DHAKA: "For last two days I did not get anything to eat. This one-month-old baby is not even getting proper breastfeeding," said Saleha Khatun, a 26-year-old woman who narrowly escaped with her life from the atrocities of the Myanmar Army and law enforcing agencies in the Rakhine province of Myanmar, and has now taken shelter in a Rohingya camp at Teknaf under Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh.
In the past week, more than 20,000 Rohingyas took shelter in different camps and areas of Cox's Bazar District. Most of them are facing an acute crisis of food and shelter, sitting under the open sky. Bangladesh is facing extreme trouble in coping with this refugee crisis
Nearly half a million Rohingya refugees are already living in the bordering areas of Bangladesh for many years. International Organization for Migration (IOM) is working with the Bangladesh government to provide food and other basic necessities for the refugees, but the efforts still fall short to meet the need.
"Although Bangladesh is a small country … and a developing nation with limited resources, it is putting its best effort to maintain the Rohingyas,” said former ambassador Mohammad Zamir, who is one of the senior foreign policy makers of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League.
“Despite few odd incidents of pushing back the Rohingyas to Myanmar,” he said, “the Bangladeshi government as well as our people are always very kind and sympathetic to the Rohingya Muslims. But the world community should play a more active role to resolve the crisis and implement the UN (Kofi) Annan Commission's report on the issue. Moreover, the UN General Assembly session is scheduled to be held in September that should raise a strong voice to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all the people living within the land of Myanmar since their birth."
"This refugee crisis is no more a bilateral issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar," said Barrister Rumin Farhana, political affairs secretary for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. She urged the prime minister to build diplomatic pressure on the international community to stop the atrocities by the Myanmar government so that the Rohingyas can live peacefully in their country.
Rohingyas received international attention after the 2012 Rakhine State riots which resulted in the Rohingya refugee crisis of 2015 and a subsequent military crackdown between 2016 and 2017. A large number of Rohingya fled to the bordering areas with Thailand, Bangladesh, and Pakistan's port city of Karachi. Nearly 100,000 Rohingyas are estimated to live in camps established for internally displaced persons inside Myanmar. The Rohingyas are not recognized by Myanmar as native ethnic minority and are often denied citizenship and basic rights.
"It is a systematic genocide committed by the Myanmar law enforcing agencies," said Ameena Mohsin, who is a professor of international relations at Dhaka University. Expressing her frustration over the situation she said: "The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should play an effective role to save the Rohingya Muslims."
Bangladeshi PM urged to put pressure on world community to stop Myanmar atrocities on Rohingyas
Bangladeshi PM urged to put pressure on world community to stop Myanmar atrocities on Rohingyas
Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
- The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament
PRISTINA: Voters in Kosovo cast ballots on Sunday in an early parliamentary election in hopes of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year.
The snap vote was scheduled after Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a Feb. 9 election.
The deadlock marked the first time Kosovo could not form a government since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a 1998-99 war that ended in a NATO intervention.
The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament, after other mainstream parties refused an alliance.
According to Kosovo’s election laws, 20 parliamentary seats are automatically assigned to ethnic Serb representatives and other minority parties.
Another inconclusive vote would further deepen the crisis. Kosovo has already not approved a budget for next year, sparking fears of possible negative effects on the already poor economy in the country of 2 million people.
Lawmakers are set to elect a new president in March as current President Vjosa Osmani’s mandate expires in early April. If this fails too, another snap election must be held.
The main opposition parties are the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Democratic Party of Kosovo. They have accused Kurti of authoritarianism and of alienating Kosovo’s US and European Union allies since he came to power in 2021.
A former political prisoner during Serbia’s rule in Kosovo, the 50-year-old Kurti has taken a tough stand in talks mediated by the European Union on normalizing relations with Belgrade. In response, the EU and the United States imposed punitive measures.
Kurti has promised to buy military equipment to boost security.
No reliable pre-election polls have been published. Kurti’s party at the previous election won around 42 percent of the votes while the two main rival parties had together around 40 percent.
Analysts say that even the slightest changes in numbers on Sunday could prove decisive for the future distribution of power but that nothing is certain.
Tensions with restive ethnic Serbs in the north exploded in clashes in 2023 when scores of NATO-led peacekeepers were injured. In a positive step, ethnic Serb mayors this month took power peacefully there after a municipal vote.
Kurti has also agreed to accept third-country migrants deported from the United States as part of tough anti-immigration measures by the administration of President Donald Trump. One migrant has arrived so far, authorities have told The Associated Press.
Kosovo is one of the six Western Balkan countries striving to eventually join the EU, but both Kosovo and Serbia have been told they must first normalize relations.
