Today at the UN General Assembly room will join a UN conference on Rohingya “Muslim’ and the situation of other minorities in Myanmar.
I am not in favour of giving Muslim tag to the Rohingyas, or it is not only Muslim Rohingya who are refugees. There are Hindu Rohingya and also Christian Rohingyas in Coxsbazar refugee camps too.
Several dignitaries will join including UNHCR chief Filipo Grandi and UNHRC Volkar Turk, there will be representation from OIC and ASEAN groups, speakers include Rohingya activists from around the world.
The first half of the day is for speaking from dignitaries and the second half is open especially for attendees including civil societies. In last eight years may be in history this is the first time officially and separately Rohingya issue will be discussed in UN floor for a solution.
This has happened due to Dr Yunus and his adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman, they have succeeded in placing the issue in an international forum.
Now it must be carried forward, maybe partly with the government of Bangladesh, partly with other Muslim countries especially with OIC groups, and partly with Rohingya diaspora activists. Carrying forward is a crucial issue.
There are some prominent Rohingya activists worldwide, but they have hardly strongly connected with each other.
Recently some UK based Rohingya activists formed a Rohingya political party. Let us hope for the best and assist them to be organized and to raise the issue on an international level.
I do not think that the present Myanmar junta will take these initiatives lightly, they have support from India, China, and Russia, partly from the USA too.
They are having an election this December. I wonder whether the Rohingya issue will be a critical issue in the next election. For Bangladesh it is for getting rid of the Rohingya refugees, but for Rohingya it is a dignified repatriation, which is in fact recognition of their citizenship rights, which they have been deprived of for a long time.
How long Bangladesh can support this, if not the Rohingya Refugees will remain in Bangladesh. There will not be any tangible outline on the future course of action on realization of Rohingya rights, but at least there will be good propaganda which will benefit UN agencies in respect of getting new funds for their Rohingya refugee operation.
The UN is in a good position, they get grants while Bangladesh gets a loan for Refugee operation. Bangladesh has already received $ 400 million loan from the World Bank.
In the last two weeks we have had two press conferences in both Coxsbazar and Dhaka, trying to raise concern that the UN should invest in the recovery of water and land of Coxsbazar, and also we have presented a study on how low cost operation in Rohingya response is possible. We have widely circulated our press release, position papers and videos. We are here not with an empty head.
Author: Rezaul Karim Chowdhury
Executive Director, Coast Foundation
