‘We won’t go back’

"We won't go back, we won't go back. We demand punishment of Myanmar," these are the slogans that the 130 Rohingya refugees chanted in unison at a refugee camp in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar.

These refugees of 27 families, who were staying at the camp at Munshipara, were chosen to be repatriated today.

But on learning that they will be sent back to Myanmar from which they escaped persecution at the hands of the military, the Rohingya refugees broke out into a protest in the afternoon.

The refugees said they would only go back if they were given citizenship by Myanmar and also demanded punishment of Aung San Suu Kyi.

They were to be moved to Ghumdum, from where they would be sent back to Myanmar, reports our Cox's Bazar staff correspondent.

Repatriation of the first batch of Rohingyas refugees who fled the brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in August last year, was supposed to start this afternoon.

Only those who willingly want to go back to Myanmar will be repatriated through land at Ghumdhum point of Bandarban at 2:00pm, Rehabilitation and Relief Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam told journalists at a press briefing in Cox's Bazar this morning.