The air was clean, nature gave the local people everything they needed. The forest near the village where Buntenh grew up was filled with wild pigs. “We were hunting them. During my youth, there was nothing as tasty as the meat of a wild pig,” the 36-year-old monk said, laughing.

The forests of Buntenh’s youth are long gone, and with it the wildlife and the birds that lived in it. The loss of it grieves the Buddhist monk, but he says he is committed to put an end to deforestation in Cambodia while there is still some jungle left. It’s an extremely challenging mission in which Buntenh and his fellow monks, who are united under the group Independent Monk Network for Social Justice, regularly put their own lives at risk.

On a recent early morning, Buntenh – wearing flip-flops, small glasses and an orange robe – walks through Prey Lang, one of the Southeast Asian nation’s largest and oldest evergreen woodlands. The sun shines through the canopy and from afar the crying noise of a motor saw sounds through the air.

Buntenh is on his way to a workshop, in which he and other monks teach the local people how to use social media to protect themselves and the forest. It is badly needed, he says, as the survival of Prey Lang – meaning “Great Forest” in Kuy, the local minority language – is under threat. Large parts of the forest have already disappeared to make space for plantations. In areas that are protected from such land concessions, illegal loggers cut down tree after tree.

“The people who cut down the forest think they are superior, but in reality they are stupid. Only the forest is superior,” Buntenh said. Sixteen years ago, he decided to join the monkhood. Now he is trying to convince the people that the world cannot exist without trees. “No one has told me that I should go out there to protect the forest, but for me it was a logical thing to do. I am doing all I can to save it. I plant new trees, I help the people who live from the forest, I am reminding the government of the promises they’ve made.” It was just after the parliamentary elections of 2013 when Buntenh’s message inspired 23-year-old Horn Sophanny. Because Buddhist temples in Cambodia are the traditional place to study, Sophanny had come to a temple to satisfy his hunger for knowledge a few years earlier. But the elections changed everything. The majority of the seats were won by the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was accused of electoral fraud on a massive scale. Many Cambodians were furious and started mass demonstrations that went on for months.”I had already known Buntenh from Facebook. But when he started his activist movement after the elections, I realized I could do something as a monk,” Sophanny said. He joined Buntenh’s activist network, which consists of some 5,000 monks. Since then, Sophanny has been at the forefront during protests and has shared all kinds of wrongdoings via Facebook.

Leaning against the pillar of a wooden house on the edge of Prey Lang, Sophanny says that it’s the task of the monks to protect the country and its people. That was already the case in the 1950s, when they had a leading role in the fight for Cambodia’s independence from the French colonizers, he noted. “We want current day monks to have the same type of role. It is our job to lead society to a better place. We are the symbol of compassion. The pagodas are the roots of our knowledge.” In Cambodia, where over 90 percent of the population is Buddhist, monks enjoy great respect. Their orange and red robes offer them a protection that other activists lack. The authorities are also unlikely to easily use force against them, and the monks use this freedom to collect images and videos of, for example, illegal logging and brutal police violence. These are then spread through social media.

In Prey Lang, Buntenh calls for the people to do the same. Men and women, both young and old, have come to the forest on scooters and agricultural vehicles. They listen closely when the monks explain why they shouldn’t be intimidated. The voice of Buntenh sounds through a pair of crackling speakers. “We must speak out when someone is abusing our rights,” he tells the crowd. “The authorities think bad about us, but we are the ones that help you to save the forest. Do you know how Facebook works? You have to use it to tell what’s happening here.”

San Reth, a 63-year-old Cambodian who has lived near Prey Lang for his entire life, is happy with the support of the monks. “For a long time, we hoped a good man will stand up to save our forest,” he says. For many years, the forest has been good for him and his family, Reth explains.

“Life was good here. There were deer, elephants, tigers and cobras living in the forest. There were trees and plants that gave us medicines. From my house I only had to walk for a few minutes and I could find everything I need.”

Three years ago, on a half an hour’s drive from his house, the forest was home to trees with trunks so wide that “you needed four men to circle them,” Reth says. But today the same area is dead. The giant trees are cut down, smaller trees are defoliating and the soil is burned and filled with grey-colourd ash. Soon a large plantation with only rosewood trees will be built here, the Cambodian man says with a sad face. The wood is meant for export to China.

