Bangladesh
Rohingya Rohingyas want citizenship rights guaranteed to return to Myanmar
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, August 26: 'One cannot stay long in any place as a guest. We were forcibly displaced in our own country and found refuge in Bangladesh with wounded bodies and minds. The wounds of the body have healed with the cooperation of the United Nations and the sincerity of Bangladesh, but the wounds of the mind will not heal until Myanmar takes us back with full citizenship rights. As Rohingyas, we will return to Myanmar at any time if we are guaranteed citizenship and a home. We are doing well in Bangladesh, but we don't want to stay here forever.'
This was said by the Rohingya community leaders during a peaceful human chain and rally at the Rohingya camp of Ukhia-Teknaf in Cox's Bazar on Thursday (August 25) morning. On this day in 2017, the Rohingyas fled their country Myanmar and too refuge in Bangladesh after being subjected to brutal torture. They held a human chain and rally to demand justice for genocide and an honourable return to the country. Later they held a march.
A human chain and rally were organized at Tajnima's playground of Camp No. 13. B Block Head Majhi (Leader) Md. Ibrahim, Head Majhi Muhammad Ali and Rohingya leader Mozammel Haque and others spoke there. Rohingyas held a peaceful human chain and rally in 20 camps including Camp No. 16, Kutupalong Lombaya, Balukhali Panbazar Camp in Sulimullah Kata area.
Thanking the Bangladesh government and the Prime Minister for giving them safe shelter, the Rohingya community leaders said to their tribesmen, "Please refrain from doing anything that upsets the government and people of this country because they have given us shelter. Many of us are involved in various criminal activities including drugs and have shamed the entire sheltered Rohingya community. There is no accurate calculation of how many days, and how many years it takes for repatriation. Until then, let the Bangladesh government and the local people give us shelter, maintain that situation."
Amena Khatun, an elderly Rohingya woman, said, "We have been subjected to inhuman torture by Myanmar. They raped women and killed children and threw them into the fire. They killed both the mother and the child by cutting the stomach of the pregnant woman. No one else in the world should be a victim of such brutality."
