To discuss Rohingya issue with Bangladesh officials,
visit Cox's Bazar
Diplomatic Correspondent
A three-member Myanmarese delegation of the Advisory
Commission on Rakhine State arrives in Dhaka today to hold discussions with
Bangladesh authorities over the Rohingya issue.
The delegation will also visit shelters where Rohingyas
from Myanmar took shelter to escape a "counter-insurgency operation"
in the country by its military.
Diplomatic sources said the delegation, during its four-day
stay in Bangladesh, would visit two Rohingya shelters in Cox's Bazar to witness
the plight of 65,000 Rohingya refugees who entered Bangladesh recently and
joined thousands of others who had done the same years ago.
The Myanmar government established the Advisory
Commission on Rakhine State, also known as Rakhine Commission, to discover
lasting solutions to complex and delicate issues in the Rakhine State.
In another development, sources at the foreign ministry
and the UN office in Dhaka said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, will arrive in Bangladesh
near the end of February to visit shelters in Bangladesh where the Myanmar
nationals took shelter amid persecution, killing, rape and ethnic cleansing in
their homeland.
The nine-member Advisory Commission, composed of three
international and six national persons of eminence, is Myanmar's national
initiative to resolve protracted issues in the region. The commission is
chaired by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan.
According to the foreign ministry sources, the delegation
members are Win Mra, chair of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission; Aye
Lwin, core member and founder of Religious for Peace Myanmar; and Ghassan
Salame', former Lebanese minister of culture (2000- 2003) and UN special
advisor to the secretary-general (2003-2006).
The delegation will also hold talks with government
officials to discuss enduring solutions to the longstanding issues in Rakhine state
of Myanmar.
During the meetings, Bangladesh will ask Myanmar to take
back all registered and unregistered Rohingyas living in Bangladesh for many
years since the Rohingyas are citizens of Myanmar and it is Myanmar's
responsibility to resolve the problems in the country's Rakhine state, the
sources said.
The delegation will be reminded of the past agreements
signed between the two countries including the one in 1992 when Myanmar agreed
to take back the Rohingyas admitting that the Rohingyas are legal citizens of
Myanmar, they added.
A foreign ministry official said Bangladesh wants a
solution to the Rohingya issue and it already expressed readiness to engage
with Myanmar for discussing the process and modalities of repatriation of the
Myanmar nationals.
The number of undocumented Myanmar nationals staying
illegally in Bangladesh has long been a sticking point between the two
countries, with Bangladesh repeatedly asking for repatriation of an estimated
300,000 to 500,000 Rohingyas.
This figure is in addition to some 32,000 registered
Rohingyas who are staying in Bangladesh for over two decades.
According to Myanmar government websites, the Myanmar
government formed the nine-member Advisory Commission as a "neutral and
impartial body" with an aim to propose concrete measures for improving the
welfare of all people in Rakhine state.
The commission is to meet with all relevant stakeholders,
international experts and foreign dignitaries to hear their views and to
analyze relevant issues with a view to finding the best possible solutions to
prevailing problems.
The commission will consider humanitarian and development
issues, access to basic services, the assurance of basic rights, and the
security of the people of Rakhine. The commission will undertake assessments
and make recommendations by focusing on conflict prevention, humanitarian
assistance, rights and reconciliation, institution building and promotion of
development of Rakhine State.
It will also examine international aspects of the
situation, including the background of those seeking refugees status abroad.
After wide consultations, the commission will submit its findings and
recommendations to the Myanmar government through the state counsellor in the
second half of 2017 and thereafter publish its report within twelve months of
its establishment in August 2016.