BY MUZAMMIL MAQBOOL
The Rohingya leader was killed a couple of days before in his office at cox’s Bazar. Since I have witnessed Rohingiya crisis first hand, worked with them and continue to speak on behalf of them from last 5 years, I have my own ways to conclude this organized murder.
Let’s move step by step.
Mohib Ullah a teacher from Rakhine state started voicing for people as a camp leader, Rose to urgent and necessary fame and became a community LEADER as he started speaking on behalf of 1 million refugees stationed in cox’s Bazar. He had a vision, power, motivation and persistence to work for his people. He demanded respect and dignity. During his visit to UN in 2018 where he was invited to meet with religious ministry at White House with Donald trump was also a western gimmickry played well by media. Fact is his speech was cut off after 90th second when he started talking about failures of UN. He was invited to Geneva conference where he had an opportunity to speak about text book example of genocide called “Rohingiya Muslim genocide”. He is also the same person who led rally of 200,000 refugees in 2018 marking Ist anniversary of mass exodus of Rohingiya Muslim from Myanmar.
The major question remains why was he killed in world’s largest Refugees camp guarded Bangladesh border guards, Rapid action battalion, detective Bureau and local police? Let me break it down.
United Nations
In 2018, UN followed by UNHCR and UNDP signed an MOU with Myanmar for the possible repatriation of Rohingiya refugees but MOU declared that all the refugees will remain confined to Rakhine state only. No identity card, no travel, no recognition, no Myanmar governmental participation into education/politics and there were number of sanctions imposed on the Rohingyas who were mentioned as ethnic Bengalis. Mohib’s organisation not only rejected the statement but condemned it with other rights groups across the globe. Arkan Rohingiya society for Peace and human rights said this MOU is A jail within a jail where we were given nothing but just a mere drama. He also spoke about Bashan char island, the place which has been identified to settle Rohingiya, he said, our representation should see the place that is prone to high tides and close to the sea. He also mentioned about non-violence among his brothers and sisters and said that violence will give us violence only. We must strive for peace and sustainability. This non-violence method to fight for land and justice was somehow rejected by ARSA, Arkan Rohingiya salvation army. But it is too tough to say who they are and how many they are among a million refugees stationed in cox’s Bazar or the 200,000 residing back in concentration camps in Rakhine. But let’s not conclude here that ARSA is behind the killing.
Bangladesh
We also have to understand that there are pros and cons of Rohingiya being in Bangladesh. The pros are that it has opened a huge job opportunity to the thousands of young Bangladeshi youths who joined Rohingiya response with zero experiences and are taking home very huge salaries. Not only this, but a huge real estate is given on lease especially in cox’s Bazar where thousands of expats/ foreigners are stationed. They travel, eat, enjoy and spend the money in cox’s Bazar which brings in a lot of cash flow to the government every single day. To grab a little idea, one such example of an international organisation is that they spent
$22 million budget last year only in cox’s Bazar. This should give us an idea as how much money this Rohingiya response is bringing within the country of Bangladesh. But the negative side of this is that a lot of crime has increased from 2017 where people were killed, held hostage for ransom and looted. This brings in a lot of burden to government exchequer to fulfil the security details to everyone in need. Bangladesh government led by Prime Minister Sheikh hasina has tried to raise the Rohingya issue at various international levels but all in vain as the burden is only shared by Bangladesh.
What will happen if all the aid organisations cancel their projects in Bangladesh?
Clearly a ciaos where thousands of young boys and girls will get unemployed overnight. Bangladesh government has no other alternative to create jobs as even projects like LICT couldn’t create any huge/local opportunities and the salary these employees are getting is class apart where no corporate in Bangladesh offers such packages(period)
China
Ever since the Myanmar junta has taken over Aung San su kyi in a military Coup, things have changed a lot. China is mining, digging for minerals gold and other ground resources near Rakhine and other parts of the country. Contracts worth millions of dollars are directly operated by Chinese firms. China has on paper invested more than $30 billion but there is more to it than this investment. They have set up a base which in any form isn’t good for neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and India. India on the other hand tried to loop in the Nobel laureate Aung San su kyi to keep China at bay but military leaders have rejected every other country keeping China at front. Some media reported that Chinese snipers were seen during projects few months ago killing unarmed protesters in the capital Naypyitaw.
Leader like Mohib always pushed ICC to prosecute Myanmar of their war crimes and genocide. In upcoming UN session, he would have definitely raised voice against Myanmar army which is mainly responsible for the Rohingya war crimes would have created an uproar against military leaders and their shadow backing China. This would have also made sure that refugees are going to stay in cox’s Bazar till the time their respectful repatriation with all rights were not given. So, this concludes that Mohib was possessing as threat to many directly or indirectly. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Muzamil Maqbool is Kashmir’s first podcaster for 101North. He is also a doctoral fellow of international relations and can be reached at connectmuzamil.maqbool@gmail.com
