Myanmar said Monday it will consider a
Chinese envoy’s proposal to kick-start Rohingya repatriations by allowing some
refugees to return home and report back the on-the-ground situation to their
relatives via cellphone, a day after Bangladesh’s foreign affairs ministry hit
back at the country for blaming it for delays in the long-awaited refugee
return process.
Li Jiming, China’s ambassador to Bangladesh,
proposed Sunday to allow one member from each Rohingya refugee family living in
displacement camps in the country’s southeast to visit Myanmar to observe
whether it is safe for other Rohingya to return to northern Rakhine state.
At a seminar on the repatriation of the
Rohingya at the Jatiya Press Club in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Sunday, Li
Jiming said each displaced family would nominate a member for a preliminary
return. That person would report on the current situation in northern Rakhine
state to relatives via mobile phones provided by the Chinese government, so
they could then decide if they all should return.
“We are negotiating with Bangladesh for the
repatriation of Rohingya refugees,” Chan Aye, director general of Myanmar’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told RFA. “This is our primary focus now. The role
of China is to assist us in succeeding with the repatriation process. With
regard to his [Li Jiming’s] advice, we need to discuss this among ourselves
first before adopting it.”
A violent military-led crackdown on the
Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017 left thousands dead and
drove more than 740,000 others across the border and into Bangladesh where they
reside in sprawling displacement camps.
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement
two years ago to repatriate the Rohingya, but only a trickle have returned on
their own, with the majority saying they won’t step foot in Myanmar until they
are guaranteed physical safety, citizenship rights, and access to basic
services.
Rohingya activist Thar Aye rejects the
Chinese ambassador’s proposal, saying it would not work.
“I don’t think this idea will work,” he said.
“There are many underlying causes. Mainly, they have wrongly interpreted the
laws and have limited the Rohingya’s right to become citizens.”
“Second, other rights such as access to
education are severely limited,” he said. “These issues should be addressed
first. If they don’t resolve these fundamental problems, it will be challenging
to decide whether to return or not by phone conversation alone.”
‘This is not propaganda’
This is the second time that the Chinese
ambassador has proposed the scheme as a way to kick-start the stalled
repatriation program. He offered the same suggestion in September during a
visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district.
At that time, he also proposed that members
of a Rohingya group would travel to their former villages in Rakhine state to
see if the situation there was favorable for a return. If so, they would go
back to Bangladesh to collect their relatives and return permanently to
Myanmar.
Myanmar meanwhile continues to blame
Bangladesh for delays in the repatriation program, but in a statement issued
Sunday, Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Ministry hit back, saying that only its
neighbor was to blame for a lack of cooperation and unwarranted accusations.
“None other than Myanmar should be
responsible for the prolongation of the crisis,” the statement said.
“Bangladesh has no interest in delaying the repatriation. [The] sincerity of
Bangladesh in facilitating [the] earliest repatriation of [the] Rohingya as per
bilateral instruments has been unquestionably established through its actions.”
Chan Aye said delays continue because
refugees who want to voluntarily return to Myanmar are not providing all
information requested on repatriation application forms and exclude a section
where they must pledge to respect and abide by the country’s existing laws.
“So, we responded to Bangladeshi authorities
that they need to follow what we have agreed to in the agreement,” he said.
“This is not propaganda. We are just pointing out the necessities that are
lacking. We are following the regulations from the bilateral agreement, and
Bangladesh should do the same.”
Aye Lwin, a Muslim leader in Myanmar who was
a member of a commission headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan that called for
an end to restrictions on the Rohingya minority to prevent further violence in
Rakhine state, noted that the bilateral agreement calls for the repatriations
to be voluntary and conducted in a dignified manner.
“So, Myanmar should not prevent them from
returning, and Bangladesh should not push them back,” he said. “In my opinion,
the refugees are not returning because they don’t think it is safe to return.”
High-level briefing
Li Jinming’s proposal for spurring Rohingya
refugee repatriations came as Myanmar’s civilian-led government held a
high-level briefing on a legal case filed by Gambia against the Southeast Asia
nations at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over alleged
state-sponsored genocide charges for the 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.
Kyaw Tint Swe, minister of the State
Counselor’s Office, briefed President Win Myint, military commander-in-chief
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Union-level Ministers and the country’s vice
president, and parliamentary speakers and other officials on the charges in the
lawsuit
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not
participate in all the ICJ hearings, the first of which will be held on Dec.
10-12, a ministry official said Monday, though she is leading the defense team.
Chan Aye, director-general of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, said Aung San Suu Kyi — who serves as state counselor and
foreign affairs minister — will not attend every session at the U.N.’s top
court in The Hague, and that the defense team will have other leaders and
subordinates who will represent Myanmar at different times during the
proceedings.
Gambia, a predominantly Muslim African
country, filed the case with the ICJ on Nov. 11 on behalf of the Organization
of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a group of 57 Muslim countries.
The lawsuit alleges that Buddhist-majority
Myanmar breached the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, adopted by the U.N. in 1948.
Chan Aye told RFA that the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs is working on investigating the charges mentioned in Gambia’s
lawsuit and said that Myanmar expects the case to move quickly through the ICJ.
“Normally, it takes three or four years,” he
said. “But, as you know, they are targeting our country, and they may move
quickly.”
