Myanmar Says it Would Like to See ‘Clear Evidence’ of Genocide

par | Mar 12, 2018 | Ethnic conflict

 Myanmar wants to see clear evidence to support accusations that ethnic cleansing or genocide has been perpetrated against its Muslim minority in Rakhine State, National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said on Thursday.
“The vast majority of the Muslim community that was living in Rakhine remain,” he told reporters in Geneva. “If it was a genocide, they would all be driven out.”
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine into neighboring Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown in August, joining 200,000 refugees from a previous exodus.
On Wednesday, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said he strongly suspected “acts of genocide”, while Myanmar’s military published a lengthy response to widespread allegations over its campaign in Rakhine, saying its investigations had cleared troops of almost all alleged abuses.
Zeid told the UN Human Rights Council that reports of bulldozing of alleged mass graves were a “deliberate attempt by the authorities to destroy evidence of potential international crimes, including possible crimes against humanity.”
Thaung Tun said charges of ethnic cleansing and genocide were very serious and should not be bandied about lightly.
“We have often heard many accusations that there is ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Myanmar. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you. Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence,” he said.
“We should look into that before making a pronouncement on whether there is ethnic cleansing or genocide.”
Myanmar has not allowed UN investigators into the country to investigate. A UN fact-finding mission is due to report on Monday on its initial findings, based on interviews with victims and survivors in Bangladesh and other countries.
Thaung Tun added that Myanmar was willing to accept back people who had fled and provide safety and dignity for them, showing that it did not want them out of the country, and that only a minority of Rakhine’s population of 3 million had left.
He said the Muslims who fled largely did so because the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) armed group had sowed fear. He accused ARSA of having forced villagers to join their attacks on the security forces and had insisted on a scorched earth policy, burning villages in retreat.
Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most people in majority-Buddhist Myanmar consider them to be unwanted Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. The army refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis,” and most lack citizenship.
Thaung Tun said former residents would be welcomed back if they were willing to “participate in the life of the nation,” for example by learning the Burmese language.
“Those who want to become citizens of Myanmar, we are happy to welcome them, but they have to go through a process. There cannot be automatic citizenship,” he said.

A l’écoute le reportage France Culture.

GENEVA – By Reuters 9 March 2018 – The Irrawaddi

Les Rohingya : France Culture

par | Mar 12, 2018 | Rohingyas

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France culture

Le reportage sur le problème de rohingya démarre à partir de l’index 16.49 minutes

 

Museum revocation Elie Wiesel Award Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

par | Mar 9, 2018 | Myanmar

The Myanmar Embassy in Washington, D.C., stated that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was “misled and exploited by people who failed to see the true situation in Rakhine State” upon the museum’s revocation of its Elie Wiesel Award from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The museum released an announcement on Tuesday about the withdrawal of the award that they honored her with in 2012, stating that the Myanmar State Counselor had failed to use her moral authority to address the Myanmar military’s orchestration of crimes against Rohingya Muslims.
More than 680,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh after army clearance operations in northern Rakhine State since August last year in the wake of serial attacks on security outposts in the region by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Those who made it to camps on the Bangladeshi side reported arbitrary killings, rapes and torching of property by the Myanmar Army. The UN labeled the actions as ethnic cleansing.
In its statement, the museum dedicated to Nazi’s victims of World War II said it “had hoped Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have done something to condemn and stop the military’s brutal campaign and to express solidarity with the targeted Rohingya population” as someone celebrated for her commitment to human dignity and universal human rights.
“We understand the difficult situation you must face in confronting decades of military misrule and violence in your country and that institution’s still powerful constitutional role. However, the military’s orchestration of the crimes against Rohingya and the severity of the atrocities in recent months demand that you use your moral authority to address this situation,” said the statement.
On Wednesday, The Myanmar Embassy in Washington said: “We immensely regret that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has been misled and exploited by people who failed to see the true situation in fair judgment on the situation in Rakhine State.”
It continued that the decision of the museum would have “no bearing on the determination of Myanmar people in supporting the leadership of the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in nation-building but will make the government to redouble its effort in finding a lasting solution in Rakhine State.”
The museum is the first US institution to revoke an award from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Since last year, the Nobel laureate has had at least three honors stripped, including the Freedom of the City awards by Oxford, Glasgow and Sheffield City Councils and the Honorary Presidency award by the London School of Economics.

