Myanmar not ready for return of refugees

YANGON: Myanmar is not ready for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, said the most senior UN official to visit the country this year, after Myanmar was accused of instigating ethnic cleansing and driving nearly 700 000 Muslims to Bangladesh.

“From what I’ve seen and heard from people – no access to health services, concerns about protection, continued displacements – conditions are not conducive to return,” said Ursula Mueller, the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, after a six-day visit.

The Myanmar government has pledged to make sure repatriation under an agreement signed with Bangladesh in November would be “fair, dignified and safe”.

Myanmar has so far verified several hundred Rohingya Muslim refugees for possible repatriation.

The group would be “the first batch” of refugees and could come back to Myanmar “when it was convenient for them”, a Myanmar official said last month.

Mueller was granted rare access in Myanmar, allowed to visit the most affected areas in Rakhine state, and met army-controlled ministers of defence and border affairs, as well as de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials.

The exodus of Rohingya Muslims followed an August 25 crackdown by the military in the north-western Rakhine state. Rohingya refugees reported killings, burnings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces.

“I asked (Myanmar officials) to end the violence – and that the return of the refugees from Bangladeshi refugee camps be in a voluntary, dignified way, when solutions are durable,” Mueller said in an interview in Yangon.

Myanmar says its forces have been engaged in a legitimate campaign against Muslim “terrorists”.

Bangladesh officials have previously expressed doubts about Myanmar’s willingness to take back Rohingya refugees.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar set up two reception centres and what it says is a temporary camp near the border in Rakhine. “We are right now at the border ready to receive, if the Bangladeshis bring them to our side,” said Kyaw Tin, Myanmar minister of international cooperation.

Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The UN has described Myanmar’s counter-offensive as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.

Mueller said: “I’m really concerned about the situation. I witnessed areas where villages were burned down and bulldozed…

“I’ve not seen or heard that there are any preparations for people to go to their places of origin.”

Myanmar officials have said the villages were bulldozed to make way for refugee resettlement. – Reuters