Rohingya refugees stretch out their hands to receive aid distributed by local organizations at the Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox\'s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 14, 2017. Indonesia has just flown its first shipment of humanitarian aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, comprising tents, blankets, rice and sanitation equipment.
CHITTAGONG, KOMPAS – The aid packages sent by the Indonesian government to refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state arrived in Chittangong, Bangladesh, on Thursday (14/9/2017). The aid, comprising tents, blankets, rice and sanitation equipment, meets the needs of the Rohingya refugees, many of whom currently sleep on the ground out in the open.
Indonesian Ambassador to Bangladesh Rina P Soemarno said that the overcrowded refugee camp in Cox’s Bazarwas one of the targeted recipients of the aid package. Many refugees are scattered outside the camp and have no shelter. Some are forced to sleep next to local homes.
“The Bangladeshi government has been waiting for the aid, as there have been reports of shortages,” Rina said, as Kompas journalist B Josie Susilo Hardianto reported from Chittagong.
Rina said that many refugees had resorted to erecting makeshift tents made from branches and plastic rods. “The roofs are easily blown away by the wind,” she said.
Many of the refugees sleep outside on open ground muddied by rain. “Therefore, the tents in the aid package we provide will help them a lot,” Rina said.
From Chittagong, the aid will be transported on Friday morning to Cox’s Bazar, some 170 kilometers away. Indonesia’s humanitarian aid team will coordinate with a number of international agencies operating in the region.
The humanitarian aid that arrived in Chittagong on Thursday afternoon was part of the batch President Joko Widodo sent off on Wednesday morning. Four C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft of the Indonesian Air Force flew the aid package from Jakarta, stopping over at Aceh’s Sultan Iskandar Muda airport to await permission to fly on to Chittagong.
On Thursday, the first two Hercules aircraft, bearing the numbers A-1316 and A-1325, flew to Chittagong. The remaining two aircraft, A-1319 and A-1336, departed Aceh on Friday morning. Air Cmdr. Nanang Santoso and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) director of the Junjungan Tambunan disaster response division led the humanitarian mission to Chittagong.
More refugees
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused the United Nations Security Council of ignoring the military violence endured by the people of Rakhine state. However, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has refuted this accusation and denounced the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine.
The refugees fleeing Rakhine for Bangladesh now number 389,000 people and the UN is concerned that this number will continue to grow if the crisis does not end soon. The number of refugees has increased by 10,000 people in just 24 hours.
“At first, there were between 79,000 and 80,000 refugees. In a space of only 2.5 weeks, some 400,000 refugees have arrived here,”said International Organization for Migration (IOM) director Mohammad Abdiker.
He said he was concerned about the possibility that, if no political solution was reached, all Rohingya people would cross the border into Bangladesh. There are at least 1.1 million Rohingya people. Of the total number of refugees, 60 percent are children. This is especially worrying, due to the abysmal condition of the refugee camps.
‘Domestic problem’
The Myanmarese military’s aggressive response in Rakhine was triggered by a series of attacks the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militant group carried out against a number of security and military posts on Aug. 25, during which dozens of police and military personnel were killed. China, a close ally of Myanmar, has deemed the subsequent military retaliation a domestic matter.
“Regarding the terrorist attack in Rakhine, China’s stance is clear. This is a domestic problem,” Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang said, as quoted by Myanmar’s government-run newspaper, Global New Light Myanmar.
“The retaliation by the Myanmarese military against the terrorist and extremist groups, as well as the Myanmarese government’s efforts to help its people, must be supported,” Hong said.
This is despite Antonio Guterres’s statement that the military action targets a specific ethnic group and has resulted in 400,000 Rohingya people fleeing their homes. A large influx of Rohingya people continues to arrive in Bangladesh, seeking safety.
Hong’s statement contradicts that of the Chinese Ambassador to the UN, who has urged an immediate end to the crisis.
The violence in Rakhine and subsequent mass exodus of refugees have been a heavy burden for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She has received widespread condemnation, including demands to strip her of the Nobel Prize, for her silence on the crisis.
Many have alleged that her stance is influenced by the fact that Myanmar’s national security is still managed by the general that headed the country’s military regime for five decades.
