Professional Documents
Culture Documents
______________________________________________________________________
________
▪ Bandarban District
on allegations that many Rohingyas had been fraudulently included in the electoral roll
with the help of election officials and local political representatives.
Sub-districts earmarked for voter list review
Cox’s Bazar District Bandarban District Cox’s Bazar Municipality Bandarban Municipality
Ukhia Naikongchari Teknaf Alikadam Ramu Lama
▪ Cox’s Bazar District
However, in Cox’s Bazar town, police raids started on 3 January, after the voter list had already
been reviewed and finalised in December 2009 and cannot therefore be attributed to the updating
exercise.
The crackdown in Cox’s Bazar District follows the announcement in the Bangladesh national
media2 picked up by the BBC and other international wire services on 29 December 2009 that
Myanmar had agreed to the repatriation of 9,000 Rohingya refugees during a meeting between
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes and Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Maung
Myint. This was clearly a political statement for domestic consumption. The figure discussed
at the meeting was reportedly 6,000 and not 9,000. Moreover, 6,000 refugees had already been
cleared for repatriation in the 1990s but had refused to return. While there was nothing new in
this announcement and no sign in the refugee camps that a repatriation exercise was imminent,
the local media started stirring up local sentiment against the Rohingya.
The sequence of events and incidents that follow pointed to a disturbing coordination and
alliance between three stakeholders: law enforcement agencies (police and BDR), civil society
through Anti-Rohingya Committees3 led and allegedly funded by the local political elite of the
ruling party, the Awami League, and local media as a campaign vehicle inciting intolerance.
1 The Daily Star, ‘EC to probe Rohingyas on voter lists’, 3 October 2009 http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/
print_news.php?nid=90181 2 The Daily Star, ‘Myanmar to repatriate 9,000 Rohingyas’, 28 December 2009 3 Anti-
Rohingya Committees are active in Ukhia and Teknaf, not in Cox’s Bazar. The one in Teknaf was established in
1996 but the one in Ukhia was formed in 2009. Their leadership belongs to the Awami League in power but their
membership also includes supporters of opposition parties. They became particularly vocal in late 2009.
4
- 29 December 2009: A misleading political declaration that Myanmar had agreed to the
repatriation of 9,000 refugees was published in the media.
- 31 December 2009: The Minister for Food and Disaster Management, Dr. Abdur Razzak,
accompanied by the local Awami League MP, Abdur Rahaman Bodi, visited the refugee camps
and interviewed refugees who reiterated that they would not repatriate voluntarily before
significant improvements take place in Burma. The same day, the Anti-Rohingya Committee in
Teknaf delivered a speech demanding that the Rohingya be cleared out of the area.
- 2 January 2010: Seven local newspapers in Cox’s Bazar claimed that hundreds of Rohingya
refugees escaped from the camps in fear of repatriation
4
.
- 15-16 January 2010: Crackdowns started in various locations in Teknaf Sub-district. In Teknaf
town and many villages, there were public announcements by loudspeakers that all Rohingyas
should leave and that locals sheltering them would also be arrested.
- 18 January 2010: The Anti-Rohingya Committee in Ukhia organised a meeting with
international NGOs but their demands were mostly business-oriented.
- 21-22 January 2010: Rohingya tenants, evicted from their rented rooms in Teknaf, started
gathering and putting up shanties near the Teknaf bus terminal but the police ousted them the
next day and told them to return to their homes.
- 24 January 2010: The BDR commander held a meeting with local reporters seeking their
cooperation in the crackdown in the ‘national interest’.
- 25 January 2010: A human chain was organised in Ukhia by an Anti-Rohingya Youth
Committee with the slogan: “Kick out Rohingyas! Save the Country!”
- 28 January 2010: The Anti-Rohingya Committee of Teknaf met once more and again pushed
their 7-point demand for a greater Chittagong free of Rohingya.
4 The Daily Ajker Deshbidesh, ‘Rohingyas unwilling to repatriate scatter in different places’, 2 January 2010 5
The Daily Dainandin, ‘Absconding Rohingyas are sheltered by locals: civil society suggests to lodge sedition case
against their protectors’, 14 January 2010 (translated from Bengali)