It says Bangladesh is delaying Rohingyas’ repatriation
process for international aid
Star Online Report
Myanmar has come up with a hilarious claim that
Bangladesh is delaying the repatriation process of over 800,000 Rohingyas for
international donations.
Myanmar was ready to begin the repatriation process any
time, based along the lines of an agreement that covered returns of Rohingya to
Myanmar in the early 1990s, Reuters reports today quoting Zaw Htay, a spokesman
for Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Also READ: Myanmar's Proposal: All that glitters is not
gold http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-refugee-crisis-myanmars-proposal-all-glitters-not-gold-1471264
Claiming Bangladesh had yet to accept those terms, Zaw
Htay linked the delay by Bangladesh to the money raised so far by the
international community to help build gigantic refugee camps for the Rohingyas.
"Currently they (Bangladesh) have got $400 million.
Over their receipt of this amount, we are now afraid of delaying the programme
of deporting the refugees," he said in comments carried in a front-page
article in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Wednesday.
"We are ready to start, but the other side did not
accept yet, and the process was delayed. This is the number one fact," Zaw
Htay, director-general of the Ministry of the State Counsellor's Office, told
journalists on Tuesday.
READ more: Myanmar army doing no wrong! http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-refugee-crisis-myanmar-army-doing-no-wrong-1475683
"They have got international subsidies. We are now
afraid they would have another consideration as to repatriation," Reuters
reports quoting Htay.
Over 607,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the
Myanmar army began its “clearance operations” in response to the coordinated
killings of Myanmar security personnel by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on
August 25 this year.
An estimated 3,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed, while
more than 284 Rohingya villages were burned down in the army operation.
Thousands of Rohingyas continue to cross the border to Bangladesh.
Also READ: Same old trick http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-same-old-trick-1482355
Myanmar also violated
Bangladesh's airspace and laid landmines along the border apparently to
prevent return of the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and other basic
rights by Myanmar despite having their roots there for generations. http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-refugee-crisis-myanmar-stays-indifferent-fm-1474579
However, Myanmar, with support from the state media, is
trying to confuse the international community and some neighbouring countries
as it terms the violence as "Islamist terrorism" or "extremist
Bengali terrorism".
For decades, the Rohingya have been persecuted in
Myanmar, made stateless and forced to leave the country. Though the operation
in late August began against the militants, civilians, including women and
children, faced cruel persecution.
A memorandum of understanding on border liaison posts was
signed with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan following talks in the
Myanmar capital, Naypyitaw, last week, but there was no progress on reviving
the old agreement.
The Bangladesh government issued a statement on Thursday
saying that Myanmar had not agreed to 10 points put forward by its minister at
last week's talks, including the full implementation of the recommendations of
an Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by former UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, for a sustainable return of Rohingya.
Khan told Bangladesh media on Friday that the two sides
were unable to form a joint working group but said it should be set up by the
time Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali goes to Myanmar for talks on
November 30.
The Myanmar government has said it would accept the
Rohingya once it was established that they had lived in Myanmar.
Zaw Htay said Myanmar was awaiting a list of Rohingya
refugees from the Bangladesh side.
Haunted by death, insecurity
The United Nation's new interim resident coordinator for
Myanmar began his new job today. Knut Ostby, a Norwegian, has taken over the
humanitarian and diplomatic role at a time of growing strains with the Myanmar
government over the handling of the Rohingya crisis.
Meantime, while Myanmar and Bangladesh work out how
Rohingya can eventually go home, the grim exodus from Myanmar continues.
Seven Rohingya, including three babies and two children,
drowned trying to make the perilous sea crossing up the coast from Myanmar to
Bangladesh earlier this week.
Given the horrors endured by many Rohingya now living in
refugee camps it would be unsurprising if they were in no hurry to return to
their old homes back in Myanmar.
UN investigators interviewing Rohingya living in refugee
camps in Bangladesh said on Friday they had gathered testimony pointing to a
"consistent, methodical pattern" of killings, torture, rape and
arson.
A foremost concern for Myanmar as it prepares to scrutinise
any returnees is the risk of Islamist militants sneaking into the country.
The group behind the Aug. 25 attack on around 30 security
posts in Rakhine State was the Arakhan Rohingya Salvation Army, but other
militant groups have jumped on the plight of the Rohingya to issue a call to
arms.
Last week the media arm of al-Qaeda in the Indian
Subcontinent (AQIS) released a video to deliver a message from the group's
leader, Abu Syed al-Ansari Abu Syed al-Ansari, repeating calls for a jihad to
fight for the Rohingya.