It’s not only in Prey Lang that the forest is disappearing rapidly. Driven by land concessions to build plantations, 14.4 percent of Cambodia’s jungle disappeared between 2000 and 2013, human rights organization Licadho pointed out after investigating satellite images from the University of Maryland. Meanwhile, 12.2 percent of the trees were cut in protected areas. It’s an ongoing trend with disastrous consequences for human beings, animals and climate.

Reth, who is trying to make a living as a rice farmer now that the forest is disappearing, has protested against deforestation. The authorities responded by charging him and accusing him of inciting instability. He fears that he will soon be arrested. “The government says that the cutting of the forest is necessary for the development of our country. But if this is development, why does it cause us so much grief?” Reth wonders.

The activist monks are being thwarted as well. They are spied on, threatened and sued. Last year, a pagoda that houses them was searched by the police. Cambodia’s Buddhist supreme patriarch, the official national leader of the monks, has turned himself against the activists, saying that monks shouldn’t be involved in protests and calling on pagodas to keep the doors closed for those that are.

The activist monks, in turn, accuse the supreme patriarch of being a tool for the country’s authoritarian government.

Oun Long knows all about being hindered by the authorities. A couple of years ago, the 30-year-old monk was involved in a mass protest in Cambodia’s garment industry. On behalf of the workers he tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution. That failed when the military police ended the protest with brutal force, killing at least five workers and injuring dozens. “We are tired of the government. When we see the people suffer, we have no other option than to resist,” he says.

The most important opponent of that resistance is Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has governed Cambodia since 1985. In recent years, Hun Sen has made all kinds of promises of improvement, also when it comes to deforestation. In February, he even gave the police permission to use rocket launchers and helicopters in the fight against illegal logging.

The monks, however, remain skeptical. “We can’t trust him. But if he makes promises and doesn’t follow them up, we can use these against them. That’s his weak point,” stressed Oun Long.

In Prey Lang, the workshop is being interrupted by the village chief and several policemen halfway through the meeting, accusing the monks of not having permission to meet the villagers.

Immediately But Buntenh strikes back at them. “Did you come here to chase away the people that try to save the forest? You should chase away the people that destroy the forest. Hun Sen himself said illegal logging needs to be stopped.”

After half an hour of arguments, the authorities decide to retreat and let the workshop continue. But the monks know that they will be there again at the next meeting. In a country where several activists and journalists have been killed after reporting about illegal logging over the past few years, it’s like a never-ending duel that one day could have a totally different outcome.

Buntenh says he has accepted that risk a long time ago. “I don’t think I’m a good monk, because I am mean to the police and to the military,” he says. “But I’m ready to give everything for my people and the forest. If I have to give my life for it today or tomorrow, then I’m willing to make that sacrifice.”

Dozens of people have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania on the Diciotti vessel since Monday night because the Italian government is refusing to allow them to disembark without commitments from the EU to take some of them in.

Italy on Friday said it would pull its funding for the EU as a “compensatory measure” if the bloc refused to come forward and help with relocating the migrants.

The UNHCR on Saturday said EU member states should “urgently” offer places to some of the migrants on the vessel, adding: “In the meantime, UNHCR urges Italian authorities to allow the immediate disembarkation of those on board”.

A high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday, held to discuss what officials said was the broader issue of the disembarkation of migrants rescued at sea, failed to produce an immediate solution for the Diciotti migrants.

“The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again,” Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page, adding that his country had no choice but to “take a compensatory measure in a unilateral way… we are ready to reduce the funds that we give to the European Union”.

“They want the 20 billion euros ($23 billion) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe,” he added.

Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived since 2013 fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Italy’s new government has increasingly barred boats from docking at its ports.

‘Unconstructive comments’

Brussels quickly hit back at Di Maio’s comments.

“Unconstructive comments, let alone threats, are not helpful and they will not get us any closer to a solution,” European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a briefing.

“The EU is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not threats.”

No deal was struck about the Diciotti migrants at the talks, as a source at the European Commission said “this was not a meeting where decisions were taken”.

However, the source said they discussed “the need for a shared and rapid solution for the migrants on board of the Diciotti as well as those most recently disembarked in Spain and Malta.”

