It is a matter of disgrace for a nation of about 10 million, whose people once took refuge in its neighbouring country in the face of extermination, to push back a community that is facing the same situation.
Rohingya Muslims seeking refuge in Bangladesh. Photo credit: Dhaka Tribune
Two Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel are seen standing erect facing the Naf River, with AK-47 rifles or SMGs or God-knows-what in their hands, ready to protect the country’s border and sovereignty, to prevent any unwanted “illegal intruders.”
The described picture, published as a full-page photo on the front page of a national daily on Tuesday, could have been a source of pride for any Bangladeshi citizen if only he or she were not aware of at whom the trained paramilitary personnel were pointing their guns.
They are combat-ready to face hundreds of unarmed bare-handed humans who are mostly women and children fleeing their motherland to get rid of the systematic premeditated persecution of a “stateless” ethnic community, the Rohingyas of Myanmar.
Turning them back
Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia have repeatedly rejected and towed back to sea thousands of malnourished illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants who had been stranded for months on boats, suffering from acute shortage of food and water.
As a classic example of farce, Thailand supplied them with food and water on “humanitarian grounds,” dropping relief packages from helicopters on to the sea which were supposed to be collected, while swimming, by a group of people who reportedly were “in a greatly weakened state, killing each other over dwindling food supplies and starving to death and being thrown overboard.”
For almost a week, the migrants’ boats travelled from shore to shore seeking refuge, until Philippines came forward in the crisis, saving thousands from the risk of starvation on boats labelled “floating coffins” by the United Nations.
Do the BGB men who are, inhumanely and mercilessly, pushing back hundreds of women and children to the jaws of death really come from the same nation to whom helping hands of humanity and mercy were stretched?
We know history repeats itself. But is it really true that the greatest lesson of history is that we do not learn from history?
Opening the door to a persecuted community or nation is an internationally and universally practiced norm. Turkey is presently hosting 2.5 to 2.7 million Syrian refugees. In October 2011, the country declared an open door policy towards refugees fleeing Syria and extended to them a legal framework known as “temporary protection.”
There are about 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon whose own population is only just over four million. Jordan, Germany, Greece, and Saudi Arabia are also hosting large numbers of refugees. India has been hosting Tibetan refugees for the last 50 years.
The international community has long been ignoring this crisis, save for labelling the Rohingyas ‘the most persecuted community in the world’
The Democratic Republic of Congo — increasing its own chances for a civil war — is hosting 670,000 refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, and the Sudan. There are dozens of examples of host country ignoring the potential danger of allowing the influx of refugees for the sake of humanity.
We must remember that refugees are people fleeing conflict or persecution. And we must not forget or ignore the fact that they are protected under international law, and must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk.
Imagine being forced to flee your country in order to escape to safety.
If you are lucky, you will get time to pack a bag. If not, you simply drop everything and run for life, just like these miserable Rohingyas, like Bangalis during Operation Searchlight.
Imagine BSF pushing back at gunpoint hundreds and thousands of Bangali refugees fleeing the then East Pakistan on the fateful day of March 27, 1971.
It is a matter of disgrace for a nation of about 10 million, whose people once took refuge in its neighbouring country in the face of extermination, to push back a community that is facing the same situation. Worse, because during the Liberation War, our neighbouring country not only provided shelter to us, but also gave all-out support.
Despite the strict ban on media in the Rakhine state of Myanmar where the atrocity is taking place, from the reports coming out quoting traumatised eyewitnesses who somehow or the other succeeded fleeing the massacre crossing the Naf, it is already clear as daylight that a systematic extermination of an entire community is being carried out.
Village after village is being burned down, where billowing smoke can be seen even from different points in Teknaf. Every day, dozens of people are burned alive.
As a nation that enjoyed the support of the whole international community during its days of agony, as a nation that once experienced cruel extermination of its own people in the millions, this is shameful for Bangladesh as well as an act of betrayal towards humanity, compassion, and sympathy that once was bestowed upon it in a similar situation.
The international community has long been ignoring this crisis, save for labelling the Rohingyas “the most persecuted community in the world.” Bangladesh, however, is in the position to do something for these God-forsaken people. But the government is coming up with excuses, as if humanity needs further justification.
The only hope for survival for the Rohingya lies in the very hands that are pointing guns at them, standing erect across the western bank of the Naf. Is there nobody to show those rifle-bearing combat-ready Bangladeshis the absurdity of the scene?
(Tariq Al Banna is a freelance contributor to Dhaka Tribune).
(This article first published on Dhaka Tribune is being republished with permission).