‘ENSURE SAFETY OF RETURNING REFUGEES’
Myanmar must stop persecution, resolve placement issue of Rohingya, say groups
MYANMAR must end the ongoing genocide against the Rohingya community before any discussions can be held on the repatriation of refugees seeking shelter in other countries.
This was the view of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom) and the European Rohingya Council (ERC), when asked to comment on the repatriation deals signed between the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Merhrom president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani said the community would not agree to be repatriated until the persecution of the community was stopped, and their safety and wellbeing was guaranteed.
He also questioned the sincerity of the Myanmar government in allowing the repatriation, saying that the move was politically motivated.
This was, he said, especially since there was no effort to stop the violence against the community in Myanmar.
“Yesterday, three Rohingya were killed. In my village, Buthidaung, we have houses being burnt down almost every day. People are caught by the authorities, who force them to admit to offences they did not commit.
“My people are living in despair and they cannot leave their homes without fearing for their safety.”
Zafar said the Myanmar government should give assurances that the Rohingya would not be harmed when they returned to their home country.
“The Myanmar and Bangladesh governments signed several memoranda of understanding together since 1978, yet these agreements failed to stop the ongoing issues in Rakhine State.”
Zafar said the government should also resolve the issue of the placement of the thousands of Rohingya refugees when they returned to their homeland.
“Even if these Rohingya are to be (repatriated), they will still have nowhere to live. To date, 160,000 of them were (repatriated) when a similar agreement was made in 2012, and they are now living in camps... it has been more than five years now.”
Zafar said the United Nations, world leaders and the international community should play their roles as mediators to ensure the Myanmar and Bangladesh governments upheld their roles in the agreement.
“We are refugees, so it should be the UN which discusses our repatriation... it (should) not be under the jurisdiction of (the Myanmar and Bangladesh) governments.
“This is not the first time they have signed an agreement to allow for the repatriation of Rohingya and failed us... we now have no trust in either government,” he added.
ERC ambassador to Malaysia Tengku Emma Zuriana said the repatriation of the community should be done on a voluntary basis, adding that the community should not be placed in camps.
She said she was concerned that Rohingya in displacement camps and settlement zones would be abused.
“We laud the efforts by Bangladesh and Myanmar to discuss the safe return of Rohingya to their homes... however, this must be a voluntary process, in safety and dignity, for them to return to their homes and not (be placed in) camps.
“If there is any loss of property or life, it must be compensated fairly.
“The displacement camps and settlement zones in northern Rakhine State, prepared by the Myanmar government, will only allow the cycle of abuse to continue.
“This has happened so many times,” she said, adding that until the Myanmar government was serious about improving the situation, the Bangladesh government should put off the repatriation plan.
Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said Malaysia welcomed the positive developments arising from the ongoing dialogue between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“We are encouraged by the signing of the arrangement between the two countries.
“The ministry hopes that both sides will cooperate closely in implementing the arrangement.
“This is to ensure the expeditious, safe and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar,” he said.
Reezal said Malaysia remained committed to alleviating the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
This, he added, could be demonstrated through the government’s contribution of humanitarian aid, as well as the establishment of the field hospital in Cox’s Bazar.
“As underlined by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia reiterates our support and readiness to assist Myanmar in handling this complex situation. Our government also continues to work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in assisting Rohingya refugees here on humanitarian grounds.”
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an accord on Thursday on terms for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh.
The repatriation process is expected to begin within two months.
MYANMAR and Bangladesh said on Thursday that they had moved one step closer to the possible repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh over the past three months.
More than 620,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have flooded into Bangladesh, escaping what the United States on Wednesday termed “ethnic cleansing” by Myanmar’s security forces.
“The first step of the repatriation process has been done,” said Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali of Bangladesh, after going to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, to meet officials.
But, even as the two countries announced they had signed an “arrangement” on returning displaced Rohingya to Rakhine State in Myanmar, the fractious and uncertain nature of the accord overshadowed the news. Neither side gave many details, apart from a vague commitment to beginning a repatriation process within two months’ time.
While Myanmar has pushed for the return of any Rohingya to be conducted bilaterally, the Bangladeshis have called for international agencies to be involved.
Earlier, the Myanmar authorities said they would, in principle, allow for the return of displaced Rohingya if they could prove that they had lived in Myanmar before fleeing across the border over the past three months.
Ali, who in September accused Myanmar’s military of killing thousands of Rohingya, said he would not divulge the terms and conditions of any accord until today. But, he put the onus of responsibility on Myanmar.
Refugees pouring into Bangladesh from Rakhine, in Myanmar’s west, have described civilians being executed, women gang-raped and villages systematically razed.
“Since their houses are burned and destroyed,” Ali said, “they need to be rebuilt”.
Myanmar authorities have, in recent weeks, balked at the possibility of the Rohingya, whom they consider to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, returning to their native villages. Instead, Myanmar’s government has spoken obliquely of camps where they might be sequestered.
Around 120,000 Rohingya already live in such camps in the central part of Rakhine after a wave of violence in 2012 forced them from their homes.
In October, officials in Myanmar ordered the harvesting of fields that had been deserted in the Rohingya exodus. Authorities in Myanmar have said they will confiscate all land that they consider “abandoned”.
Other serious obstacles remain to any repatriation. For one, it’s not clear whether Myanmar ’s military, which largely succeeded in ridding a Buddhist-majority country of a hated Muslim minority, would accept a proof of their residence if returning Rohingya were even able to offer it. Many have fled without any papers. Others never had any.
Almost all Rohingya are stateless, stuck in an official netherworld between the two countries.
It’s also not certain whether the vast majority of Rohingya would want to return to a place where the security forces have unleashed what the US and others have labelled crimes against humanity.
“I will never go back home,” said Mohamed Rafique, an ulama who arrived in a refugee camp in Bangladesh in September.
“How can I go back to a place where they want to kill me?”
Bangladesh, itself poor and overcrowded, is struggling to cope with the influx, which has created on the country’s eastern flank one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
Human rights groups worry that this sprawling settlement could be a breeding ground for disease and religious radicalism.
The latest surge of refugees began after Rohingya militants attacked Myanmar security outposts in late August. A previous strike by Rohingya insurgents a year ago also sent around 100,000 refugees to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander in chief of Myanmar’s military, said in a statement last week that, “it is impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh”.
He also raised doubts about any repatriation process, saying that it had to be “acceptable” to ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who have been accused of aiding in pogroms against the Rohingya.
“Emphasis must be placed on the wishes of local Rakhine ethnic people, who are real Myanmar citizens,” said an English statement on the military commander’s Facebook page, before warning that any “unacceptable situation” could lead to “political instability”.
It’s also not certain whether the vast majority of Rohingya would want to return to a place where the security forces have unleashed what the US and others have labelled crimes against humanity.