By The Irrawaddy 8 March 2018 – Yangon

La presse française en parle : dont le journal :  « Le Monde »

Prix retiré à Aung San Suu Kyi pour son silence

par | Mar 8, 2018 | Myanmar

Le prix Elie Wiesel Aung San Suu Kyi Les Rohingya.

Le Musée de l’Holocauste de Washington, qui lui avait décerné un prix pour son combat en faveur des libertés, estime qu’elle n’a pas exprimé sa « solidarité » avec la population rohingya.

Près de 690 000 musulmans rohingya vivant dans l’ouest de la Birmanie se sont réfugiés au Bangladesh voisin depuis fin août 2017 pour fuir une opération de l’armée, qualifiée de campagne d’« épuration ethnique » par les Nations unies. « Nous avions espéré que vous – en tant que personne saluée pour votre engagement en faveur de la dignité humaine et les droits de l’homme universels – feriez quelque chose pour condamner et stopper la brutale campagne militaire, et exprimeriez votre solidarité avec la population rohingya », a expliqué le Musée dans un communiqué.
Mais « la Ligue nationale pour la démocratie, sous votre direction, a au contraire refusé de coopérer avec les enquêteurs des Nations unies (et) propagé une rhétorique de haine à l’encontre de la communauté rohingya », a ajouté le Musée en allusion au parti politique de Mme Aung San Suu Kyi. Il appelle, en outre, la dirigeante à user de son « autorité morale pour répondre à cette situation ».
Cantonnée à la dissidence pendant près de trente ans, dont quinze en résidence surveillée, Aung San Suu Kyi avait reçu le premier prix « Elie Wiesel » décerné en 2012 par le Musée de l’Holocauste, pour son « action courageuse et son grand sacrifice personnel » contre la junte birmane et sa lutte pour « la liberté et la dignité du peuple birman ».
Mais la Prix Nobel de la paix 1991, à la tête du gouvernement civil depuis 2016, a été accusée pour son manque de compassion à l’égard des Rohingya et pour son silence sur le rôle de l’armée, avec laquelle elle doit composer sur le plan politique.
Influencés par un fort nationalisme bouddhiste, une majorité des Birmans considère les Rohingya comme des étrangers et les voient comme une menace contre la prédominance bouddhiste du pays.

Lire aussi :   Rohingya : un ex-diplomate américain dénonce l’attitude d’Aung San Suu Kyi

Countering Jihadist Militancy in Bangladesh

par | Mar 6, 2018 | Religious fundamentalism

Conclusion of a 34-page article on the situation of Rohingya in Bangladesh. Crisis Group.

With political polarisation reaching historic highs and local jihadist groups forging links with transnational movements, new forms of militancy threaten security and religious tolerance in Bangladesh. The government should reinforce the capability of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, and build political consensus on tackling the menace.

Although there was no major attack in 2017, the potential for further jihadist violence in Bangladesh remains. The resurgence of jihadist groups over the past few years has been facilitated if not accelerated by years of political deadlock. While there is no direct line between toxic politics and the rise of jihadist violence, a bitterly divided polity, between those espousing secularism and those emphasising Bangladesh’s Muslim identity, and a brutal and highly partisan policing and justice system, nonetheless has opened space for jihadist groups. The politicised trials of senior JeI leaders contributed to the environment in which Ansar emerged. The BNP’s alliance with the JeI, whose activists, along with BNP cadres, have been responsible for much of the worst political violence since 2013, raises understandable concerns. Yet that violence was provoked by the attempt to drive JeI underground, itself the byproduct of a zero-sum game between the two largest parties.

Ending the deadlock is even more urgent today as Bangladesh confronts a new generation of potentially more dangerous jihadists with apparent links to transnational terror groups such as ISIS. Instead, Sheikh Hasina’s government has made no serious attempt to reconcile with the mainstream opposition, opting instead to waste police resources on repression of opponents. This choice has undermined both democracy and security, with countrywide violence bringing the country to a standstill for months at a time. Given the jihadist revival since then, another breakdown of law and order would almost certainly play into the hands of groups like Ansar and JMB. If the government does not change course, such forces may experience another resurgence.

International Crisis Group – Brussels, 28 February 2018

Specter of Jihadi Resurgence Arises in Bangladesh

par | Mar 6, 2018 | Religious fundamentalism

The International Crisis Group (ICG), which focuses on preventing deadly conflicts, has warned the Bangladeshi government that domestic political polarization could fuel a resurgence of militancy by local jihadist movements, threatening the state’s security and religious tolerance of minority groups.

