Bangladesh urges Myanmar to recognise Rohingya as integral part of state, rejects 'Bengali' narrative at ICJ

Bangladesh has strongly criticised Myanmar's recent submissions before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the genocide case filed by The Gambia, accusing Naypyidaw of deliberately misrepresenting the Rohingya people as "Bengalis" to justify past atrocities and evade accountability.

In a press release issued today (23 January), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Bangladesh "takes serious exception" to Myanmar's attempt to portray the Rohingya as "illegal migrants" and "internal security threats" in order to justify "clearance operations as a counter-terrorism operation" carried out in Rakhine State in 2016-17.

Dhaka said such claims were aimed at diverting international attention from atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya population.

Gambia, a predominantly Muslim West African country, filed the case at the ICJ - also known as the World Court - in 2019, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority in the remote western Rakhine state.

In the statement, Bangladesh reiterated that the Rohingya are a distinct ethnic group with deep historical, cultural and social roots in Arakan, now Rakhine State, predating modern borders.

Their presence in the region, the statement said, is well documented in historical records, colonial-era accounts and independent scholarship, making claims of recent migration historically inaccurate.

The government noted that the Rohingya were active participants in Myanmar's political and social life until the promulgation of the 1982 Citizenship Law, which excluded them on ethno-religious grounds. Despite systematic marginalisation, the Rohingya retained voting rights until they were fully disenfranchised ahead of Myanmar's 2015 general elections, Bangladesh said.

"The systematic effort to call the Rohingya as 'Bengalis' is a denial of their inherent right to self-identify and to use that nomenclature debate to justify their exclusion, persecution, and eventual ethnic cleansing in the 2016-17 period," the statement read.

It added that categorising Rohingya as "Bengali" has been part of a "systematic campaign" by Myanmar to deny the Rohingya of their fundamental rights, including citizenship and human rights, although the community was agreed as "lawful residents of Burma" in the bilateral repatriation agreement with Bangladesh in 1978.

"Regardless of the nomenclature, these lawful residents belonging to the (Rohingya) community were assured integration into the Myanmar society as equal members in the subsequent bilateral agreement," it said.

The statement also rejected Myanmar's earlier claim that around "half a million Bangladeshis took refuge" in Rakhine during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War, calling it unsubstantiated and unsupported by demographic evidence.

It said, "Persistent Myanmar efforts in over eight years to avoid realising its legal obligations to create conducive atmosphere in Rakhine and to facilitate the return of the Rohingya to Rakhine are certainly in clear violation of bilateral arrangements signed in 2017-18."

Calling on Myanmar and "others having authority over Rakhine," the government urged a genuine commitment to recognising the Rohingya as an integral part of Myanmar's society and state, and to ensuring their reintegration with equal rights, safety and dignity.