More than five years have passed since the military of Myanmar launched a merciless onslaught against the Rohingya communities dispersed throughout the western region of the country’s Rakhine State. Started as a notional response to sporadic attacks by Rohingya terrorists, the “clearing operation” saw soldiers destroy homes and shoot at communities before driving more than 700,000 terrified residents across the Naf River into Bangladesh.
Doctors Without Borders calculated that at least 6,700 Rohingya people died violently in the first month of the campaign, including 730 children. The head of the UN agency for human rights later referred to the military’s conduct as “acts of horrific barbarity,” potential “acts of genocide,” and “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. The mass flight of Rohingya brought the number in the refugee camps around Cox’s Bazar to more than 1 million, where they remain, five years on.
With Myanmar now mired in a nationwide political struggle between the military junta and its raft of opponents, there is little chance of a resolution to the massive refugee crisis generated by the military’s assaults. International Crisis Group (ICG) says, “To date, not a single refugee has returned to Rakhine State through the formal repatriation mechanism that Myanmar and Bangladesh set up in November 2017.”
Since the military overthrew the government on Feb. 1, 2021, the political, economic, and humanitarian crises in Burma have only worsened; according to sources, there have been close to 3,000 fatalities, close to 17,000 arrests, and more than 1.5 million displaced people. The continued scorched-earth effort by the dictatorship continues to do harm and take the lives of innocent people, halting discussions about the return of Rohingya, igniting an escalating military conflict inside of Burma, and fostering insecurity outside of its borders.
Bangladesh continues to house them despite being forced to use a significant portion of her meager resources to cover expenditures and mitigate effects on her economy, society, and environment. In this path of providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya, Bangladesh is joined by numerous European, British, and American countries.
The United States of America, in particular, has pledged massive assistance to Bangladesh in its efforts to shelter Rohingyas. Since the crisis, the United States has been the single most important country in providing funds for Rohingya refugees. Since 2017, the United States has provided more than $1.9 billion in humanitarian assistance to people in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and other parts of the region. The United States was the largest contributor to the JRP fund in 2022, accounting for 50.1 percent of total funding.
The United States, United Kingdom and Canada, to date, have imposed sanctions on 80 individuals and 32 entities to deprive the regime of the means to perpetuate its violence and to promote the democratic aspirations of Burma’s people.
The United States remains firm in her position that the regime’s planned elections cannot be free or fair, not while the regime has killed, detained, or forced possible contenders to flee, nor while it continues to inflict brutal violence against its peaceful opponents. The United States vows to continue to promote accountability for the military’s atrocities, including through support to the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and other international efforts to protect and support vulnerable populations, including Rohingya.
The United States is working with ASEAN, the United Nations (following the recent passage of a UN Security Council Resolution on the situation in Burma), and the international community at large to uphold ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the military, and support a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Burma.
In December 2022, both house of the US legislature has passed a compromise version of the ‘National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)’, an annual piece of legislation that lays out US defense priorities, serves as a description of US policy towards Myanmar. The fiscal 2023 NDAA includes — US’s support to return to the democratic govt., provide non-military assistance to EAOs and PDFs, funds to support the pro-democracy movement, assist in ethnic reconciliation, protect political prisoners and investigate and document atrocities.
In December of last year, 24 of the selected 62 Rohingyas left Bangladesh for the United States as part of the US government’s resettlement program. According to the US Embassy in Dhaka, US President Biden reaffirmed the US commitment to welcoming refugees by keeping the total admissions target in the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for 2022-23 at 125,000, with a regional allocation of 15,000 for East Asia.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet, Assistant Secretary of the US Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Julieta Valls Noyes and other top diplomats expressed the same ideology as Bangladesh that the ‘root cause of the Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar’ and that ‘safe and dignified repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar’ is the only sustainable solution.
In the quest for a strategic role — India, China, and regional actors have yet to establish a concrete position, despite greater opportunities to extend their strategic presence and establish themselves as regional leaders by engaging in the Rohingya repatriation process and peace talks to end the crisis in Myanmar. Their contributions have been minimal in comparison to what the US has done so far. While the US is strongly supporting Bangladesh on Rohingya issue, unfortunately, China and India’s geopolitical and geo-economic interests in Myanmar leave Bangladesh to manage the Rohingya crisis alone.
[Photo by John Owens (VOA), via Wikimedia Commons]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Nur-Mohammad Sheikh is an Associate Professor & Security Affairs Analyst.