The group released a 34-page report entitled “Countering Jihadist Militancy in Bangladesh” via its website on Feb. 28. Based on interviews with security officials, members of the legal community and political and civil society groups, representatives from Islamic parties and umbrella groups, the analysis seeks to explore the roots of Bangladeshi’s jihadist groups, their ultimate goals, organizational dynamics, recruitment patterns and links to regional and transitional networks.

Resurgent militancy

The ICG report states that two groups, Jamaat-ul Mjahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansarul Islam (or Ansar), which both claim to represent Islamic State-Bangladesh and have sent large numbers of fighters to Iraq and Syria, dominate the jihadist landscape of Bangladesh. Both are linked with Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliated with al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch.

Ansar describes itself as a defender of Islam, while JMB has a longer list of enemies, identifying anyone who does not subscribe to its interpretation of Islam as a legitimate target.

These two militant groups’ attacks have targeted secular activists, foreigners, intellectuals as well as religious and sectarian minorities in Bangladesh since 2013. In the almost three years since an attack on a café in the heart of Dhaka’s diplomatic district killed over 20 people, ICG reports a series of attacks have involved different Bangladesh Jihadist groups, including rural-based madrasa students and elite urban young men.

Successive governments have taken drastic and often brutal action against JMB, killing thousands of suspects, although the group has not been wiped out and has revived itself in a new form. Meanwhile, Ansar was born out of outrage over the ruling Awami League government’s 2010 trials of senior leaders of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islamic (Jel), who were accused of committing war crimes in the 1971 war of independence.

Jel is a close ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The verdicts against Jel’s senior leaders became a flashpoint within the Islamist community as the trial lacked transparency and was held against a background of intimidation and harassment of defence lawyers and witnesses. Ansar regards the trials as an insult to Islam and subsequently begun recruiting members from among both urban and rural educated youth.

The ICG says the ruling Awami League party’s tactics against its political opponents, which have included accusing BNP and Jel of complicity in high-profile attacks in recent years, have opened a space for new forms of jihadist activism. The Awami League has repeatedly used the security forces to suppress rivals as it seeks a decisive victory in upcoming 2018 general elections in December.

The ICG suggested the Bangladeshi government “should adopt a counter-terrorism strategy anchored in reformed criminal justice and better intelligence gathering.”

Ansar might be training ARSA militants today

Amid the silent threat growing within Bangladesh, an influx of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late 2017 is fueling security concerns in the Bangladeshi government as jihadist groups including ISIS and Pakistani militants have shown an interest in taking advantage of the Rohingya’s plight in an effort to mobilize support.

The ICG warns the Bangladesh government that jihadists might “exploit” nearly one million stateless Rohingya refugees, who are “particularly susceptible to jihadist recruitment.” News reports suggest some Rohingya from refugee camps have already joined ARSA.

In April 2016, ISIS’s online magazine Dabiq featured the Bangladesh ISIS commander sounding a rallying cry for Rohingya rights, while Al-Qaeda included Myanmar on a 2014 list of key targets.

Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, in one of the leading publications in that country, wrote in September 2017, “All Muslims of the world must unite for this cause” and “Myanmar’s soil is earnestly waiting for the thumping sound of the footsteps of the conquerors.”

In December 2017, Akayed Ullah, a Banlgadeshi immigrant to the United States detonated a homemade pipe bomb in a New York subway corridor, injuring five. US authorities apprehended the suspect and found he had an “allegiance to ISIS” and had visited Rohingya refugee camps three months before his violent attack in New York.

Although there is no concrete evidence to conclude that ARSA has ties to transnational jihadism, a previous Rohingya militant group, formally known as the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), set up small bases on the Bangladesh border in the past, and collaborated with Jamaat-ul Mujahideen on weapons and explosives training. Some counter-terrorism analysts believe that Ansar might be training and arming ARSA militants today.

Qazi Mehboob ul-Haq, with supporters. (Photo: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)

The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) also noted in its report that “Indonesians and Malaysians are seeking to assist persecuted Muslims in Myanmar through contacts with Bangladesh-based Rohingya.”

At their recent meeting in Singapore in February, ASEAN defence ministers issued a joint statement in which it stated: “We note with grave concern the rise of terrorism in our region, perpetrated by individuals and groups with increasingly sophisticated and deadly tactics and weapons.”

