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RB News
Jan 29, 2018


Buthidaung, Arakan State -- While the International Focus is on Rohingya repatriation from Bangladesh to Burma (Myanmar), more Rohingya people are still being forced out from their homes by the Burmese authorities, report reliable sources.


The Burmese joint-task forces comprising Military and Security Forces (Hlun Htein) have been carrying out a silent operation at 'U Hla Phay', a Rohingya village in northern Buthidaung Township, since January 16, 2018, forcing many villagers to flee to Bangladesh.


"This is Winter Season here. Very cold! It's been very difficult for us to spend nights outside homes. During the raids, the Military and the 'Hlun Htein' plunder homes and harass women.


"They are indiscriminatingly targeting men including minors under alleged links with Rohingya rebels. They have already arrested some village men which we know they are innocent. They are being extremely tortured by the police in detention now", a village man told RB News while talking from a hideout.


Mohammed Hassan s/o Mohammed Akbar, a Rohingya man from 'Ath-twin Nget-thae' village in northern Buthidaung known to have worked as a government informant, was killed by unknown assailants on August 10, 2017. On August 16, 2017, the Military and the BGP (Border Guard Police) carried out a raid at the village indiscriminatingly arresting 49 people. Most of them were farmers encountered and arrested while cultivating paddy in their farmlands.


The BGP at the Camp No. 21 in Buthidaung tortured them in detention and released 25 of them on August 18 after extorting huge amount of money from them, while remaining 24 villagers (whom the villagers affirm to be innocent) have still been in detention under ‘Unlawful Associations Acts’ 17 (A and B). [The list of the arrestees is to be updated].


The situation has calmed down a little bit until January 18, 2018, when Mv Ali Hussein s/o Lal Meah, the father-in-law of the deceased, as convinced by the Burmese authorities, alleged some random villagers of U Hla Phay to be behind the killing. Since then, the military and the security forces began raids at the village of 'U Hla Phay.'


On January 20 afternoon, the dead body of Mv Ali Hussein was found abandoned nearby the mountain yet far away from the village of U Hla Phay. It has been learnt that, since then, the military and security forces began targeting the villagers of 'U Hla Phay' at large with no proofs or whatsoever against them. Continuous raids, arbitrary arrests, beating people, money extortions and plundering homes are daily increasing and hence, creating panic and fear among the people.


According to a report today (Jan 29), the authorities have been conducting the Headcounts (Census) against 'the Household Registration List' in the village since January 27 while conducting raids in the village at night. During the process, innocent village men are being arrested.


Among some villagers arrested since the raids began are:

No.
Name
Father
Age
Village
Remark
1
U Maung Phyu
-
-
Ywet Nyo Taung
Member of Village’s Administrative Body, Arrested on Jan 21
2
Mohammed Ameen
UAbdu Jabbar
-
U Hla Phay
Arrested on Jan 23
3
Hf Rahmat Ullah
U Kadir Hussain
22
U Hla Phay
Arrested on Jan 29, detained in Hlun Htein Camp 21
4
Mv Yaseen Anis
Hf Mohammed Alam
24
U Hla Phay
Arrested on Jan 29, detained in Hlun Htein Camp 21
 5
Mv Abdullah

Mv Naeem
25
U Hla Phay
Arrested on Jan 29, detained in Hlun Htein Camp 21


Thus far, at least 100 families have fled from the village for Bangladesh in fear.


"If this continues, I believe the village will be empty at least by two third soon. We request to the UN and the international community to pressure the Myanmar government to create a peaceful and breathable atmosphere for the Rohingya people remaining in the country before pursuing an untimely repatriation of our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh," the villager added.

Meanwhile, at the this point of time, the villagers are spending nights in the open fields, in the forest and nearby the rivers in fear of arrests and tortures during the raids by the Burmese armed forces.


*** Watch this space for more updates…


[Reported by RB Correspondents; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo visits a Rohingya refugee camp at Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar on Sunday, January 28, 2018 (Photo: Dhaka Tribune)

By Abdul Aziz
January 28, 2018

The Indonesian president says his country will keep providing aids for the Rohingyas as long as they are in Bangladesh

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh -- Indonesia and its people will continue providing their support, including the humanitarian assistance, for the displaced Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh, Joko Widodo has said.

