RRC's long march to Cox's Bazaar

Monday, 03 January 2011

Teknaf, Bangladesh: A group of fifteen Rohingya Resistance Committee (RRC) members started out on a long march from Teknaf to Cox’s Bazaar, nearly 84-kilometers away, on December 30 to raise awareness of Rohingya issues among the government and local people, said the chairman of the RRC - Teknaf Branch.

The Rohingya Resistance Committee (RRC) was formed at Ukiya in Cox’s Bazaar district. Its main aim is to send Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh back to Burma as early as possible.

There are also RRC branches in Teknaf and Cox’s Bazaar. The group has held meetings in Teknaf, Ukiya, and Cox’s Bazaar to call for the immediate repatriation of Rohingya refugees. They have also collected lists of Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazaar district, said a local elder from Teknaf who asked not to be named.

The RRC has a plan to submit a proposal to the prime minister through the Cox’s Bazaar Deputy Commissioner (DC), along with their seven-point list of demands after arriving at Cox’s Bazaar from Teknaf.

The group’s demands for the Bangladeshi government are: to maintain a list of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh illegally, to seize lands that the Rohingya have occupied, to ban marriage between Rohingyas and locals, to exclude Rohingyas from voter lists, to stop the validity of documents allowing Rohingyas to buy land, to ban Rohingyas from participating in the wage market, and to take stringent steps to stop Rohingyas from entering the country illegally, said one of the Cox’s Bazaar RCC members.

Jabed Iqbal Chowdory, the Chairman of RRC - Teknaf Branch, is proclaiming the demands while the group marches to Cox’s Bazaar from Teknaf, a town on the Bangladesh-Burma border.

The RRC members’ two slogans are, ‘We achieved Bangladesh by giving our blood’, and ‘Rohingyas have been destroying our Bangladesh!’

“If our demands are not met by January 15, we will compel the government through a mass movement in Cox’s Bazaar,” said Chairman Muzzamel Haque of RCC - Cox’s Bazaar branch.

Some local sympathizers said they fear the Rohingya will meet with trouble in the near future as local Bangladeshis seek their repatriation to Burma. The Rohingyas do not wish to return to their home until the situation in Arakan State is more favorable for them.

Some locals said that some of the RCC members participate in anti-Rohingya activities because they want lands where Rohingyas’ have built homes, as the price of land is very high in Bangladesh.

Rohingya people living in border areas, especially in Cox’s Bazaar and Bandar Ban district, are passing their days in a panic-stricken situation, said a Rohingya elder on condition of anonymity.

Source: Kaladan Press Network.
Link: http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2971:rrcs-long-march-to-coxs-bazaar.