DHAKA (THE DAILY STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Myanmar government has reportedly begun harvesting 71,000 acres of rice paddy in Maungdaw, confirming an earlier report by Reuters, which said that the Myanmar government had made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Rohingyas.

If there was ever any doubt as to its intent, this should be proof enough that what the Myanmar government is doing is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingyas.

This is why the Myanmar government, while trying to pull the wool over the international community's eyes by talking big on taking back the Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh, is bringing in hired labour on Rohingya land and selling off their crops, so that the Rohingyas have nothing to return to.

Shockingly, the international community continues to remain silent even in the face of such blatant crimes by the Myanmar government.

The United Nations too has shied away from responsibility.

Moreover, it has compromised its credential and character by withholding one report after another that had stated the graveness of the suffering that the Rohingyas were being exposed to. And this has given a sense of impunity to the Myanmar military.

Through their silence, the international community and UN has completely discredited themselves from being able to fulfil the responsibilities that have been entrusted to them.

We worry that this will have horrific consequences for Bangladesh, the region and world in future and that by realising this, both the UN and the international community, especially our friends, should now take immediate steps against Myanmar for its crimes against the Rohingyas that have led to countless numbers of them fleeing to Bangladesh.

Clearly, it is no longer only an internal affair of Myanmar.