The Indonesian president made the pledge during his visit to the Jamtoli camp of the refugees, from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, at Thaingkhali in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya upazila on Sunday afternoon.

After arriving in the coastal district around 1pm, he went directly to the camp to witness the plight of the Rohingyas who fled sectarian violence in Myanmar and listened to their tales of sufferings.

Talking to reporters there, Widodo praised the Bangladesh government for sheltering the Rohingyas and coming to their aid.

He said Indonesia would keep providing aids for the Rohingyas as long as they are here and reiterated his country’s support to safe and dignified return of the displaced people to Rakhine.

The Indonesian president also inspected a field hospital, school, relief centre and pure drinking water supply system, which were set up with fundings from the Indonesian government, at the camp.

He was accompanied by his wife Iriana Widodo, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, and representatives of UNHCR and IOM, among others.

Earlier on Sunday, Joko Widodo, who arrived in Dhaka on Saturday, had held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in Dhaka before leaving for Cox’s Bazar.

Wrapping up his two-day state visit, the Indonesian president is scheduled to leave Bangladesh on Monday morning.

More than 688,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in in Rakhine state on August 25, 2017.

Michelle Yeoh has praised Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his government's efforts to help Rohingya refugees. (Photo: Facebook / Michelle Yeoh)

By Bernama
January 28, 2018

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh on Saturday (Jan 27) praised Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his government's efforts to help Rohingya refugees.

Yeoh, who is the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme, said Najib and his government had done "amazing work" on the issue. She said it was "very important for Malaysia as a neighbouring country to help the Rohingya" who faced suffering and oppression in Myanmar.

“We are very proud to recognise the fact that he (Najib) was the one who championed this in the first place as a good neighbour and (is) doing the right thing as a human being," the actress told reporters on Saturday during a visit to the refugees' camp.

"Our prime minister has shown great leadership together with the Bangladeshi government with our partners in Saudi (Arabia) and UAE (United Arab Emirates)."

Yeoh was part of the Malaysian special delegation to Cox’s Bazar led by armed forces chief General Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohammed Noor. 

The delegation visited a Malaysian field hospital that started operations on Nov 31 as well as the Balukhali refugee camp, located about 10 minutes from the field hospital.

Raja Mohamed Affandi said that the hospital has received more than 4,000 patients so far, and that it also received Bangladeshi nationals living in the hospital's vicinity.

Yeoh said the delegation represented Najib and would report to the prime minister once they returned to Malaysia.

Min Khant
RB Opinion
January 28, 2018

Former United States Ambassador, Governor Mr. Bill Richardson has resigned from the advisory board, which was set up to counsel on enacting the findings of the previous commission headed by Former Secretary General Mr. Kofi Anan. He has quitted from the Board after thoroughly examining the true temperament of the board chairperson Mr. Surakiart Sathirathai, former deputy prime Minister of Thailand, and also having harsh conversation with State Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi due to two Reuter reporters’ release, mass Rohingyas killing investigation course of action and citizenship of Rohingyas people. 

Mr. Bill felt the board chairperson Surakiart will follow up the secret direction of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who desires the worldviews on oppressed Rohingyas should be false and the advisory board will conquer the world current accusations on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her alliance Military commander Min Aung Hlaing as BUTCHERS against Rohingyas innocent’s massacre. The atrocities committed on ROHINGYAS by Myanmar forces and shielding the horrendous crimes committed by the forces on helpless Rohingyas by Daw Suu Kyi has been unanimously recognized by the UN as “textbook examples of ethnic cleaning”.

Since 1993-94, there was UNHCR (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) agency and other small NGOs in north Rakhine state to carry out the need of Rohingya people after those having information of oppressed Rohingyas in the hand of Myanmar military regimes. The then UNHCR’s cooperation & efforts with leaders of Myanmar military regime was somehow notable, reaching a temporary agreement with dictator Gen. KHIN NYUNT to grant Rohingyas people either NRC or National Scrutiny Pink Cards to the people of document-less Rohingyas.

In accord the fragile agreement of UNHCR with Myanmar government, the then military governments have provided at first TRC (temporary registration Cards, as first step ahead to become citizens) which is meant neither as foreigners nor Citizens of Myanmar though all those later TRCs receivers have been the offspring of their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers as Myanmar indigenous citizens. Who all possessed in their hands the National Registration Cards, arranged by the first democratic government after independence in 1948. 

