On the seventh anniversary of the military crackdown in Myanmar that forced them to flee, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh organized rallies in camps in Cox’s Bazar. From children to the elderly, the refugees held up placards and voiced their demands for an end to violence and a safe return to Myanmar.
The demonstrations featured slogans such as “Hope is home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar”, while many of the participants wore ribbons with the words “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance”.
Refugee Hafizur Rahman conveyed a powerful message, stating, “Enough is enough. Stop violence and attacks on the Rohingya community.” The Rohingya population has been subjected to discrimination and ethnic violence in Myanmar for a long time.
In 2017, over 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following the military crackdown, which has since become the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
More recently, thousands of Rohingya have reportedly fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh as fighting escalates between the military government and the Arakan Army, an influential ethnic militia recruited from the Buddhist majority.
According to the international medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), their teams in Cox’s Bazar treated 39 people for conflict-related injuries, including mortar shell and gunshot wounds in the four days leading up to August 7. UNICEF has also expressed concerns about the worsening situation in Rakhine, emphasizing the increasing reports of civilians, particularly children, being caught in the crossfire.
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Seven years after the exodus from Myanmar, approximately half a million Rohingya refugee children are growing up in the world’s largest refugee camp. Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher called for the United Nations to take initiatives to ensure their livelihood and peaceful coexistence with other ethnic communities in Myanmar.
Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister in its interim government, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, urged other neighbouring countries of Myanmar, such as India, to do more while also calling for increased international pressure on the Arakan Army to halt their attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state. MSF’s country representative in Bangladesh, Orla Murphy, emphasized the urgent need to protect civilians caught up in the conflict in Myanmar, stating that people must not come under indiscriminate attack and should have unhindered and sustained access to medical facilities.
