. Superficially it looks easier to govern this way, but the effect on a country is worse. In a democracy, to be able to get the support of the people, you have to work harder. In the long run it’s good for the country. As [British statesman Winston] Churchill said, democracy is not a good system, but it’s better than all the others.