“It’s too early to acknowledge any facts from
their accusations,” he added. “Both the government and the military are working
to learn the truth about these cases. After the investigations, the actions
will follow as necessary. ”
Best chance for defense
Former information minister Ye Htut said
Myanmar’s evidence should include findings from its own national investigation
teams and the instances where the military and government punished offenders
and issued directives warning others not to commit rights violations.
“We cannot deny that there were human rights
violations to some extent, but it is neither the government’s policy nor that
of the military,” he said, adding that laws governing the military mandate the
taking of strong action against soldiers who commit rights violations and the
meting out of punishments.
“We also have taken action to bring justice
by forming an investigative commission and holding a military court martial,”
he said. “Our defense should be based on this. We should prove that what
happened in the past were not deliberate acts to commit genocide or crimes
against humanity. This is the best chance for our defense.”
Myanmar’s military has established its own
Court of Inquiry and has been conducting investigations. It previously
sentenced four officers and three soldiers to 10-yer prison sentences on March
2018 for the massacre of a group of Rohingya in a Rakhine village during the
crackdown. They were all released in November 2018.
Ye Htut commented that any decisions taken by
the international court would be unacceptable and would undermine the
government’s disciplinary actions against the rights violations.
Min Lwin Oo, a Norway-based Myanmar attorney
and expert in international law, said Aung San Suu Kyi is facing intense
criticism that she is defending the military.
“So far, we have seen much criticism that she
is defending the military,” he said. “I don’t see any political parties
announcing their support for her trip to the ICJ.”
“Some political parties might be exploiting
the situation as an opportunity to gain support ahead of the 2020 election,” he
said. “This has put pressure on her.”
Muslim community Aye Lwin said that the state
counselor should highlight in her defense testimony her limited authority over
the military as mandated by the country’s constitution.
“If we show cooperation, the perception of
our country would change,” he said “As for her, she should present what has
happened and what the government has been doing exactly as it is. At the same
time, she should highlight the limitations of the constitution.”
“It is important to investigate and reveal
who was responsible for the crimes,” he added. “I think she will only say what
the government is doing. She won’t deny that the incidents happened nor will
she defend those who are responsible.”
Parmaukkha leads protest
Also on Monday, prominent ex-Buddhist abbot
Parmaukkha led a group of about 30 nationalist activists in a protest against
the OIC and the ICJ lawsuit in Sule, the downtown area of Myanmar’s commercial
hub Yangon.
The ruling National League for Democracy
(NLD) party has said it will assist those who organize public rallies in
support of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is leading the defense team when the first ICJ
hearings are held on Dec. 10-12.
During the protest, Parmaukkha said the ICJ
lawsuit could unite leaders from different areas.
“People from all fronts need to be united,”
he said.
“Now, the two leaders are united like elder
sister and younger brother,” he said referring to Aung San Suu Kyi and
Myanmar’s commander-in-chief senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who recently met
to discuss the defense strategy at the ICJ hearings.
“We always encourage the people to be
united,” Parmaukkha said. “We should guard against such aggression in unity.”
He also argued that when the Muslim militant
group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), staged coordinated attacks on
30 police outposts in northern Rakhine state in 2017, the military-led
counter-insurgency against the group did not target Rohingya civilians —
contradicting several reports, including one by U.N. investigators, which
presented extensive credible evidence indicating otherwise.
Parmaukkha once belonged to the former
ultranationalist Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, better
known as Ma Ba Tha, but left the hard-line Buddhist network in 2016 reportedly
over political differences. He was defrocked following his arrest in November
2017 on charges of inciting unrest during a protest.
A Yangon court sentenced Parmaukkha in
February 2018 to three months in jail for his role in organizing a protest
against the U.S. government's use of the word “Rohingya” outside the American
embassy in April 2016 without obtaining permission from authorities.
A few months later, Facebook closed his
personal account along with that of Ma Ba Tha for inciting hatred toward the
Rohingya.
‘Time to choose unity’
Naung Taw Lay, a protest organizer and
nationalist activist who spoke at the protest against the OIC and ICJ, said
people should overcome their resentment of each other.
“People are pretty divided,” he said. “Some
are Aung San Suu Kyi supporters, and some are supporters of the military.”
“But this is a national issue, and it is time
to choose unity,” he said.
When Aung San Suu Kyi and the military
together present evidence before the ICJ, “the people of Myanmar should stand
united behind the administrative leader and the military leader in one voice,”
Naung Taw Lay said.
“People are overwhelmed by resentment of one
another and don’t like a sermon calling for unity, but now is the time for
that,” he added. “It is time to overcome differences.”
Naung Taw Lay also accused that OIC of filing
the lawsuit with the intent of damaging the dignity of Myanmar in the eyes of
the international community.
He also said that the U.N. should take into
account the Hindu, Rakhine, Mro, and Thet ethnic groups and security forces
that were killed by ARSA militants in the 2017 attacks.
There are criticisms on organizing the
rallies supporting the State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.
But Nickey Diamond, a human rights activist
with Fortify Rights, said the rally showing support for Aung San Suu Kyi could
be misinterpreted as supporting genocide and could further damage Myanmar’s
reputation.
By RFA
By RFA