Many Rohingya Muslims who fled alleged killings and other rights abuses during a Myanmar military crackdown in northern Rakhine state say they are not willing to return to their homes, despite last week’s announcement that the military operation in the region has ended.<\/p>\n
Quoting Myanmar’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, a statement from the office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi last week said the situation in northern Rakhine had been stabilized and the clearance operation by the military had been halted.<\/p>\n
But many Rohingya say that despite the end of the military operation, the situation in Myanmar, also known as Burma, remains hostile for them.<\/p>\n
“That military operation might have ended, but the oppression of the Rohingyas in Burma has not ended,” Dil Mohammad, 30, a Rohingya refugee living in a shanty colony in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, told VOA. “Rohingyas still cannot freely go for livelihood-related activities like fishing, farming and collecting firewood in Burma. If some Rohingyas are found in such work, they are being arrested by police.<\/p>\n
“Life continues to be full of hardships for all Rohingyas in Burma. In such a situation, I shall not return to Burma. I think as many as 96 or 97 percent of the new refugees in Bangladesh will not return to Burma.”<\/p>\n
Rohingya community leader Nurul Islam said most of the Rohingya who fled Myanmar during the recent military crackdown were so petrified by the killings and torture they witnessed that they are too scared to go back to their homes in Rakhine.<\/p>\n “Since violence subsided in Rakhine in the past weeks, some Rohingya from Bangladesh began returning to their homes,” said Islam, the Britain-based chairman of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization, who is in Cox’s Bazar now. “They are mostly those who had left part of their families in Rakhine while suddenly fleeing violence. They are going to Burma mostly to wind up their livelihood-related activities there and to bring the rest of their families back to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n “The military crackdown may have been halted, but crackdowns on the Rohingya in Burma are continuing in many other ways. All Rohingya refugees are aware of the risks and hardships they will face in Burma. So, Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh are largely not willing to return to Burma.”<\/p>\n Abuse allegations<\/strong><\/p>\n After nine policemen were killed in Rakhine on October 9 in an armed attack blamed on Rohingya insurgents, Myanmar’s military launched a “clearance operation” in the area to ferret out the insurgents.<\/p>\n Soon after the operation started, Rohingya began fleeing the area, accusing soldiers, police and local Buddhist groups, who accompanied the forces during the raids, of abuses, including rapes, killings and arson.<\/p>\n Up to 100,000 Rohingya, as estimated by the community’s leaders, crossed into Bangladesh.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the action of the security forces in northern Rakhine very likely constituted “crimes against humanity.”<\/p>\n A week later, two senior U.N. officials working among the Rohingya refugees said more than 1,000 Rohingya might have been killed during the four-month security operation in northern Rakhine.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thestateless.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Dil-Mohammad-Refugee-in-Coxs-Bazar.jpg\")
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