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to the EU budget — less than one percent of its gross national income — while the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star, said Italy didn’t want the “mickey taken out of us by the union’s other countries” on the distribution of migrants.

“The EU was born of principles like solidarity. If it is not capable of redistributing 170 people it has serious problems with its founding principles,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster RAI.

Prosecutors from Sicily were travelling to Rome to question officials, including Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, about the illegal detention of those onboard.

“If a judge wants to arrest me, I expect it, no problem,” Salvini said Friday.

‘We’ve had enough’

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the ship after they were rescued on August 15.

His only concession was to allow 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat Wednesday.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini’s stance has boosted his far-right League party’s approval rating to around 30 percent — a more than 10 point jump from its showing in March’s election — and is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

However, according to Salvini’s own ministry, migrant arrivals are more than 80 percent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500 arriving up to August 23, compared to 98,000 in 2017.

In France, meanwhile, the presidency called for a “co-ordinated, long-term European mechanism” to distribute migrants that would include Italy. “There are forces in Italy that are looking to co-operate, we want to believe Italy wishes to play the game,” the Elysee palace said.

Angry crowds took to the streets in the country’s remote west on Friday accusing police of protecting the person responsible for the brutal crime.

Police officer Krishna Raj Ojha told AFP that 17-year-old Sani Khuna was killed “in firing to contain the violent protest”. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in the area, he added.

Schoolgirl Nirmala Panta went missing in late July and her body was found the following day in a sugar-cane field.

Anger boiled over after police arrested a man who reportedly has severe learning difficulties and whom protesters say is a scapegoat allowing officers to shield the real culprit.

The victim’s family have also accused police of failing to take action over her death.

“The state has not taken the cases of rape and violence against women seriously,” woman’s rights activist Hima Bista told AFP.

“Protection is being provided to the rape-accused time and again,” she added.

Further rallies are planned for Saturday across Nepal, including in the capital Kathmandu where around 1,500 people staged a silent protest under a heavy police presence.

The hashtags #RageAgainstRape and #JusticeForNirmala were also trending on Twitter.

“The so-called democratic government couldn’t give justice to the rape and murder victim instead they killed an innocent boy,” Twitter user Sunel GC posted.

There were 1,480 reported rapes in Nepal last year, according to recently released police data, almost double the number reported in 2016.

Activists say the rise is due to more women reporting violence to the police, but also say many more still go unreported in deeply patriarchal Nepal.

It is unclear whether the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has any broad support after its role in sparking the humanitarian calamity that has befallen the Rohingya, one million of whom now languish in refugee camps across the border.

The militant group said it had “the legitimate right” to protect the Rohingya and ensure their “return to our ancestral land with safety and dignity” in a statement posted on Twitter.

Thousands of Rohingya in Myanmar are estimated to have been killed in the military response to ARSA’s attacks on police posts last August.

Survivors entering Bangladesh’s refugee camps carried harrowing accounts of rape, mass killings and arson overseen by the military and ethnic Rakhine villagers — acts the international community have likened to ethnic cleansing.

The army maintains that their reaction was proportionate to the terrorist threat posed by ARSA, a stance reiterated on Tuesday by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who blamed the group for the crisis and spoke in praise of the military.

Myanmar also alleges that ARSA massacred scores of Hindu villagers on the same day the military crackdown began, an accusation the militants have “categorically” denied.

But they have claimed responsibility for other attacks, including a January ambush which wounded two police officers and their driver.

Any uptick in violence will deepen concerns from refugees about the repatriation deal Myanmar and Bangladesh signed earlier this year.

Fewer than 200 Rohingya have returned to Myanmar while the vast majority refuse to return without assurances of their safety.

But Dhaka has insisted that the Rohingya will not remain in the camps for long.

Drug smuggling and human trafficking has plagued the southern Bangladeshi town of Cox’s Bazar as its population has ballooned, with gangs preying on desperate refugees, selling young women into the sex trade and recruiting mules to move methamphetamine.

ARSA’s statement Saturday urged refugees to refrain from “indulging and trading in drugs, human trafficking and violence”.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged protests in Bangladesh Saturday to mark the anniversary of the military crackdown in Myanmar.

