UN reaches initial deal on Rohingya

It is a first step towards the possible return of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar

Myanmar’s government announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement with the United Nations that would be a first step towards the possible return of Rohingya Muslims to the country.

Beginning in August, about 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine state in far western Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh in the most urgent exodus of humanity in a generation. The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, were escaping a military campaign of slaughter, rape and the burning of their villages that some UN officials have said may amount to genocide.

While an agreement with the United Nations is a precondition for any meaningful repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar, even the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees cautioned in a statement on Thursday that “conditions are not conducive for voluntary return yet.”

Few details were available on what the initial memorandum of understanding entailed. Myanmar said UN agencies would “cooperate with the government for the repatriation of the displaced persons who have been duly verified so that they can return voluntarily in safety and dignity.”

Knut Ostby, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said: “The hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled Myanmar are living in unsustainable conditions. We must do our best to create conditions in Rakhine so that they can return home.” He called the agreement “the first step in doing that, in helping people start to rebuild their lives.”

So far, the United Nations has not had free access to the centre of violence in northern Rakhine state. Bilateral efforts by Bangladesh and Myanmar to repatriate Rohingya have resulted in a token number of returns.

Stateless

Although the Rohingya consider themselves to be just one of many ethnic minorities living in Myanmar, most have been stripped of their citizenship and are stateless. Myanmar’s government has dismissed widespread and consistent accounts of horrific violence committed by its military and civilian gangs against the Rohingya.

On Thursday, the president’s office in Myanmar said it would establish an independent commission of inquiry into human rights violations that occurred in the wake of attacks by Rohingya militants last August. Those attacks on police and army posts catalysed the military’s violence toward Rohingya civilians. Yet Myanmar’s government has formed half a dozen such commissions in recent months.