42 Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis 3 The Rohingya refugees Introduction 96. We have published two reports on the Rohingya crisis and discussed Burma’s role and responsibilities extensively in Chapter 2. 97. In our previous work we concluded that the horrific campaign of violence that led to the expulsion of the Rohingya was the culmination of decades of marginalisation and abuse and a textbook example of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Burmese military and security forces. This caused a humanitarian crisis of staggering size and complexity for Bangladesh and the international community to cope with. We acknowledged the immediate challenge of providing shelter, water, food, security, health and education services for an enormous, displaced and traumatised population. We recognised the further intractable challenges around the Rohingya’s longer term future, especially their accommodation and location; constitutional status, security and access to fundamental legal and human rights; as well as the likelihood that establishing satisfactory conditions for repatriation would be a protracted process. First report and reply 98. We received and published the Government’s reply to our initial report on the crisis. In that reply, the Government demonstrated a broad measure of agreement with our analysis of the situation, with the exception of our conclusions that: evidence of discrimination and abuse of the Rohingya had been ignored; or that UK policy towards Burma had been unduly optimistic about the potential for full transition to democratic rule. We believe the key strategic sentiments in the Government’s reply are: • “… it is only in a democratic, peaceful and developing Burma that the Rohingya are likely to find a long-term future. The Government will continue to support the democratic transition and look for ways to strengthen civilian rule.” • “We assess that there is credible evidence of widespread abuses, directed overwhelmingly against Rohingya civilians and carried out by the Burmese military and ethnic Rakhine militias. The acts of ethnic cleansing taking place in Burma may amount to crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the ICC”. • “DFID is aware that further discussions with the Government of Bangladesh will now be needed in order to manage what will be a protracted crisis over the medium and longer term.” • “We also recognise that large-scale returns are unlikely to be possible in the near term and that some, possibly many, Rohingya may no longer wish to return.” • “There needs to be a full investigation into what happened in Rakhine, but without the cooperation of the Burmese authorities and full access, only partial evidence collection will be possible.”