Rohingya refugees fear time for Myanmar after coup
Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in camps in Bangladesh condemned the military coup within their homeland and said it makes them more fearful to come back.
A counterinsurgency procedure by Myanmar's military in 2017 involving mass rape, murders and the torching of villages drove a lot more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has hosted them in crowded refugee camps and is wanting to start out sending them back again to Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Different attempts at repatriation under a joint agreement failed because the Rohingya refused to choose, fearing more violence in a country that denies them fundamental rights including citizenship, studies AP.
Refugees said Tuesday they are actually more afraid now that the military is in complete control.
"The military killed us, raped our sisters and mothers, torched our villages. How is it possible for us to stay safe under their control?" said Khin Maung, brain of the Rohingya Youth Association in the camps in Cox's Bazar district.
"Any peaceful repatriation will hugely be impacted," he told The Affiliated Press. "It will take a long time because the political circumstances in Myanmar is certainly worse now."
Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh met last month to go over ways to start out the repatriations, with Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry seeming more hopeful of victory and officials telling they expected to commence sometime in June.
But refugees said they totally oppose the military takeover.
"We strongly condemn the coup. We love democracy and individual rights, so we come to mind about losing them inside our country," Maung said.
"We are component of Myanmar, so we look exactly like Myanmar's common people. We urge the international network to improve its voice against the coup," he said.
Mohammad Jaffar, 70, explained they had been holding out to go back.
"The hope that we had to return has been interrupted by this modification in regime in Myanmar," Jaffar said. "Repatriation will not be secure at all under this regime. ... Now if we return back into the hands of individuals who are in charge of our torture, we will most likely have to bear twice as many pain as before."
Another refugee said repatriation wouldn't normally be possible now.
"Even if they make an effort to repatriate us, we won't agree to return back under the current situation. If indeed they take us back to that regime, they'll torture us a lot more," Nurul Amin said.
Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that it hopes the coup won't hamper the refugees' return.
"As an immediate and friendly neighbor, we would like to see peace and stability in Myanmar. We have been persistent in developing mutually useful relations with Myanmar and also have been dealing with Myanmar for the voluntary, safe and sustained repatriation of the Rohingya sheltered in Bangladesh," it said.
The US has described the Myanmar military crackdown on the Rohingya as a form of genocide. In total, a lot more than 1 million refugees happen to be staying sheltered by Bangladesh.
Monday's coup was a good dramatic backslide for Myanmar, that was emerging from years of strict military guideline and international isolation that started in 1962.