Many wept as they recalled the brutal killings and rapes inflicted on the Muslim minority last year as 700,000 fled across the border.

The biggest refugee camp in the world is rigidly controlled by Bangladesh authorities and the peaceful but charged Rohingya marches and rallies seen there were unprecedented.

“We are Rohingya, we want justice,” people chanted in the Kutupalong camp, where a giant banner proclaimed: “Never Again: Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day. 25 August, 2018.”

In a different part of the camp, thousands of women and children marched behind a huge poster declaring: “365 days of crying. Now I am angry.”

Rohingya militants staged attacks on Myanmar police posts on August 25 last year, sparking a bloody crackdown in Rakhine state.

Nearly 7,000 Rohingya were killed in the first month, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Refugees arrived in Bangladesh on foot or in flimsy boats. Many brought horrific stories of sexual violence, torture and villages burned to the ground.

Columns of people marching through the camp on Saturday waved banners and chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great).

Tears flowed as one Imam gave a sermon, saying “Please Allah, return to us our homeland. Let us see our parents’ graves. We left them back in Myanmar.”

Myanmar authorities, who insist their forces only targeted insurgents, have made an agreement with Bangladesh to repatriate refugees but only a handful have gone back.

Rohingya leaders say the exiles will not return home unless their safety is guaranteed.

No home, no hope

Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week said it was up to Bangladesh “to decide how quickly” repatriation of the refugees can be accomplished.

She said the “terrorist threat” posed by Rohingya militants remains “real and present”.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which has been blamed for attacks in Myanmar, issued an anniversary statement in which it condemned Myanmar’s “terrorist government and genocidal military”.

Mohammad Hossain, a 40-year-old protester at Kutupalong, said: “We are here remember to August 25. We want justice.

“We want them (Myanmar) to recognise us as Rohingya. We are very sad because we are not in our native land.”

The Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship decades ago by Myanmar and have been chased from the country in successive convulsions of violence.

About 300,000 were already in the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district and the latest arrivals pushed numbers to one million.

The Rohingya and aid agencies are most worried about the uncertain future of the refugees, who are stateless and seemingly unwanted in Bangladesh while conditions in their Rakhine homeland remain dangerous.

International Red Cross Committee president Peter Maurer, who visited the camps and Rakhine in July, said in an anniversary statement that Rohingya in both places were “living in misery”.

“Unfortunately, since my visit we have not seen tangible improvements for those displaced or the few who remain in Rakhine.”

The Red Cross chief called for urgent “sustainable solutions” for “safe, dignified and voluntary returns as soon as possible.”

He said this must include “political steps” in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

While the Rohingya exodus from western Myanmar continues, with refugees still trickling over the border, the United Nations and international rights groups say conditions are not ready for their return.

“It may be decades until they can safely return to Myanmar, if ever,” said MSF head of mission in Bangladesh Pavlo Kolovos in a statement.

Calls have mounted for Myanmar’s military to be held responsible for the campaign and the United States has sanctioned two army brigades and several commanders who oversaw the expulsion.

There have also been calls for an International Criminal Court inquiry but Myanmar has bristled at international criticism.

Humanitarian agencies spearheading the relief effort in Bangladesh say just one-third of the roughly $1 billion needed for the refugees until March has been raised.

The incident started during the night in the hotel in Harbin, capital of the northeastern Heilongjiang province, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

“At 10:50 (0250 GMT) 18 people were already confirmed dead. The rescue operation is ongoing,” the agency said in a report, citing information from local firefighters.

“An enquiry into the causes of the fire is underway,” it added, without giving further details.

Hotel fires are common in China, where fire security regulations are routinely neglected.

In April, 18 people were killed and five more injured in a fire at a karaoke establishment in the country’s south.

In November, a fire left 19 people dead and eight injured at a boarding house in Beijing. And in May 2015, 38 people were found dead in a fire at a retirement home in central Henan province.

In what appears to be unfolding of its agenda for ‘change’, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government on Friday revised working hours in government institutions, abolished discretionary funds of the prime minister, federal ministers and members of the National Assembly and imposed a ban on first-class air travel by the president, head of the government, chief justice, Senate chairman and NA speaker.

