- Title: Timeline of plight of Rohingya Muslims, as UN convenes Global Refugee Forum
- Date: 6th December 2019
- Summary: Myanmar officials visited camps for Rohingya Muslim refugees in Cox's Bazar in an effort to kickstart a process to repatriate hundreds of thousands who fled an army crackdown last year, even though the United Nations' refugee agency and aid groups say doubts persist about safety in Myanmar. There are also concerns that the Rohingya don't want to go back. KUTUPALONG CAMP, COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH (FILE - OCTOBER 31, 2018) (REUTERS) MEMBERS OF JOINT WORKING GROUP ARRIVING AT CAMP (MUTE) PERMANENT SECRETARY AT MYANMAR'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND LEADER OF THE MYANMAR DELEGATION, MYINT THU, WALKING INTO BUILDING VARIOUS OF MYINT THU SITTING MYINT THU SPEAKING TO ROHINGYA PEOPLE IN AUDIENCE VARIOUS OF CONSULTATIONS IN PROGRESS Plans to begin the repatriation on November 15 with a group of some 2,200 Rohingya collapsed when they refused to go unless they were granted citizenship and allowed back to their original homes. A major obstacle to the return of the Rohingya is Myanmar's requirement that the refugees accept National Verification Cards, a residency document that conveys a status short of citizenship. The Rohingya vehemently oppose the card, known as the NVC. They say the credentials brand them as new arrivals undeserving of citizenship, despite being born in Myanmar. COX'S BAZAR TOWN, COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH (FILE - NOVEMBER 15, 2018) (REUTERS) SIGN READING (English): "MYANMAR GOVERNMENT MUST GIVE CITIZENSHIP WITH RACE OF 'ROHINGYA' AND ALL ROHINGYA 'RIGHT' TO ROHINGYA" MAN HOLDING SIGN READING (English): "WE WANT JUSTIC(E)" MAN HOLDING SIGN READING (English): "NO NVC AND WE NEVER TAKE NVC" VARIOUS OF HUNDREDS OF ROHINGYA REFUGEES PROTESTING AND CHANTING (Rohingya): "NO, NO, WE WON'T GO" At least 100,000 Rohingya refugees rallied in camps in Bangladesh on August 25, 2019, marking two years since the start of a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar that forced more than 730,000 to flee across the border, with massive crowds gathered in the morning on a hillside for memorial prayers for relatives killed in the violence. More than one million people live in the camps in southern Bangladesh in the world's largest refugee settlement. Several attempts by Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingya have failed after none agreed to go. Despite squalid conditions in the Bangladesh camps, refugees are fearful of returning home without assurances of citizenship and security. KUTUPALONG CAMPS, COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH (FILE - AUGUST 25, 2019) (REUTERS) REFUGEES SEATED ON HILL VARIOUS OF MUSLIM REFUGEES PRAYING AND CRYING
- Embargoed: 20th December 2019 00:45
- Keywords: Bangladesh Myanmar Rohingya Rohingya Muslims Rohingya crisis Rohingya timeline file footage refugee camps timeline
- Location: COX'S BAZAR, DHAKA AND GHUMDUM, BANGLADESH / YANGON, RAKHINE STATE AND NAYPYITAW, MYANMAR / PUNJAB, INDIA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- City: COX'S BAZAR, DHAKA AND GHUMDUM, BANGLADESH / YANGON, RAKHINE STATE AND NAYPYITAW, MYANMAR / PUNJAB, INDIA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- Country: Various
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00BB8UXUTJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: This video timeline chronicles an ongoing crisis involving ethnic Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar in droves since August 2017, as the UN convenes Global Refugee Forum in Geneva.
More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar's military, which U.N. investigators say was carried out with "genocidal intent". Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide.
Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingyas said Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes had launched a campaign of violence and arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.
Myanmar had said its forces were carrying out clearance operations against the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed responsibility for the August attacks and similar, smaller, raids in October in 2016.
The strife had triggered an outpouring of response from global bodies and humanitarian agencies.
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi called the Rohingya crisis a "complex" issue which her government had inherited. She said that the strife between Muslims and other communities in Rakhine state had existed since the 19th century and restoring trust and harmony would take time.
Myanmar has publicly blamed the crisis on Rohingya "terrorists", referring to militants who attacked security posts in August 2017, prompting the army crackdown, and has branded reports of atrocities, including gang-rapes and mass killings, as fake news.
(Production: Phyllis Xu) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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