But these TRCs were never ever promoted into NRCs as per the initial agreement struck with UNHCR by Myanmar military governments. Myanmar authorities to make documents less due to the entire Rohingyas from the status of citizens of Myanmar, all Rohingyas in their localities were being pressured by the authorities to return either their NRCs papers to the authorities or face punishments those who did not return back in time. 

During the periods, the concerning authorities would arrange the limited permits for TRCs holders to travel from one place to another on purposes of education, small local trades and medical treatments but with having prior travel permits from the relevant villages/quarters’ heads, which cost a big money and time eating for possible Rohingyas travelers.

Rohingyas in localities believe the authorities’ pressure to returning the NRCs or unavoidably holding the TRCs is the state PLOT to make Rohingyas as wholesale FRC, who as if sneaked from Bangladesh into the enclave as Dr. Aye Chan, Rakhine academicians in local and abroad and entire Rakhine politicians’ exaggerated propagations to the regimes of Myanmar time and again.

Some NRCs holding Rohingyas having been worried to becoming documents-less, those NRCs cards holders would shun the authorities as much possible as they could to returning. 

As the NRCs were found along the road during traveling, the NRCs would have been captured and cut with succors into pieces as trash by authorities and some officers would destroy haughtily & throw it to mud not to be useful again. Fortunately, of course, yet there are NRCs holders who neither need to show the authorities along the ways whilst they do not travel from their locations to others but stay at their homes. Their NRCs are exempted from the destruction of Myanmar authorities because they become old-aged senior people who have retired from travel related works. 

Rohingyas from Rakhine state have never been the foreigners nor temporary citizens as per the citizenship law of Myanmar instead they were rightfully handed the National Registration Cards together with other ethnic groups of the nations since the nation-wide citizenship issuance was initiated by the first democratic government at the dawn of independence. 

The world most high-ranking officials from the stage of The United Nations platform would always insist the past Myanmar military regimes, and the current Daw Suu Kyi led democratic government to respect the human rights of Rohingyas people in the regions. And, those world dignitaries have been rightfully suggesting to be granting the Rohingyas as the citizens of the state in accord the inspiration of the first democratic government of Myanmar, as well as by the Universal Human rights laws. 

The regional, the world community, and that of the renowned leaders have had a LOFTY hope on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who become right now the bigoted democratic regime leader, at least will change the entrenched delusion of the past military governments as the person. Whom the world loved and recognized her intelligence and all her academic works at large. 

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the one who attaches importance to Rakhine nationalists’ narratives from the beginning and has been ignoring the reality of Rohingyas existence. In fact, Rakhine are, so much embolden nationalistic people, and entire Rakhine have unanimously coordinated to expel both Rohingyas and Burmese people, whom Rakhine believe Rohingyas as infiltrators to grab their lands and to Burmese as cruel executioners. Vet. Aye Maung, chairperson of ALD is the parable to be aware of the motivation of entire Rakhine. 

As per the world historical records and renowned academicians’ perceptions, Mr. Anan final report of advisory Commission on Rakhine State stated; “Rakhine state_ separated from the rest of Myanmar by a rocky chain of mountain_ has for most of its history been a diverse political entity. While, there are records of independent kingdoms since ANTIQUITY. The final Rakhine Kingdom was established in 1430”. 

There the independent kingdoms since ancient times belongs to nowadays Rohingyas people (In ancient time, today’s Rohingyas were Hindu believers and after 1202, they gradually converted their belief into Islam) and the final Rakhine Kingdom was established in 1430 was mentioned to RAKHINE existence, presumably. 

During 1942 pogrom, which has been taken advantages by Rakhine nationalist U Kyaw Khine, the then Vice - Commissioner of British Arakan, and there was neither British Power nor Japanese forces, U Kyaw Khine has supplied arms to Maugh Rakhines and those have killed many innocent Rohingyas particularly in South & Central Arakan, and more than (307) Rohingyas villages from nine townships of central Rakhine state were burned down, which has resulted to abandon their homes, properties, and villages to flee to north Arakan? 

To share more information, do find Rohingyas villages to which Rakhine fanatic have burned down in 1942 pogrom and push guiltless Rohingyas to flee to north Arakan: Rathedaung, Maungdaw, Sittwe and Buthidaung townships.


