Prior to a high-level conference on the Rohingya refugee crisis in September, Bangladesh will host a two-day conference on the persecuted Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar.
Eight years after more than a million Rohingya, many of whom are now stateless, were forced to flee Myanmar and find refuge there, the meeting, which was organized by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was held. They fled a military operation in Myanmar, which was deemed a war crime and genocide after thousands of Rohingya were killed.
According to Kamal Hossain, chairman of the Forcefully Displaced Myanmar National Representative Committee, a Rohingya advocacy organization, “Rohingyas have had no direct dialogue with international bodies, the Bangladeshi government, local communities, or Myanmar.” This conference serves as a step toward solutions, according to the organizers.
Who will be there?
The conference was inaugurated on Sunday by Bangladesh’s High Representative for the Rohingya issue and national security adviser Khalilur Rahman.
The meeting, which is being held in Bangladesh’s interim government, is expected to feature Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, the country’s interim government’s leader.
Foreign ministers, UN agency representatives, international envoys, and officials from Bangladesh’s overseas missions will be among the other delegates.
The largest refugee camps in the world, where a delegation led by Rahman, will also travel to meet with the residents, who have been increasingly reliant on food and medicine.
The conference is being held because Cox’s Bazar’s 1.5 million refugees rely on handouts for most of their needs, and aid has been cut.
They can’t afford any fish or chicken because food rations have been reduced from $12 a month to $8 a month, or basically half, since the beginning of this year. Tony Cheng, a reporter for Cox’s Bazar, reported on Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng. “Basically, it’s just pulses and rice.”
He claimed that Yunus has organized the conference to ensure that Rohingya are “not forgotten.”
He expressed his hope that some real solutions to the Rohingya’s situation will be found over the course of the next few days, and that the Rohingya don’t continue to live in these camps that are forgotten by the rest of the world, Cheng said.
What purpose does the conference serve?
This is the first time the Rohingya will have the opportunity to be heard, says Nay San Lwin, co-chairman of the Arakan Rohingya National Council.
The UN High-Level Conference on the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, which will take place in New York on September 30th, is where the significance of this conference lies, he said.
In December, Nay San Lwin added, “There may be another UN meeting] in Qatar.” We hope that these meetings, which are taking place at a very high level, will at least lead to a resolution for the Rohingya.
He continued, “I think these processes can help the Rohingya find a permanent solution.” Our ultimate objective is to return to Myanmar’s full rights, dignity, and protection.
What recent UN statements have been made regarding Rohingya?
Prior to the UN meeting on Sunday and Monday, Myanmar’s Rohingya minority was requested citizenship, equality, and security.
For decades, Myanmar’s predominantly Muslim Rohingya have been targeted. 90% of Rohingya’s estimated 3. 5 million worldwide live as refugees and undocumented immigrants, according to estimates.
We are left to wonder when the enduring suffering caused by these and ongoing crimes will end, especially for the long-suffering Rohingya community as we approach the end of another year without justice for the violence that started on August 25, 2017, in Myanmar, according to UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence.
At a Geneva news briefing, he said, “The end of impunity and ensuring the Rohingya’s rights to security, citizenship, and equality are essential for breaking the cycle of violence.”
Has recently changed the situation?
Since November 2023, Laurence noted that the Rohingya who are still living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have experienced a sharp decline in both human rights and humanitarian conditions.
The most recent conflict in Myanmar, which resulted from a 2021 coup that removed a democratically elected government and established a new repressive military regime, saw intense suffering in the impoverished state.
According to Laurence, both the military and the Arakan Army’s local ethnic fighters have committed and continue to commit grave atrocity crimes against the Rohingya with impunity.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is urging the international community to increase aid to the Rohingya, Laurence continued.
Fatema Khatoon, who has eluded Myanmar three times as a result of military crackdowns in 1978, 1992, and once more in 2018, is uncertain about the outcome of the conference.
I want to return my land and property with justice. There should be peace, I hope. Eight years have passed since my third visit here. How long must suffering continue? she told Al Jazeera.
In the overcrowded settlements, where many Rohingya rely on aid and suffer from widespread malnutrition, severe hardship has already been brought on by successive aid cuts.
Are proposals for additional conferences made?
Source: Aljazeera
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