Meanwhile on Feb. 27, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added ISIS-Bangladesh and the Philippines-based Maute Group, aka Islamic State of Lanao, to its sanction list for global terrorism, along with ISIS-Egypt, Somalia, Tunisia and West Africa. It’s unclear whether the US is also trying to verify the link between Bangladesh ISIS and ARSA.

Third picture: Myanmar soldiers on guard duty during a diplomatic tour to northern Rakhine’s strife-torn Maungdaw district in 2017. (Photo/ Moe Myint/The Irrawaddy)

Why is ARSA so silent?

After a series of attacks by ARSA on Myanmar forces in 2017, there have been no serious security incidents in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw region, although a couple of camp leaders were murdered on the Bangladesh side, which scared Rohingya from returning to Myanmar.

Home Affairs Minister Lt. Col Kyaw Swe and 11 fellow officials from relevant departments recently visited Bangladesh to discuss border security and collaboration on counter-terrorism operations but detailed information from the talks was not released.

During the visit, Bangladesh Home Affairs officials handed a list of over 8,000 potential Rohingya returnees to Lt. Col Kyaw Swe but the list provided only one ID photo of the head of each family and no other identifying information for family members or fingerprints in the applications. As a result, Myanmar authorities said they would send back the returnee list to Bangladesh authorities.

As for ARSA’s silence, Myanmar ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe concluded that the group is waiting to see the outcome of a campaign by some members of the international and human rights communities to have Myanmar army chief Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing referred to the International Court of Justice for the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine.

In recent weeks, over 100 British MP urged its government to demand the Myanmar army chief be brought before the ICJ while three Nobel Peace Laureates, Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman, Iran’s Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire from Ireland voiced a similar appeal after visiting refugee camps in Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh news outlets, the Nobel Prize winners also warned Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to “wake up”, otherwise, she would be listed as a “perpetrator of this crime”.  Moreover, they bluntly declared that “If she can’t stop all this crime, then she has to resign, now.”

“If ARSA stages further attacks against Myanmar, there could be backlash in terms of the international support for them (the Rohingya), and their political agenda would suffer a great loss,” U Maung Maung Soe said.

The analyst noted Rohingya promoters in Europe had focused on raising the issue of indigenous rights for stateless people rather than protecting the basic rights of a persecuted community, which suggests it will be hard to reach a repatriation deal given the offer made by Myanmar to accept those who return voluntarily. Thus, ARSA’s silence is very likely connected to the pro-Rohingya campaigners’ lobbying, he said.

“It’s hard to believe that they (lobbyists) don’t have any connections with ARSA,” U Maung Maung Soe said.

However, ARSA will probably carry out renewed attacks on Myanmar if the push for Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing to be tried before the ICC fails to gain traction. In addition, the remaining Muslim population has indicated that ARSA would not be able to call on large numbers of militants to make attacks against Myanmar government targets as in 2017, U Maung Maung Soe said.

By Moe Myint The Irrawaddy 2 March 2018

 

 

Le calvaire d’Hassina – jeune Rohingya

par | Fév 26, 2018 | Rohingyas

Le calvaire d’Hassina jeune Rohingya

La famille d’Hassina n’a jamais su lui expliquer pourquoi un tel sort était réservé aux Rohingya. Son grand-père, un modeste propriétaire terrien, se contentait de lui dire qu’il fallait stocker le moins de riz possible chez eux, par crainte des vols. « Nous nous attendions à une vie de malheur, confie cette femme de 22 ans, mais pas à cela. » « Cela », c’est l’histoire qui la hante depuis des mois et qu’elle évoque d’une voix sombre, le visage éteint, en partie caché par son voile. Assise à ses côtés, sous la tente où elles essaient de survivre, sa belle-sœur Asma la soutient du regard. Dehors s’étend Kutupalong, le plus vaste camp de réfugiés au monde : plus de 688 000 personnes arrivées ici, au Bangladesh, ces cinq derniers mois. A l’horizon se dressent les collines verdoyantes de leur pays, la Birmanie, et plus loin encore, à vingt kilomètres à vol d’oiseau, leur village natal, Tula Toli. Une bourgade de quelques milliers d’habitants où la rivière, un jour de fin d’été, est devenue rouge sang…

L’unique crime d’Hassina Begum, frêle silhouette drapée de beige rosé, est d’être née Rohingya, ces musulmans que les autres Birmans, en majorité bouddhistes, nomment « Bengalis » pour bien montrer qu’ils n’ont pas le statut de citoyen. Le journal officiel Global New Light of Myanmar ne les a-t-il pas comparés à des « puces qu’[ils] abhorr [ent] pour leur puanteur et parce qu’elles [leur] sucent le sang » ? Hassina peut témoigner de cette haine, elle qui n’a jamais connu que la ségrégation.

