COX’S BAZAR
(Reuters) – Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were sceptical yesterday about their
chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has
given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees.
More than half a
million Rohingya have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine state
launched in late August that has been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic
cleansing.
Myanmar denies
ethnic cleansing, saying it is fighting Rohingya terrorists who have claimed
attacks on the security forces. The government has said anyone verified as a
refugee will be allowed to return under a process set up with Bangladesh in
1993.
Bangladesh and
Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar
government spokesman confirmed it would go along with it, provided people could
verify their status with paperwork.
But many refugees in
camps in Bangladesh are scornful.
“Everything was
burned, even people were burned,” said a man who identified himself as
Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a
right to stay in Myanmar.
At the root of the
problem is the refusal by Buddhist-majority Myanmar to grant citizenship to
members of a Muslim minority seen by a mostly unsympathetic, if not hostile,
society as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Though Myanmar has
not granted Rohingya citizenship, under the 1993 procedure, it agreed to take
back people who could prove they had been Myanmar residents.
But a day after
Bangladesh and Myanmar announced apparent progress; a Bangladeshi foreign
ministry official appeared resigned to a difficult process.
“This is still a
long procedure,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not
authorized to speak to media.
There were already
nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, but
Myanmar had said it would only accept, “subject to verification”, those who
arrived after October 2016, when a military offensive in response to Rohingya
insurgent attacks sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi
official said.
“We said that many
Rohingya refugees have no documents, so this process should be flexible.
Myanmar said they will decide who will get involved in the verification,” the
official said, adding Dhaka wanted international agencies involved.
Myanmar’s government
spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove
residency, but it was only Myanmar, not Bangladesh, that could verify
citizenship.
“We have a policy
for the repatriation process and we will go along with that,” the spokesman,
Zaw Htay, said.
But even if refugees
have documents, many are wary about returning without an assurance of full
citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and
curbs they have endured for years.
Amina Katu, 60,
laughed at the thought of returning. “If we go there, we’ll just have to come
back here,” she said. “If they give us our rights, we will go, but people did
this before and they had to return.”
Last month, Anwar
Begum said she had fled from Myanmar three times. The first time was to escape
a 1978 crackdown, and she returned the following year. She fled again in 1991
and returned in 1994.
“I don’t want to go
back,” the 55-year-old added. “I don’t believe the government. Every time the
government agrees we can go back, then we’re there and they break their
promise.”
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