Arakan Rohingya
Union, European Rohingya Council demand Myanmar to renegotiate repatriation
agreement with Bangladesh
By Sena Guler and
Fatih Hafiz Mehmet
By AA News
The Arakan Rohingya
Union (ARU) and the European Rohingya Council (ERC) on Wednesday called on
Myanmar to renegotiate the repatriation deal with Bangladesh and allow UNHCR
and Rohingya representatives from camps to become parties to the agreement.
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| Joint Press Statement of Rohingya Orgs. P1 |
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| Joint Press Statement of Rohingya Orgs. P1 |
In a joint
statement, the ARU and ERC said the Myanmar government had to "address the
security, human rights and citizenship issues faced by Rohingya ethnic minority
before any step is taken to repatriate the forcefully displaced Rohingya from
camps in Bangladesh to their original homes in Rakhine state".
Voicing its serious
concern over the security situation in Rohingya villages, they said
"attacks and looting by Myanmar armed forces and Buddhist Rakhine militia
have spiraled over the past several days".
Myanmar government
has failed to show it "genuinely works with the Rakhine Commission for
implementation of Annan recommendation," according to the statement.
The groups urged
Myanmar to "work with the Rakhine Commission with full transparency and
due respect to the views and integrity of the Commission members, and fully
implement the recommendation of the Annan Commission with benchmarks".
The ARU and ERC
demanded the government to renegotiate the repatriation agreement with the
involvement of the UNHCR and representatives among displaced people at Rohingya
camps in Bangladesh.
They asked Myanmar
government to allow the international relief and development groups to assist
in rebuilding the Rohingya villages that were razed.
The statement also
called on the government to "initiate a rigorous reconstruction and
rehabilitation plan for the returnees well ahead of the repatriation in
coordination with the UNHCR, international aid groups, and the displaced
Rohingya village representatives for their return to their original
homes/properties with no transit, semi-permanent, or permanent camps".
The bilateral deal
between Myanmar and Bangladesh, signed on Nov. 23 last year, stipulates some
nearly impossible conditions for verifying residency of the people the agreement
calls "displaced persons from Myanmar" instead of their widely known
ethnic identity of Rohingya.
Right groups
including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the UN Refugee Agency and Amnesty
International have voiced their concern over the deal, saying it would send
Rohingya back to the brutality in Myanmar.
Amnesty called the
plan "alarmingly premature" while HRW called on both governments to
redraft the agreement involving the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
Earlier this month,
Bangladesh and Myanmar finalized an agreement on the physical arrangements for
the repatriation of the Rohingya and agreed to send 100,000 Rohingya to Myanmar
in the first phase.