Since 1942 to now, within 74-year, Rakhine Buddhists, Myanmar military, and the current democratic government have already burned (687) villages throughout Rakhine state, it included recently torched nearly 380 Rohingyas villages from north Rakhine state: Maung Daw, Rathedaung, Buthidaung townships. 

Because of mass exodus of Rohingyas who escaping from the execution of Rakhine nationalists from central Rakhine state to north, since then, the north Arakan becomes as densely populated areas because of displaced Rohingyas driven by Rakhine fanatics from central Rakhine. In this connection, to cover up Rakhine vicious executions and collective criminality on innocent Rohingyas in the pogrom in 1942, Rakhine people have been pointing out “the densely populated of north Arakan by the sneakers of neighboring Bangladesh as ‘green pasture seekers’ while Bangladesh itself is poor and heavy population in the country”. They, Rakhine always adhere to this EXCUSE.

In this way, both Rakhine Mough Buddhists and Myanmar governments have been targeting the Rohingyas to formulate as aliens, sneakers, and immigrants to work in agro-farms from Bangladesh after British occupation in 1824. 

In accord 1982 citizenship law, the central government would have been trying to figure the indigenous Rohingyas people as foreigners, naturalized and associated citizens by disenfranchising all due rights which they have once rightfully deserved after independence as full fledge citizens. The government wants Rohingyas to alter from the full fledge citizens to disenfranchised, naturalized and associated citizens. What is the horrible mindset of the democratic government of Myanmar regarding Rohingyas? 

Throughout the periods, Myanmar officials and immigration departments would find out loopholes and dragging the cases to render the NRC / Pink cards, in time, to Rohingyas, reasoning this and that too much irrationality without much consideration. 

Does the government of Myanmar want the documents-less nowadays’ Rohingyas generations as “naturalized, associated citizens” while their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers have been the citizens of Myanmar with legal documents of the nation of Myanmar as per the 1947 constitution that drafted before independence? All Rohingyas are legally deserved full citizenship while no single Rohingya is found as foreigner in the enclave apart from some exceptional. 

The Border Guard Police (BGP) formation has been the special program of the consecutive regimes to protect so-called Bangladeshi sneakers from entering into Myanmar territory. 

Actually, no single Bangladeshi has ever been heard arrested who tried to enter into Myanmar but there would have been the Rohingyas people who might enter to his/her country after having earnings for their families in abroad as entrants to localities. This is real & undeniable.

For the last two and half decades, almost all Myanmar’s people both capable male and female would have been secretly going out without proper documents to Malaysia, Thailand, China, India, and Bangladesh, particularly to where there would have been a little bit more earning sources which have been better places than Myanmar for every family’s dire survival

Most importantly, Malaysia is the first target to reach whatever-ways whether by mountain passes or sea and the second choice has been Thailand. There would not be a single family in Myanmar that there have not been to Malaysia to escape the hard life or overcome starvation in Myanmar either with legal documents or without. Likewise, Rohingyas people went out to earn for their families’ survivals like other people of the country. What is wrong!

While the white cards were temporarily issued under the sponsorship of UNHCR and the then Myanmar successive governments two decades ago, Rohingyas were never issued the PINK Cards though they have been holding WCs up to more than two decades, instead these WCs holders were again broadly issued the NVC cards instead of PINK cards. Reasoning, the government’s scrutiny plan has not been completed. What is this ‘cheating-spiraling’ citizenship processing of Myanmar’s current government on Rohingyas again? 

Though, national verification process was supposed by Mr. Kofi Anan mission before granting Rohingyas the National Scrutiny Cards. Majority of Rohingyas people believe “this government character is as the same as previous governments against Rohingyas and the current regime will take steps like previous to keep Rohingyas in the situation of NVCs holders for many years ahead and they will be ruthlessly restricted all due national rights”. 

Let’s think over how much Rohingyas people would suffer against the multiple discriminatory policies of the authorities and scale of Rohingyas’ frustration they have been suffering in their hearts while all the related affairs of a person in a daily life is simply inter-attached with ID of the nation before simply & easily branding them as terrorists on innocent fellow beings. 

If the advisory board, which is consisted of local and foreigners as the advisors to Kofi Anan report, is under the direction of scoundrel Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who wants to humiliate Rohingyas and deceive the world continually. Then there will be no fruitful result for advisory board’s tireless efforts, and ultimately they will encounter with the world in unprecedented embarrassment and the BOARD will become failure in the end.

