By ERC

The full script of Dr. Anita Schug’s interview on Al Jazeera, Doha, November 14, 2018

We are talking about human lives. We are not cattle that should be herded from Bangladesh to Myanmar. We are talking about human lives. And every single life matters. We are talking about the minority. These are the people who are traumatised. Now they are living under the constant fear.

The UN Fact-finding mission has come up with the conclusion that it is the genocide that Myanmar military has committed against our community and other ethnic minorities. Dr. Mazuki  [Darusman, the head of mission] recently mentioned in the Security Council that it is “ongoing genocide”.

The International community is not doing enough based on the amount of the atrocities that our [Rohingya] community is facing. We don’t need any more lip-services. We need durable actions. We need political solutions.

We must have the restoration of our citizenship rights. This our birth right. We were the citizens [of Myanmar]. We have the historical evidence that we are an ethnic minority in Rakhine State.

The international community must not only put pressure, and there must be actions.

The real perpetrator is the military regime. But the civilian government [led by Aung San Suu Kyi] is in complicit. It has aided in shielding the military’s atrocities. In general, both are accountable.

It should be voluntary, dignified and informative [repatriation]. All the refugees have the right to be informed if they are on the list for the repatriation. What happening right now is not at all transparent. The Rohingya refugees do not want to go to Myanmar without any of their rights or restoration of their rights.

When we talk to our people, they do not want to go. Why would they want to go when the same military who are the perpetrators waiting for them with their guns or some other measures? They are going to keep them in the [concentration] camps. The military has already said that they have attacked the militants. Are these returnees the militants? Are the children the militants? Are the Rohingya women the militants? Are the rape victims the militants? This is the question that we should be asking.

We are talking about human lives. We are not cattle that should be herded from Bangladesh to Myanmar. We are talking about human lives. And every single life matters. We are talking about the minority. These are the people who are traumatised. Now they are living under the constant fear. They are psychological terrorised. The ones who are on the list [of repatriation], some of them have gone into hiding. If anyone found on the street, they will be taken and they will be pushed back to the killing fields. And that is not fair.