FM questions Amnesty's intention

Bangladesh has ruled out any negative impact over the ongoing Rohingya repatriation talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar due to Amnesty International’s (AI’s) new report saying people these days do not believe their stuff.

“I don’t think the ongoing discussion (over Rohingya repatriation) will be affected. It (AI’s claim) is nothing logical. Nobody believes it,” foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali said on Wednesday, reports UNB.

He questioned why the Amnesty International came up with the report so late and said they might have some intention behind it.

The AI in a report on Tuesday claimed a Rohingya armed group brandishing guns and swords is responsible for at least one, and potentially a second, massacre of up to 99 Hindu women, men, and children as well as additional unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017.

Mahmood Ali said the AI talks on many issues but from where they got the information.

Referring to Myanmar military version who claimed in 2017 that Rohingyas attack with domestic knives, he said with these things how Rohingyas can carry out armed attack?

Earlier, international analyst professor Ali Riaz said if the Myanmar military and government try to use this as a justification for their brutal actions and shift the blame to ARSA, it will only reveal their duplicitous nature.

“It’ll appear very pathetic,” the distinguished professor of the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University, USA told Dhaka Courier.

He said the report is disconcerting, particularly to know that common people had been targeted for their religious and ethnic identities. “Such heinous acts should to be condemned unequivocally.”

Those who have committed such horrific acts must be brought to justice, he added.

Professor Riaz, however, said these dreadful acts by the members of the ARSA by no means exonerate the Myanmar authorities of their disproportionate response and their preplanned acts of crimes against humanity.

He said this discovery along with the crimes committed by the Myanmar government underscore the necessity for immediate transparent and full investigation into the nature and scope of the crimes committed by various groups.

“That’s why it is imperative that Myanmar government provide unconstrained access to Rakhine state to international human rights groups and the UN. Let’s not forget that it’s the Myanmar government which is standing on the way of a full investigation,” professor Riaz observed.

He said if Myanmar wants to help the international community to hold ARSA accountable for its crimes, it cannot continue to deny its own responsibilities.

The AI said based on dozens of interviews conducted there and across the border in Bangladesh, as well as photographic evidence analysed by forensic pathologists, the organisation revealed how Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) fighters sowed fear among Hindus and other ethnic communities with these brutal attacks.

“Our latest investigation on the ground sheds much-needed light on the largely under-reported human rights abuses by ARSA during northern Rakhine State’s unspeakably dark recent history,” said Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International Tirana Hassan.

Responding to a question on India’s position, minister Ali said, “This is not correct that India is doing nothing.”

He said he felt sorry that the same question is raised though he addressed it several times. “May be you do not notice (what I said on India’s position). I’m very sad for that.”

Asked about the repatriation of Rohingyas, the foreign minister said he will not give any timeframe. “But I’m hopeful.”

He said the entire world is with Bangladesh and pressure on Myanmar is building up. “International pressure is increasing gradually on Myanmar. Things are moving.”

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed the repatriation agreement on 23 November 2017. On 16 January, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on ‘Physical Arrangement’ which will facilitate the return of Rohingyas to their homeland from Bangladesh.

The ‘Physical Arrangement’ stipulates that the repatriation will be completed preferably within two years from the start of repatriation.