By AFP
DHAKA: A Myanmar government minister has told Rohingya
refugees living in a makeshift camp on the Bangladesh border they should take
up a government offer to return, warning they will face
"consequences" if they stay where they are.
A video circulated on social media apparently shows
Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Major-General Aung Soe addressing a group of
refugees through a barbed wire fence last Friday.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have sought sanctuary in
Bangladesh since a military crackdown last year in response to militant attacks
on security posts.
Despite the campaign, which the United Nations has said
amounts to ethnic cleansing, the two governments agreed late last year to
repatriate all the newly-arrived refugees.
Myanmar minister threatens Rohingya refugees to return or
face 'consequences' http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/02/12/552117/Myanmar-Minister-Rohingya
But many say they do not want to return until Myanmar
agrees to give them citizenship and guarantees their safety.
Myanmar regards the Rohingya as immigrants from
Bangladesh and denies them citizenship, even though they have been there for
generations.
The minister's message was directed at around 6,000
refugees living in Tombru, an area of no man's land between Myanmar and
Bangladesh.
In it, he tells them they must return or "suffer the
consequences", and that the area they were living in was under Myanmar's
jurisdiction.
"If the Rohingya refuse the proposal put forward by
the Myanmar government through this delegation, it will not bode well for the
Rohingya living in no man's land," said the minister through a translator.
Bangladesh security forces in the area confirmed the
minister's visit to AFP.
"He kept telling the refugees to move away from
Myanmar land, or they would face problems," said police officer Mohammad
Rashid by phone from the area.
Local Border Guard Bangladesh commander Manzurul Hasan
Khan said Myanmar authorities had been using loudhailers since Friday to ask
the refugees to leave.
Rohingya living there told AFP soldiers had recently put
up tents near the barbed wire fence.
"They (Myanmar army) often fire blank rounds to
create panic. We've heard they also set fire to nearby villages recently,"
said Dil Mohammad, one of the refugees.
Doctors Without Borders estimates at least 6,700 Rohingya
died in the first month of the violence that sparked the outpouring of
refugees.
Many of them have told harrowing stories of rape, arson
and mass executions at the hands of the military and Rakhine mobs.
Myanmar's army denies the allegations.