The decisions were taken at the second meeting of the federal cabinet in a week presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The cabinet rejected a proposal for declaring only one official weekly holiday on Sunday and withdrawing the second weekly holiday on Saturday.

The meeting also decided to conduct audit of all mega transport projects carried out in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last government. It was decided that the prime minister would use the official aircraft only for domestic tours and not for foreign visits.

Another important decision taken by the cabinet was formation of task forces for upgrading katchchi abadis (shanty settlements) across the country and launching tree plantation in main cities.

The meeting decided to abolish the Ministry of Capital Adminis­tration & Development Division (CADD) and merge its departments into other ministries.

Working hours

Dawn has learnt that the interior ministry had prepared a proposal for withdrawing the official holiday on Saturday in view of austerity measures and improving the performance of government departments.

However, the cabinet rejected the proposal and it was portrayed that working hours of government employees have been increased. While the span of working hours will remain same — eight hours — the new office timing will be 9am-5pm. The previous timing was 8am-4pm.

Cabinet bans first-class air travel by top officials, retains two-day official weekly holiday; PM Imran to use official plane for domestic visits only

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn that the proposal regarding office hours had suggested that they should be from 8am to 3pm.

However, the cabinet decided that the working hours should be from 9am to 5pm. “Although earlier the office timings were 8am to 4pm, people used to come to their offices at 9am. Therefore, we have decided that the new working hours should be 9am to 5pm,” he added.

Earlier at a press conference held after the cabinet meeting, the information minister said that a proposal was discussed that there should not be two weekly holidays and the Saturday holiday should be withdrawn. He said it was decided that the weekly holiday on Saturday would remain in place but working hours would be from 9am to 5pm.

The second weekly off on Saturday was introduced in 2011 on the recommendations of the water and power ministry to save electricity. However, no significant power saving was witnessed.

Luxurious air travelling

The information minister said that only the president, prime minister, chief justice, Senate chairman, NA speaker and chief ministers had the facility to travel in the first class of international flights. However, it has been decided that now they will be travelling in business/club class.

Prime Minister Khan has decided that he will not use a special plane for foreign visits and will travel in business class. However, he will use official plane for domestic travelling.

It has been learnt that the first class is not available in the flights being operated from Pakistan as this is offered by other international airlines and its fare is said to be three-hundred times higher than the business/club class.

When asked if the army chief also fell in this category, Mr Chaudhry said the army chief was never allowed the first class and he used to travel in the business class.

Discretionary powers

The minister said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had spent Rs51 billion government funds only in one year by exercising his “discretionary powers”. Similarly, President Mamnoon Hussain also distributed public money of Rs90 million on his own discretion. He said that of the Rs51bn funds, Mr Sharif gave away Rs30bn to his MNAs and Rs21bn was given or spent on different occasions.

“That was taxpayers’ money which was lavishly used by the ex-prime minister. Now the incumbent prime minister has ordered that he and any other government functionary will not spend even a single penny in the name of discretionary funds,” he added.

Mr Chaudhry said now the government’s funds would be released only after the approval of parliament so that taxpayers’ money could be utilised in a better way.

Dissolution of ministry

The information minister said that as part of the government’s austerity plan, the cabinet decided to dissolve the CADD ministry and the departments working under it would be merged into other ministries.

The CADD ministry was created by the last Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government and its main departments were the Capital Development Authority, Federal Directorate of Education and two hospitals of the federal capital — Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and Poly Clinic.

Metro projects

The cabinet decided to conduct audit of mega transport projects in Punjab and KP, including the former’s Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi Metro projects, to ascertain if the funds allocated for them were actually spent on them or not. “We have learnt that billions of rupees corruption had been committed in these projects; therefore we want forensic audit of all metro projects and orange line project of Lahore,” the information minister said.

He, however, clarified that the projects executed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would not be disturbed and the required funds would be released for their early completion. In case of any irregularity, the case of metro bus would be referred to the Federal Investigation Agency, he added.

Responding to a question about loadshedding during Eidul Azha holidays, Mr Chaudhry said Prime Minister Khan had taken notice of it and sought a report from the Wapda chairman. He said the country had sufficient electricity but problems in the distribution system caused power breakdowns.

