‘Don’t describe Rohingya as refugee, or use catastrophe’

MPs cautioned against building perception that crisis is ‘atrocity crime’

NEW DELHI: The foreign ministry has advised Indian lawmakers participating in an Iran-sponsored parliamentary forum to tread cautiously on issues related to Myanmar.

It asked the MPs to try to avoid terms such as catastrophe and refugees in the context of Rohingya Muslims facing persecution in Myanmar.

India has avoided taking a position on the recent exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar and is wary of allowing refugees to enter its soil. Myanmar has been widely criticised for a military crackdown that has driven more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh. The United Nations has said the crackdown appears to be a campaign of “ethnic cleansing”.

India had pitched for economic development of Rakhine province to mitigate societal problems that triggered the unrest. A two-member delegation, led by BJD’s Bhatrahuri Mahtab, left for Istanbul on Monday to attend the plenary session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly.

For years, India’s Parliament maintained a distance from the forum to avoid giving the platform undue importance.

This year, the forum, dominated by the UAE, Turkey and Pakistan, plans to take up the Myanmar crisis — a touchy subject for India. Rudrendra Tandon, joint secretary of the United Nations (political) division at the foreign ministry, briefed MPs last week. He said: “The game in Myanmer is to show that this is an atrocity crime. Therefore, there is sensitivity with the term catastrophe.”

The ministry maintained it has no problem with any humanitarian aid in the proposed reso- lution, but it doesn’t want any perception that the Myanmar crisis is an atrocity crime.

Tandon cautioned about characterising people from Rakhine as refugees, saying this characterisation is “a minefield that needs to be avoided”.

He said calling Rohingya Muslims refugees would mean that they do not belong to Myanmar.

“Don’t ask me about what is our public position on the citizenship of these people because the wording and formulation we use has to be carefully balanced.” The ministry maintained that Iran and Pakistan are trying to use the parliamentary forum to promote their interests and buttress credentials as democratic nations. India doesn’t want to be a party to these efforts.

The game in Myanmer is to show this is an atrocity crime. Therefore, there is sensitivity with the term catastrophe. RUDRENDRA TANDON, joint secretary, United Nations (political) division, foreign ministry

REUTERS FILE Rohingya refugee Nur Hafes, 12, listens to his mother in the shelter at a camp near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Nur is the sole breadwinner for seven younger siblings and his mother after the ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ left several people from Mynamar...