Because, the previous locally invented several investigation teams since 2012 have not discovered any wrongdoings of the government to take actions on THEIN SEIN’s government though there have been with a number of approved documents regarding colorful nightmares that ensued on Rohingyas by the government forces and Rakhine militiamen in the occurrences in Sittwe, KyaukPhyu, Kyauktaw, Myebon and Kyauk-Ni-Maw. 

All the enquiry commissions that were formed regarding Rakhine state of Rohingyas affairs without a single person of distinguished Rohingyas by the previous and current regime of Myanmar whether the board members are local renowned intellectuals or foreign fellow scholars, they are merely the head bowers or lackeys on behalf of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and all the consecutive investigation board members including currently are nothing more than “the same alcohol from different bottles”.

In Holocaust Remembrance week Dr Lee Jones, Reader in International Relations at Queen Mary University London, publicly misled SOAS students and audiences about GENOCIDES and Rohingya while disparaging scholars and activists as "Genocide Industry" who struggle to make "Never again!". a reality.












I. GENOCIDE – A NEW TERM AND NEW CONCEPTION FOR DESTRUCTION OF NATIONS - https://ongenocide.com/axis-rule-chapter-9/

---

A Burmese Appeal from Auschwitz: EU, help end the unfolding Myanmar Rohingya Genocide



BUDDHIST ACTIVIST CALLS FOR JEWS TO HELP MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA PEOPLE
The Canadian Jewish News, September 13, 2017


Echoes of Kristallnacht in Today’s Rohingya Crisis
Robert Bank, Medium, November 9, 2017 

Read here: https://medium.com/@robertbank/echoes-of-kristallnacht-in-todays-rohingya-crisis-7c61dbc6d18a

George Soros: Myanmar's Rohingya Persecution parallels Nazi genocide




I Survived The Holocaust. Merely Remembering It Is No Longer Good Enough

Excerpted:

“Never Again” is unlikely to be achieved in our lifetime but it is we who need to make an effective input towards making it happen. Each and every one of us can do something. It is essential to learn to contain our own violent impulses so that we can talk and negotiate instead of exacerbating and increasing the violence of others.

Perhaps the most poisonous factor is the toleration and cover-up of denial. Denial opens the door for others to commit crimes against humanity, as we clearly see others getting away with it. We need to enthuse and stimulate curiosity and an insistence to expose the truth. We live with so much denial that many people can no longer distinguish between misinformation, disinformation (fake news) and truth.

Denial has become so embedded in the infrastructure of our community that it feels like the norm and we don’t question it. Critical thinking is not something just for the school curriculum – it has to be for adults too. We need much more thinking in groups and think tanks, creating initiatives to hone our capabilities until potentially positive projects, such as the United Nations Association and Responsibility to Protect, emerge. Only when more people join these movements and start to take their responsibilities seriously, will we be well on the road towards eventually containing hatred and stopping genocide.



Rohingya women and children wait in a queue for an aid distribution at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. © UNHCR/Roger Arnold

By Caroline Gluck
January 26, 2018

Refugees in Bangladesh camps say there can be no returns without questions of citizenship, rights and restitution being addressed first.

KUTUPALONG CAMP, Bangladesh – Rohingya refugee Mohammed* says he does not want to stay in Bangladesh for long, but is clear about the guarantees that he needs before he will consider taking his family back to their native Myanmar.

“We will return to Myanmar, but only when we have our safety guaranteed, and our rights recognized, just like other ethnic groups there,” he says.

The soft-spoken 43-year-old is among 655,000 refugees who have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in the Maungdaw area of northern Rakhine state five months ago and reported that troops and mobs attacked and killed residents and torched their villages.

As talks intensify over the prospect of repatriation, refugees in what has become the world’s largest refugee settlement have held a number of demonstrations in the past week. Their message is clear: There can be no returns without the questions of citizenship, rights and restitution being addressed. 

“We have showed our voice. They know our views,” says Mohammed, one of the protest organizers. “We have a petition with 20,000 signatures with our demands on repatriation that we have sent to the authorities.” 


“We will return to Myanmar, but only when we have our safety guaranteed, and our rights recognized.” 

Discussions on the modalities of repatriation have been taking place between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar, even as new arrivals continue to flow into Bangladesh, though at a much slower pace than in the early weeks of the crisis.

