UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticized as "too slow" Myanmar's efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of "enormous frustration."
The Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar's refugee camps yesterday recalled the horrors of killings, rapes and torching of their houses by the Myanmar military exactly a year ago.
A long, winding queue of Rohingyas starts to form near the only working tubewell before daybreak. As the small hours go by and the sun begins to glare, the thirsty people leave their 5-10 litre water containers in the queue and wait nearby.
With early rains falling on the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, the fear of natural calamities has heightened among the refugees living in tiny shanties made of bamboo poles and tarpaulin in the district's Ukhia and Teknaf.
The new Chinese Ambassador Zhang Zuo says that there is no quick solution to Rohingya crisis.
A Reuters graphic makes use of data from the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) to show hundreds of villages in Rakhine state that were once inhabited by the Rohingya, but have now been burned down.
Watch the Star Live Video to know more about the history of the Rohingya people of Myanmar's Rakhine state, who migrated from Bengal to Myanmar (then Burma) several hundred years ago, and have been a subject of hatred and oppression by the Myanmar authorities.
The forebears of Rohingya refugees Mohammad Alam and Mohammad Ali were Myanmar citizens. The two even voted in the 2010 general elections.