Dès son enfance, elle est confrontée à cette stricte séparation entre les deux communautés. Bien sûr, il lui arrive de jouer avec des petits bouddhistes, mais ces amitiés se heurtent vite aux frontières religieuses et ethniques. Sa maison et celles des autres musulmans sont distantes de 500 mètres de celles de la minorité bouddhiste locale, les Arakanais.

LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Harold Thibault

Suite de l’article : hassina

 

Rohingya refugees walk at Jamtoli camp

par | Jan 24, 2018 | Rohingyas

Rohingya refugees walk at Jamtoli camp

The UN refugee agency and other groups have urged a rethink of the plan to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar amid fears of forced repatriations and the inability of aid agencies to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands who fled bloodshed at home.
The calls come as Bangladesh delayed the repatriation of the largely stateless Rohingya to Myanmar as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back was incomplete.
“In order for the repatriation to be [done] right, to be sustainable, actually viable … you need to really address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in Geneva, noting that issues like citizenship had not been addressed.
More than 688,000 Muslim Rohingya and a few hundred Hindu Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 last year after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine State, amid witness reports of killings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the delay in the repatriations was a good idea and Washington was concerned about a lack of access for UN organizations.
“People can’t be forced to go home when they don’t feel like they are safe,” she told a news briefing, adding it was only recently that the refugees had been victims of attack.
“I think everybody wants to return home in the long haul, but they want to be able to return home when it’s safe to do so.”
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the plight of the Rohingya was even worse than media portrayals.
“This is a tragedy that’s worse than anything that CNN or BBC has been able to portray,” Mattis said, speaking to reporters during a trip to Indonesia.
Monitoring Mechanism.
Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar’s crackdown as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.
Grandi said it was important to set in place a monitoring mechanism in Rakhine for those returning and noted the UNHCR currently did not have the ability to move freely and perform this role there.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it had set up two reception centers and a temporary camp near the border in Rakhine to receive the first arrivals.
Human Rights Watch, a non-government organization, said on Tuesday that Bangladesh should suspend the plan entirely as it “threatens the refugees’ security and wellbeing.”
The plan has sparked fears in refugee camps in Bangladesh that people may be forced to return despite a lack of guarantees around their security.
“We are not doing anything hurriedly. We are working hard to ensure their safe, dignified and sustainable return to their homeland. We’ll not send anyone until a conducive environment is created for them,” a Bangladeshi official, who participated in the repatriation talks with Myanmar, told Reuters on Tuesday.
He said that some 6,000 refugees, who are currently in no man’s land between the two countries, were likely to be the first sent to the camps being set up in Myanmar.
Officials in Myanmar said they were ready to begin the repatriation process.
“We are right now at the border ready to receive, if the Bangladeshis bring them to our side,” Kyaw Tin, minister of international cooperation, told reporters in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s administrative capital.
He said Myanmar was “prepared to receive 300 people a day” to begin with. He said the repatriation would take place five days a week, and then be reviewed after three months to see if it can be accelerated.
Myanmar’s social welfare, relief and resettlement minister, Win Myat Aye, said the repatriation would take place over the next two years, “or maybe less.”
“Whoever is eligible, we will accept,” he said.

 

Bangladesh/NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — PALONG KHALI, – By Reuters 24 January 2018

