Mohibullah, a rebel voice silenced

Mohibullah (46), President of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) and also a leader of one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown that the United Nations termed a 'example of ethnic cleansing'.
"If I die, I'm fine. I will give my life," Mohibullah said on August 25, 2019 at Kutupalung, Cox's Bazar on the second anniversary day of the start of a slaughter of Muslim minority Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Mohibullah spent a decade as a private tutor in Rakhine state. As the Rohingyas steadily lost their rights, many children did not have access to education. Mohibullah, a botanist by training, could not find
a job.
He started work as a tutor there, his brother Habibullah told the Daily observer on Thursday.
Mohibullah with his family walked for eight days to get to Bangladesh in 2017 along with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled mass slaughter in Myanmar to get a shelter at a camp in southern Bangladesh.
He and his family- his wife, his parents and nine children aged between 17 years and 9 months - were at home in Rakhine awaiting a feast on the Muslim
holiday of Eid al-Adha when Myanmar's military and Buddhist mobs launched the scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages in the state.
The family spent a week huddled inside one room with the lights off, trying not to make a sound.
"They were shooting everyone on sight, even children," Mohibullah said, the deathly silence was punctured only by occasional police sirens until the day of Eid al-Adha, when soldiers announced on loudspeakers that the villagers could step out for prayers. That is when Mobibullah's family escaped the village, two at a time, starting with his oldest sons.
He was the last to leave with the youngest child, who was 9 months old, according to Washington Post in 2019.
Once inside the camps, Mohibullah started his work as a teacher and his command of English, began assisting United Nations officials in interviewing refugees and documenting their allegations of atrocities.
When advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch were searching the camps for survivors of war crimes, Mohibullah assisted researchers by going from hut to hut, building a tally of killings, rapes and arsons. He shared his findings with investigators who are building a case against Myanmar that they hope will end up at the International Criminal Court, where military commanders could face prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The teacher turned activist was the target of numerous death threats in recent years for his work, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch. In 2019, he briefly met with President Donald Trump at the White House as part of a delegation of victims of religious conflict around the world.
Gradually Mohibullah became a renowned advocate for Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority and rose to prominence as a community leader among his fellow refugees in Bangladesh.
He emerged as a Rohingya leader trying to galvanize international, political and financial support for the refugees, had stepped onstage at the world's largest settlement of refugees and engaged himself in documenting the Myanmar military's crimes against the Rohingya and advocating for the refugees' rights in international forums for several years despite death threats. Mohibullah had faced death threats in recent years for his work.
"We want to return home, but with dignity and safety," Mohibullah announced. He repeatedly told media over the repatriation issue at the refugees crowding in different camps in Cox's Bazar and continued his work as head of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights.
"Mohibullah was a vital voice for the community of Rohingya who had already suffered unimaginable loss and pain when they arrived as refugees in Bangladesh," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"He always defended the rights of the Rohingya to safe and dignified returns and to have a say in the decisions concerning their lives and future. His killing is a stark demonstration of the risks faced by those in the camps who speak up for freedom and against violence.
Mohibullah helped UN officials and other investigators compile testimonies from survivors of the military crackdown - part of a catalogue of alleged crimes some Rohingya hope will bring them justice in an international court.
He then led peaceful protests in Bangladesh against a plan to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar and spoke at a rally of hundreds of thousands of people on the second anniversary of the start of the military campaign.
An international independent fact-finding mission found in 2019 that Rohingya communities inside Myanmar "face systematic persecution and live under the threat of genocide."
"The threat of genocide continues for the remaining Rohingya," said Marzuki Darusman, the mission's chair. The report was presented to the UN Human Rights Council.
HRW's South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly said in a statement, "His killing is a stark demonstration of the risks faced by those in the camps who speak up for freedom and against violence."
On September 29, 2021, Mohibullah, 46, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
"Mohibullah's death undermines not only the struggle of Rohingya refugees for greater rights and protection in the refugee camps, but also their efforts to safely return to their homes in Myanmar. Bangladesh authorities should urgently investigate Mohibullah's killing along with other attacks on Rohingya activists in the camps."
Many Rohingya were panic-stricken over the announcement of a repatriation process that the refugees vehemently oppose, fearing Myanmar remains too unsafe for return. A peaceful protest, led in part by Mohibullah resulted in the postponement of plans to return a small number of refugees to Myanmar.
Activists say Bangladesh is penalizing the Rohingya for opposing the repatriation plans. In an interview, Mohibullah said the Rohingyas were blindsided by the repatriation effort and accused UN humanitarian officials of failing to communicate with them.
"For 70 years, the Myanmar government didn't discuss anything with us," Mohibullah said, referring to the period since independence from Britain. "Now, Bangladesh and UN don't discuss anything with us."
Matthew Smith, Chief Executive of the advocacy group Fortify Rights, said many Rohingyas got their first taste of freedoms in Bangladesh  such as the rights to pray, congregate, express themselves and speak to the press 'and now the authorities want to tamp that down'.
Mohibuullah's rejection of violence has also made him the target of death threats by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militants and their sympathizers in the camps. The militants are believed to have abducted and tortured at least five refugees, according to Fortify Rights, which has extensively documented crimes against the Rohingya.
 "Nothing has changed in the last two years," Mohibullah said at his makeshift office, a small hut deep inside Kutupalong refugee camp, where his group is allowed to operate under the watch of Bangladeshi officials.
"We are alive, but we live like animals," he said. "We have no human rights, no education. We don't have enough water, enough toilets or safety. Nobody is fighting for us."
Mohibullah said the refugees must stay united. He appealed to world leaders, invoking their common humanity.
"If they knew what we have been through," he said, "they'd sympathize with us."
"We will not accept this MoU unless we are properly accorded our rights. So far, no one (in the camps) has expressed their willingness to return," said Mohibullah.