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

Photo: Spiegel

Arakan Now | 23 Jan 2026

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 as “Bengalis” in an attempt to justify past atrocities and evade accountability.

In a press release issued on Thursday (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 the so-called “clearance operations” carried out in Rakhine State in 2016–17 as counter-terrorism measures.

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

The 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 western state of Rakhine.

In its 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, rendering 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, it added.

“The systematic effort to refer to the Rohingya as ‘Bengalis’ constitutes a denial of their inherent right to self-identify and uses the nomenclature debate to justify their exclusion, persecution, and eventual ethnic cleansing during the 2016–17 period,” the statement said.

It added that categorising the Rohingya as “Bengali” has been part of a systematic campaign by Myanmar to deny them fundamental rights, including citizenship and human rights, despite the community having been recognised as “lawful residents of Burma” under the bilateral repatriation agreement signed with Bangladesh in 1978.

“Regardless of the nomenclature, these lawful residents belonging to the Rohingya community were assured integration into Myanmar society as equal members under subsequent bilateral agreements,” the statement said.

Bangladesh also rejected Myanmar’s earlier claim that around “half a million Bangladeshis took refuge” in Rakhine during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War, calling the assertion unsubstantiated and unsupported by demographic evidence.

“Persistent efforts by Myanmar over the past eight years to evade its legal obligations to create a conducive environment in Rakhine and to facilitate the return of the Rohingya are clear violations of the bilateral arrangements signed in 2017–18,” the statement said.

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.