Feels like we, the people all over the world, live in a fool’s paradise after seeing the press statement of the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, which has reportedly labelled 4,241 Rohingya living in Bangladesh camps as “terrorists”. The claim is being presented as a statement of fact. It is not. It’s a propaganda weapon, and as Bangladeshis who have watched this crisis unfold since 2017, we see it for what it is: an attempt to criminalize an entire persecuted community and erase the truth of Myanmar’s atrocities. The timing is telling. Bangladesh has repeatedly asked Myanmar to take back its populations under the 2017 bilateral repatriation agreement. Every bilateral meeting has stalled not because Bangladesh refused, but because Myanmar has delayed and refused to create the conditions for a safe, dignified, voluntary return. Now, instead of engaging with repatriation, Myanmar is issuing a new smear list. This is not diplomacy; it is deflection.
The term “terrorist” is being applied to 4,241 individuals without any public evidence, trial, or independent verification. If Myanmar has credible evidence, it should share it through formal bilateral and UN channels, not through a media list designed to stigmatize a refugee population. No international court has accepted Myanmar’s narrative. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar concluded in 2018 that the military’s operations in Rakhine State were carried out with genocidal intent. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) imposed provisional measures in January 2020 ordering Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide and preserve evidence. In 2022, the ICJ rejected Myanmar’s preliminary objections, and the genocide case filed by The Gambia is proceeding. Against this legal backdrop, Myanmar’s “terrorist” label is not a legal finding; it is a rhetorical escape hatch.
Let us remember who these people are. More than 1.1 million Rohingya have been forced into Bangladesh, most after August 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched “clearance operations” in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships. Villages were burned. Women and girls were raped. Men and boys were shot. Survivors fled across the Naf River. These were not terrorist strongholds; they were civilian communities targeted because of their ethnicity and faith. Even if a small number of individuals among refugees committed crimes and every population may contain criminals, the collective labelling of 4,241 people as terrorists violates the principle of individual responsibility and refugee law. It is a tactic to strip Rohingya of protection and justify Myanmar’s refusal to take them back.
The history of non-repatriation is important. After the 2017 influx, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation arrangement in November 2017. The first scheduled return, in January 2018, produced zero returnees because Myanmar could not guarantee citizenship, safety, freedom of movement, or access to original homes. Bangladesh later shared lists of Rohingya for verification; Myanmar cleared a fraction, then stalled. In 2019, a second attempt failed for the same reasons. After the February 2021 military coup, engagement effectively collapsed. The junta instead escalated conflict in Rakhine State, including with the Arakan Army, displacing more people and destroying more villages. The areas of original return, Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung, are neither safe nor rebuilt. Myanmar has refused to grant Rohingya citizenship under its discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law, has not implemented the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations, and has not held a single perpetrator accountable for mass atrocities. In every bilateral meeting, Bangladesh has raised these barriers. Myanmar responds with delay, new conditions, and now a list of “terrorists.”
The figure of 4,241 should be treated with suspicion. It echoes earlier junta tactics: after the 2017 crackdown, the military attempted to portray the entire Rohingya population as ARSA-affiliated or as illegal Bengali immigrants. The goal is to transform refugees into a security threat so that the world stops asking Myanmar to uphold its obligations. It is also a message to Bangladesh to stop demanding repatriation, because these people are dangerous. But we strongly reject the message.
International pressure has not been enough, but it has established clear legal facts. UN Security Council Resolution 2669, adopted in December 2022, demands an immediate end to violence in Myanmar and calls for safe, voluntary, dignified return of refugees. ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, which the junta nominally accepted, remains unimplemented. The ICJ’s provisional measures are legally binding, yet Myanmar continues to violate them. The new “terrorist” list should be seen in this context as non-compliance wrapped in a press release.
As Bangladeshis, we know the cost of this crisis. Bangladesh has sheltered over a million Rohingya, sacrificing forest land, stretching public services, and absorbing social and environmental strain. We did not create this crisis, but we are living with its consequences. Bangladesh has repeatedly urged Myanmar to take back over one million Rohingya refugees who fled military crackdowns despite realizing that sending people back to a country that calls them terrorists and denies them citizenship would be a death sentence. But hospitality cannot be indefinite. The responsibility must be shared by the international community, and accountability must be imposed on Myanmar.
It’s a modest alarm to Myanmar’s authorities: please stop hiding behind labels. If you have evidence against any individual, present it in a lawful process. Repeal the discriminatory citizenship laws, grant Rohingya their rights, guarantee safety, and allow independent monitors in Rakhine. And to the international community, do not legitimize this junta narrative by repeating it as fact. Stand with truth, justice, and the right of Rohingya to return in safety and dignity. Furthermore, to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, your suffering is not erased by a government statement. You are not forgotten. The truth of what happened to you is recorded in UN reports, court filings, and the memories of survivors. Propaganda can delay justice, but it cannot bury it.
Imran Hossain, Department of Business Administration, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology (BAIUST), Cumilla, Former Lecturer, Rabindra Maitree University, Kushtia, (MBA), (BBA), University of Rajshahi.