Delayed Rohingya Return

par | Jan 24, 2018 | Rohingyas

Delayed Rohingya Return

Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, set to start on Tuesday, because the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior Bangladesh official said.
The decision comes as tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of what they say is a lack of guarantees of their security.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years, starting on Tuesday. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centers and a temporary camp near the border to receive the first arrivals.
But Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said on Monday the return would have to be delayed.
“There are many things remaining,” he told Reuters by phone. “The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining.”
A Bangladesh Border Guard official said it could be months before the transfers begin.
The International Organization for Migration says the number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since late August now stands at 688,000. The exodus began when the Myanmar military launched a crackdown following insurgent raids on security forces on Aug. 25.
The head of the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said more time was needed to prepare the return of the Rohingya refugees to Rakhine, and urged the two governments to involve it in their efforts to resolve the refugee crisis.
“In order for the repatriation to be right, sustainable, actually viable, you need to really to address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about, including the citizenship issue, the rights of the Rohingya in Rakhine State, meaning freedom of movement, access to services, to livelihoods,” Filippo Grandi told Reuters.
The UNHCR, which is helping to administer the refugee camps, is not involved in the repatriation process.
Grandi said it was especially important to set up a monitoring mechanism in northern Rakhine for the returning people.
The Rohingya have long been denied citizenship by Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority country regard them as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Guarantees.
Myanmar said on Monday it was ready to take back the returning Rohingya.
“We are ready to accept them once they come back. On our part, the preparation is ready,” Ko Ko Naing, director general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told Reuters by phone.
He declined to comment on whether Bangladesh had informed Myanmar about the delay.
At the Palong Khali refugee camp, near the Naf River that marks the border between the two countries, a group of Rohingya leaders gathered early on Monday morning with a loudspeaker and a banner listing a set of demands for their return to Myanmar.
These include security guarantees, the granting of citizenship and the group’s recognition as one of Myanmar’s official ethnic minorities. The Rohingya are also asking that homes, mosques and schools that were burned down or damaged in the military operation be rebuilt.
Bangladesh army troops arrived at the camp and dispersed a crowd of at least 300 people who had gathered to listen to the leaders, according to witnesses who said they saw the army take away one of the Rohingya leaders.
Bangladesh army spokesman Rashedul Hasan said he had not received any information about protests in refugee camps on Monday.
A Bangladesh Border Guard official said there would be no forced repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar and denied they would lose their food ration cards if they remained in the camps.
“This is out of the question. It will be voluntary. But this is not going to be an easy task to send them back as they are reluctant,” the official in the border district of Cox’s Bazaar told Reuters.
Myanmar has said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees before they are allowed to return to their “place of origin” or somewhere “nearest to their place of origin.”
The country’s state media reported over the weekend that authorities in Rakhine were making final preparations to take back the first batch of refugees.

 PALONG KHALI, Bangladesh — By Reuters 23 January 2018

Temporary Camp Will House 30,000 Rohingya

par | Jan 16, 2018 | Rohingyas

Myanmar is building a camp to temporarily house 30,000 Rohingya Muslims targeted for repatriation after fleeing violence in Rakhine State, state media reported on Monday, as Myanmar and Bangladesh met to discuss how to implement a repatriation deal.

More than 650,000 Rohingya have headed across the border to Bangladesh after a sweeping Myanmar Army counteroffensive in response to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25.

The crackdown has been described by the United States and UN as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar rejects.

Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh met on Monday to discuss a repatriation deal signed on Nov. 23. The meeting in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, is the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the agreement.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said a camp in Hla Po Khaung in northern Rakhine will be a temporary transition camp for people who are to be “accepted systematically” for repatriation.

“The 124-acre Hla Po Khaung will accommodate about 30,000 people in its 625 buildings,” the newspaper said, adding that some 100 buildings will be completed by the end of January.

Aung Tun Thet, chief coordinator of Myanmar’s Union Enterprises for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development, told Reuters that the camp in Hla Po Khaung will be a “transition place” for Rohingya refugees before they are repatriated to their “place of origin” or the nearest settlement to their place of origin.

“We will try to accept all of those who are coming back to Myanmar,” he said, adding that to verify returnees’ residency, they will be sent to assessment camps in Taungpyoletwei or Ngakhuya before they are moved to the Hla Po Khaung camp.

Soe Aung, permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said returnees will spend “at least one or two months” in Hla Po Khaung before their new homes are built.

It is unclear, however, how many returnees would qualify for citizenship in Myanmar. The authorities have said Rohingya Muslims could apply for citizenship if they can show their forebears lived in Myanmar. But the latest deal — like the one in 1992 — does not guarantee citizenship.

Myanmar government officials have said the 1992-1993 repatriation deal, which followed a previous spasm of violence in Myanmar, would accept those who could present identity documents issued to the Rohingya by governments in the past.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare and education. They are considered illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh.

Bangladesh officials have said it was unclear when the first refugees could actually return as the two countries need to work out how to jointly verify the identities of returnees.

United Nations agencies and human rights watchers have voiced skepticism about the resettlement plans and demanded a more transparent process to safeguard the Rohingya’s voluntary return.