About the failure of the Results Transmission System (RTS) during on July 25 night, he said that like opposition parties, the PTI had also expressed concern over it and one of the party’s senior leader Azam Khan Swati had taken up the issue with the Election Commission of Pakistan.

He said the appointment of Azam Khan as principal staff officer of the prime minister was based on merit.

As the election year draws closer, politics of religion has gained ascendance in Uttar Pradesh. Amid the unending talks and statements on Ram temple in Ayodhya, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has said, if voted to power, his party will build a huge temple honouring Lord Vishnu in addition to the setting up of a city named Vishnu Nagar near his home turf Etawah. The temple will be on the pattern of the Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Earlier, Akhilesh got installed a 60 foot high idol of Lord Krishna in Etawah. The idol remains to be unveiled. The unveiling is expected to take place sometime before the 2019 Lok Sabha Election.

Akhilesh revealed his plans regarding Vishnu Nagar on Wednesday during an interaction with the media. He said the Vishnu Nagar as envisaged by him will come up on a 2000 acre land near the Etawah Lion Safari. It will have residential colonies.

The high point will be the temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. This temple will be on the patterns of the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, rated to be one of the largest religious complexes in the world, and spread over an area of 402 acres. Built as a Hindu temple it was dedicated to Lord Vishnu in the early 12 century. The SP president said there will be no paucity of land as there was enough of the same in the Chambal region. He said a team of experts will be dispatched by him to Cambodia to plan the city and the temple which will finally emerge as a centre of culture and knowledge of the country’s ancient civilization.

Akhilesh’s move and announcement of a temple is  not without political overtones, coming as it did close on the heels of deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s recent observation on the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Maurya had said the Centre may take recourse to the legislative route and that a bill may be introduced in the parliament if the BJP government gets a majority in the Rajya Sabha too.

By promising a city named after Lord Vishnu the former chief minister has sought to take on the BJP on its own turf. Lord Ram is looked upon as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. By promising a city named after Lord Vishnu , the SP chief  has sought to address the same vote bank but through a different route.It is also being seen as a move to keep his Yadav vote bank intact. The Yadavs claim to be Yaduvanshis and the descendants of Lord Krishna, who is again seen as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The former chief minister who will kickstart his Lok Sabha campaign some time in the middle of September by undertaking a 50 kilometre long cycle yatra  is expected to play the Lord Vishnu and Krishna card to the hilt. This will be in addition to the socialistic platform of the Samajwadi Party.

The repatriation of the Rohingyas remains elusive even nine months after the signing of an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The deal signed between Dhaka and Naypyidaw in November announced that their going home must begin in January 2018, within two months of the agreement signing.

But not a single Rohingya has been repatriated. Moreover, around 12,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh only this year and joined those who took refuge in Cox’s Bazar camps last year.

Nobody in Bangladesh can say when the repatriation would begin or how long it would take to complete. Everything now depends on Myanmar’s will.

The pressure was on Myanmar after the crisis gripped the world’s attention. Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingyas was termed by UN as a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing.

Aung Sun Suu Kyi and her government faced strong global condemnation and outrage for the scorched-earth campaign carried out by Myanmar’s military to drive the Rohingya population out of their homes in Rakhine. The demand for taking punitive action against Myanmar was loud.

Amidst such a situation, Myanmar signed the deal and agreed to begin the process for taking the Rohingyas back to their homes.

But Myanmar was never short of tricks. It imposed some stringent conditions in the deal — the returnees must show national registration cards or documents of residency. Many Rohingyas have no documentation at all. It was impossible for many of them to present documents as they had to hastily flee killings and torching of homes.

So, the chance of their return remains bleak.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali had rejected the deal on October 9 in a briefing for diplomats. He said the “criteria are not realistic”. But only six weeks later, the government agreed to the deal. There was no deadline for the repatriation; it could go on forever.

Myanmar’s ally China had opposed repeatedly any action of the world body at the UN Security Council. Signing the agreement made China’s efforts successful, as it pursued bilateral means to resolve the crisis. The deal also made it easy for Myanmar to buy more time and ease international pressure on it.

Myanmar’s trick worked well. Everything appears calm right now.

Now, the outcries for the Rohingyas or condemnation for Myanmar from global leaders are not that loud. The world has sort of forgotten the Rohingyas, leaving them to pass days in muddy refugee camps.

