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Dhaka, Bangladesh – Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have condemned the military coup in Myanmar but say they “do not feel sorry” for the removal of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power.
Speaking to Al Jazeera in the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, Rohingya community leader Mohammad Yunus Arman said the Burmese army killed their families in the state of Rakhine while Aung San Suu Kyi was in power.
“She was silent about it. She didn’t even say the word “Rohingya”. We used to pray for her success and treat her like our queen. But after 2017, we realized his true character, ”he says.
Myanmar’s powerful army seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other political leaders. The army of the Buddhist-majority South Asian nation has also declared a state of emergency for one year.
“We are not sorry that she [Suu Kyi] is now overthrown from power, ”Arman said.
Rohingya community leader Mohammad Yunus Arman at Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh [Abdul Aziz/Al Jazeera]
Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh is home to more than a million Rohingya, mostly Muslims, living in cramped makeshift camps – the world’s largest refugee camp – after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in the Myanmar’s Rakhine State, which the United Nations says was carried out with “genocidal intent”.
Myanmar has said it is determined to repatriate the Rohingya in accordance with a bilateral agreement, with Bangladesh expecting the process to start later this year.
Last month, Dhaka began transferring some of the refugees to Bhasan Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. So far, nearly 7,000 Rohingya have been sent to the flood-prone island.
Meanwhile, the coup in Myanmar following a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy party in November 2020 raised questions about the repatriation of the Rohingya.
“For four years we have been talking about our safe return to our homeland in Myanmar, but no progress has been made on this front,” Arman told Al Jazeera.
Sayed Ullah, another Rohingya community leader in Thaingkhali camp, told Al Jazeera that they are not concerned about the military takeover in their homeland.
“We have lived under military rule for a long time. The civilian government of Aung Sun Suu Kyi did nothing for us. They did not protest against the genocide that hit our community, ”he said.
Rohingya community leader Sayed Ullah at Thaingkhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [Abdul Aziz/Al Jazeera]
Ullah, however, feared that a military takeover would mean “a more uncertain repatriation process.”
“Now that the army is in power, we feel that our repatriation process is still blocked. There is no way for the army to let us go back to our homeland, ”he said.
Concern in Bangladesh
The coup has worried Bangladesh, which fears the new military government will maintain its part of the deal to further repatriate the Rohingya.
Neighbors had disagreed in recent years over the repeatedly stalled repatriation process, prompting Dhaka to send refugees to Bhasan Char.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said regime change in Myanmar “would not necessarily hamper the repatriation process”.
“We have to wait and see,” he said, adding that Bangladesh was concerned about the coup in Myanmar.
“We still believe in maintaining the democratic process. A military coup cannot be the solution, ”he said.
In a statement issued on Monday in response to the coup, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said, “As a close and friendly neighbor, we would like to see peace and stability in Myanmar.”
“We have persisted in developing mutually beneficial relations with Myanmar and have worked with Myanmar for the voluntary, safe and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya hosted in Bangladesh,” he said.
Removal of the “ facade of democracy ”
International relations experts say the coup in Myanmar has removed the “facade of democracy” in the country and the likelihood of repatriating the Rohingya has declined further.
“You can’t have real democracy when 25% of the seats are automatically allocated to the military, which also controls four of the main ministries. So, despite the elections, the army never really gave up power, ”Azeem Ibrahim, author of The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide, told Al Jazeera.
Ibrahim said the government, which denied millions of its own citizens the right to vote “has never been a true democracy”.
He said he feared that the Burmese army “now do what it wants” and urged the international community to “draw red lines with severe penalties if the army tries to target minority groups more”.
“This is also Joe Biden’s first foreign policy test,” he added, referring to the newly installed President of the United States.
Ali Riaz, professor at Illinois State University in the United States, told Al Jazeera that the democratization process that began in 2011 in Myanmar has resulted in “a hybrid regime – a regime that has both democratic traits. and authoritarian ”.
That year, Myanmar began a transition to civilian rule after five decades of military rule.
“It was a non-inclusive and repressive system. Suu Kyi’s government was always beholden to the military with very little leeway on policy issues. However, it was a step away from military autocracy. The coup has put back the clock. We are witnessing the regression of a hybrid regime to military authoritarianism, ”he said.
Riaz said he sees no difference between the military government and the civilian government of Myanmar when it comes to the issue of the repatriation of the Rohingya.
“The Suu Kyi government represented the position of the army. The policy of ethnic cleansing was designed and started to be implemented by the military long before the Suu Kyi government came to power, ”he said.
“The connivance of the Suu Kyi government further accelerated it. There is no reason to believe that the military intends to change course unless there is sufficient international pressure.
Abdul Aziz from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh contributed to this report
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