DHAKA (Reuters) -
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to begin by November the repatriation
of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh to escape a
Myanmar army crackdown, though doubts about a speedy return are likely to
persist.
More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees crossed from the west
of mostly Buddhist Myanmar into Bangladesh from August last year after Rohingya
insurgent attacks on the Myanmar security forces triggered a sweeping military
response.
“What about our citizenship, our rights and our demand
to go back to our land ... our own houses?”
“We are looking forward to start the repatriation by
mid-November,” Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told reporters in
Dhaka after a meeting with Myanmar delegation led by senior foreign ministry
official Myint Thu.
Myint Thu hailed what he called a “very concrete result
on the commencement of the repatriation”.
“We have put in place a number of measures to make sure
that the returnees will have a secure environment for their return,” he told reporters.
But rights groups and Rohingya community leaders say
conditions back in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where most of the
refugees are from, are not ready for repatriation.
Leaders of the largely stateless Rohingya community have
said they will not return without various demands being met, including the
rights to Myanmar citizenship.
“We have some demands but the government of Myanmar
didn’t do anything to meet them. How can we go back?” Mohib Ullah, a Rohingya
leader now living in southeast Bangladesh, told Reuters.
The Myanmar delegation will visit the Rohingya camps in
Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s foreign minister said
Myanmar had cleared the list of 8,000 Rohingya people sent by Dhaka for
verification after last year’s deal.
The two countries had reached a deal in November last
year to begin repatriation within two months, but it has not started.
Also read: Rohingyas to be repatriated
despite UN genocide warning https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/bangladesh-and-myanmar-agree-to-start-rohingya-repatriation-in-mid-november
Rohingya are still crossing the border into Bangladesh,
with nearly 14,000 arriving this year, according to U.N. officials.
U.N. investigators issued a report in August accusing
Myanmar’s military of acting with “genocidal intent” and calling for the
country’s commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, and five generals to be
prosecuted under international law.
Myanmar has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and
says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.
Min Aung Hlaing suggested in September that the Rohingya
belonged in Bangladesh and said they must “accept scrutiny” under a 1982
Citizenship Law.
The law limits citizenship for those, like the Rohingya,
who are not members of officially decreed ethnic groups.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told Reuters in
an interview last month that under no circumstance would the refugees be
allowed to remain permanently.
Bangladesh, Myanmar to start Rohingya
repatriation in mid-November https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2018/10/30/bangladesh-myanmar-to-start-rohingya-repatriation-in-mid-november
Hasina, who is facing a general election at the end of
the year, also accused Myanmar of finding new excuses to delay the return.
Myanmar, however, has blamed Bangladesh for the delay and
says it is ready to take back the refugees and has built transit centres to
house them initially on their return.
Given the delays, Bangladesh has been preparing new homes
on a remote island called Bhasan Char, which rights groups have said could be
subject to flooding.