Myanmar Wants a ‘Systematic Repatriation’ of Rohingya,
Social Welfare Minister Says
By RFA
“We want to work on this repatriation systematically
according to the memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh,” Win Myat Aye,
Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement who is in charge
of the repatriation program, told RFA’s Myanmar Service in response to a
question asked during an event in Naypyidaw marking Universal Children’s Day.
Myanmar has delayed the return of Rohingya Muslim
refugees from Bangladesh in order to conduct a “systematic repatriation,” a
Myanmar government official said Monday, four days after an initial group of
Rohingya verified as eligible for return did not show up at the border for
processing on the day that they were expected.
“The Myanmar government wants the dignified and safe
repatriation [of the refugees, and the postponement of the repatriation to the
end of December by Bangladesh means that there is still work to be done to have
a systematic repatriation.”
Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with
Bangladesh a year ago to take back the Rohingya who were among the hundreds of
thousands who fled a violent military crackdown in Rakhine state that began in
August 2017 in response to deadly attacks by a Rohingya militant group.
The campaign prompted an exodus of more than 720,000
Rohingya as security forces killed families, sexually assaulted women and
girls, and burned villages in what the United Nations, human rights groups, and
other members of the international community have said amounted to ethnic
cleansing and genocide.
The first group of 2,200 refugees was set to return on
Nov. 15, but none of them showed up amid protests by Rohingya in the refugee
camps in Bangladesh who said they would not go back unless the Myanmar
government met their demands to be treated as equal citizens in Myanmar.
According to the MoU and to another agreement that
Myanmar signed with the U.N.’s refugee (UNHCR) and development (UNDP) agencies,
the country can only accept refugees who want to return voluntarily.
The UNHCR and rights groups have warned that
repatriations should not begin until the safety of returning Rohingya can be
guaranteed and that they will not be subject to systematic discrimination. The
Rohingya refugees are demanding that Myanmar grant them certain rights and
access to basic services contingent upon their return.
Myanmar and Bangladesh were to begin the repatriations on
Nov. 15, but none of the Rohingya or Hindu refugees approved for return showed
up at the border for processing.
“As we have to work on this procedure, it is very
important to consider whether these refugees really want to return or not,”
said Win Myat Aye, who is also vice chairman of Myanmar’s Union Enterprise for
Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine State (UEHRD).
“Bangladesh, the UNHCR and UNDP will work on the repatriation on this basis.”
Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud
Ali said his county will resume the repatriation process at the end of December
after a general election.
“According to the MoU, Myanmar can receive the refugees
only if Bangladesh sends them back,” Win Myat Aye said. “When it resumes the
refugee repatriation, we want a systematic process like we have arranged in
Myanmar.”
The terms of the agreement say that the Myanmar
government can accept only refugees who want voluntary return and it cannot
force those who don’t wish to return, he added.
Boat people return home
Win Myat Aye also said that more than 100 Rohingya
rescued on Friday from a boat stranded in the Andaman Sea on Friday as they
attempted to travel from Myanmar to Malaysia had been sent back to their places
of residence in Rakhine state.
Sixty-six of the 106 Rohingya detained by police
following their rescue at sea are from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps
in Sittwe township, while the rest are from 40 villages around the township, he
said.
The refugees, who were found adrift off Kyauktan township
in Yangon region after their vessel’s engine failed, said they left Myanmar
because they didn’t have enough food rations in the camps and they wanted jobs.
When asked about the lack of food in the camps, Win Myat
Aye said that the Rakhine state government is responsible for the management of
IDP camps in Sittwe, and that his Ministry provides support to the state.
“International NGOs still support the Sittwe camps as
well, but more may be needed,” he said. “We are working on this issue with
other organizations as well.”
On Sunday, Myanmar police shot and injured four Rohingya
at the Ah Nauk Ye IDP camp, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) east of the
capital Sittwe on Sunday, after detaining two men accused of smuggling the 106
Rohingya out of the country in their boat, Reuters reported.
Relevant organizations have been investigating whether or
not they were illegally trafficked, Win Myat Aye said, though he had no details
about the probe.
“As the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and
Resettlement, we are working on supporting them in their resettlement,” he
said.
IDP camps in Sittwe and other areas of Rakhine house tens
of thousands of Rohingya displaced by communal violence between ethnic Rakhine
Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.
The Myanmar government is in the process of shutting down
the camps in keeping with one of the recommendations of an advisory commission
that probed ways to end violence in the ethnically and religiously divided
state.
Hindus want to return
Meanwhile, nearly 440 Hindus who were not on the first
list of refugees to be repatriated told officials from Myanmar’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs visiting the Bangladeshi camps in October that they still
wanted to return to Rakhine state.
During their visit to the Kutupalong camp, Myint Thu,
permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pledged that he would
try to have the Hindus returned as soon as possible, said Maungdaw district
administrator Soe Aung.
RFA tried to contact some of the Hindus in the camps to
get an update, but they refused to answer questions, citing security reasons.
Ni Maul, a Hindu social worker and community leader in
Maungdaw who has regular contact with the Hindu refugees, told RFA that they
want to return to Rakhine state so they can die where they were born.
“They thank Bangladesh for helping and feeding them in
the camp, but they want to come back home because they want to die where they
were born,” he said. “It is our religious belief.”
Myanmar officials initially sent the Bangladeshi
government a list of 1,222 people, including roughly 440 Muslims, in March to
receive as the first group of returnees, said Chan Aye, director general of the
Consular and Legal Affairs Department.
But afterwards, Bangladeshi officials sent back a list
with more than 8,000 refugees to be considered for repatriation, he said.
“Hindus from the Bangladesh camps contacted and told us
that they want to return, said Soe Han, director general of the ASEAN Affairs
Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We requested that Bangladesh
put them on the list of first group to be repatriated.
“But Bangladesh replied that it didn’t want to send
Hindus back first and that it would try to put them on the list after the first
group had been sent,” he said. “I hope they will be on the list after the first
group of 2,260 refugees is sent back.”
Hindus residing in northern Rakhine suffered violence at
the hands of Muslim militants who invaded their villages and drove out or
killed them following deadly attacks on police outposts that sparked the 2017
crackdown on Rohingya communities.
The militants detained nearly 100 people from several
Hindu villages, killed most of them, and dumped their corpses in mass graves.
They also forced the young Hindu women to convert to Islam and took them to a
Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Protest planned
Meanwhile, Buddhist monks and ethnic Rakhine groups are
planning a protest in Sittwe on Nov. 25 to oppose the resettlement of Rohingya
refugees in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw district, a predominantly Rohingya area
prior to the crackdown.
Event organizers said they will also protest against
plans to appoint Muslim youths as assistant teachers and against the issuance
of National Verification Cards to Muslims in Ramree township. The cards are
seen as a first step to applying for citizenship, which the Rohingya have long
been denied since they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Protest leaders said they filed an application for
permission to hold the protest at a police station on Monday.