Some international media now just run reports reminding the world leaders that this August marks a full year of the Rohingya influx, one of the 21st century’s worst refugee crises.

But this would neither reduce the stateless people’s agony nor lessen the burden on Bangladesh. The flow of humanitarian aid from international communities has also decreased. Fund shortage may put the host country in a difficult situation in the coming months.

In its latest trick, Myanmar, during Bangladesh foreign minister’s visit to Naypyidaw on August 10, asked the words “forcibly displaced myanmar nationals” be replaced with “displaced persons from Rakhine State” on identity cards issued to the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar.

If this happens, Rohingyas would have to return to their homeland without any identity and they would continue to be considered stateless.

So why did Myanmar resort to such means? It is clear: because Myanmar does not want to take back the Rohingyas. It would be clearer if we see its arrangements for the returning Rohingyas.

Myanmar is building camps to house repatriated Rohingyas as their homes have been burnt during the military crackdown on them last year.

The camps are like prisons. In the camps of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, one lakh Rohingyas have been languishing for almost six years. They suffer from chronic malnutrition and receive minimal medical care. They are not allowed to return home. They were forced to leave their homes following sectarian violence in June, 2012.

The returning Rohingyas would be put into such camps and be guarded by the security forces that brutally murdered, raped and tortured many of them. Can anyone imagine it as a safe place for the repatriated Rohingyas?   If this is where the Rohingyas are supposed to go, then why would the refugees want to leave the camps in Cox’s Bazar?

Would these people, if the repatriation begins at all, be able to return to their homes?

In February, Human Rights Watch report showed that the burnt Rohingya villages have been flattened with bulldozers. There was no sign that any human habitation ever existed there.

Richard Weir, a Myanmar expert with the HRW, said, “There’s no more landmark, there’s no tree, there’s no vegetation. Everything is wiped away.”

In March, Amnesty International exposed other developments. Rakhine State was being militarised at an alarming pace. The authorities were building security force bases and bulldozing land where Rohingya villages were burnt just months ago, said an AI report.

The AI said it was difficult to see how the refugees would be able to return to their original places, let alone do so voluntarily, safely and with dignity.

All these lead to the conclusion: Myanmar military needs the land of the Rohingyas, not the Rohingyas.

The commander-in-chief of the Myanmar army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing had also made his intention clear only a couple of days after his troops launched the crackdown on the minority people on August 25 last year.

He described the crackdown as “unfinished business” dating back to the World War II.

Since the mass exodus of the Rohingyas began last year, everyone — UN and international rights bodies — has been advocating safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation. But nothing is working for the Rohingyas.

This is not the first time the junta launched a crackdown on the Rohingyas. Bangladesh had to bear the brunt of major influx of the Rohingyas in 1970s and 1990s due to their atrocities against Rohingyas. Following hectic negotiations, Rohingyas were repatriated. But they were not provided safety, security and dignity, resulting in the returns of many of them to Bangladesh.

This time, the negotiations are not working.

Every day the situation is getting worse, diminishing Rohingyas’ hopes of going back. And the longer they stay in Cox’s Bazar, the heavier becomes the burden on Bangladesh

Seoul’s foreign ministry said the meeting was attended by its North American Affairs Bureau chief, Kim Tae-jin, as well as U.S.Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter Douglas and other officials.

During the talks, the two sides also exchanged views about Seoul’s New Southern Policy designed to boost relations with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an increasingly crucial partner for trade, investment and diplomacy.

“While noting the mutually complementary nature of the New Southern Policy and the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which pursue openness, inclusiveness and transparency, the two sides shared the view that they will make continued efforts to find common ground in their policies so as to ensure the two countries’ endeavors will yield the synergic effect, through which the two sides can expand the boundaries of their cooperation,” the ministry said in a press release.

Observers suspect that the strategy, aimed at securing a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, is designed to counter Beijing’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, a grand geopolitical strategy to connect China with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Europe and even Africa through “land and maritime silk roads.”

Seoul initially showed apparent reservations over whether to join the strategy amid its efforts to enhance relations with Beijing, a crucial partner for trade, tourism and the campaign to pressure Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear and missile programs.