UNHCR, which is not party to the bilateral arrangements, has cautioned that any decision to return should be based on the refugees’ informed and voluntary choice. While at this time the UN Refugee Agency does does not have access to any areas of return, it believes that conditions in Rakhine state are not yet conducive to the safe and sustainable return of refugees.

The discussions – to which refugees are not party – have caused enormous anxiety among the refugees who have not been consulted nor received any information about the plan. Some are strongly opposed to return.

“How can we go back? It’s like sending us back to be killed there,” says mother-of-four, Fatima,* who fled from Andang village in Maungdaw. Her voice rising with passion, she continues: “It is better to be killed. If we die here in Bangladesh, at least we can have a proper religious burial – we cannot do that back home.” 

Others cite lessons from history. Abdullah,* 52, explains how we was forced to flee his homeland into Bangladesh three times – the first time, in 1978, as a young boy, then again in 1991.

“I spent three years here, but I agreed to go back to Myanmar voluntarily in 1993. I was worried about my property and farm,” he recalled, speaking at a small bamboo shelter in the overcrowded Kutupalong camp.

However, the root causes that forced him to flee were not resolved: “My hopes of a better life faded after two years when the situation worsened. We saw all kinds of torture, forced labour and military operations. They took our land, our crops, our cattle. We were threatened and beaten.” 

Regretting his previous decision to return, Abdullah is adamant that he will only consider returning home this time if fundamental changes are happening. These include gaining citizenship rights and having their legal status resolved; receiving assurances that their safety and protection will be guaranteed on return, with many calling for the presence of UNHCR – and even UN peacekeepers – to monitor the situation and provide safeguards. They also want help to rebuild their homes, regain their land, and access to basic services.


“I want freedom of movement and to play an active part in daily life, I want access to all services.”

Selling vegetables from a makeshift stall on the roadside, 22 year-old Nurul,* from Mijjali Para in Maungdaw, is equally clear about what he wants. “We fled to save our lives. My house was burned,” he explains. “If I go back, I want my Rohingya identity to be recognized the way it is for any other ethnic group. I want freedom of movement and to play an active part in daily life, I want access to all services like a normal citizen of Myanmar,” he said.

UNHCR has advocated for unhindered humanitarian access to areas of return in Myanmar in order to assess the situation and help with rebuilding efforts. It is also urging the authorities to promptly implement the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, which include ensuring peace and security for all communities in Rakhine State, reducing communal divisions and seeking solutions for the citizenship status of Muslim communities. 

Mohammed sums it up simply: “We are human and they are human. We must have the same rights.”

Your support is urgently needed to help the children, women and men refugees in Bangladesh. Please give now.

*Names have been changed for protection reasons

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson speaks during an interview with Reuters as a member of an international advisory board on the crisis of Rakhine state in Yangon, Myanmar January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang

By Yimou Lee
January 26, 2018

YANGON -- Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson denied he was asked by Myanmar’s government to step down from an international advisory board on the Rohingya crisis, his spokesman said on Friday.

A statement issued by the office of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi late on Thursday had accused Richardson of pursuing “his own agenda” and said that the government decided to ask him to quit as his continued participation on the board would not be in the best interests of all concerned. 

“At no point was the Governor asked to step down, either in person or in writing by any member of the Government of Myanmar or the Chair of the Advisory Board,” Richardson’s spokesman Mickey Bergman told Reuters. 

“Quite the opposite, their National Security Advisor stopped by the night before to convince the Governor to stay as planned.” 

Richardson said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he was resigning from the board because it was conducting a “whitewash” and accused Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, of lacking “moral leadership”. 

The departure of Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, came as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where around 688,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months. 

A U.S. official, who spoke on Thursday on condition of anonymity, said the issues raised by Richardson had reinforced concerns about Myanmar’s handling of the Rohingya crisis. Still, the official said, the United States would likely stick to its ”measured” approach of applying limited pressure on Myanmar and avoiding more drastic measures that could destabilise the situation. 

‘CHEERLEADING SQUAD’ 

A separate statement from the nine remaining members of the advisory board on Thursday said they met this week “with open minds” and agreed “to speak with one voice”. 

“Therefore, any statement about the Advisory Board ‘whitewashing’ or ‘cheerleading’ for anyone lacks complete legitimacy,” the board said. 

Richardson said in the Reuters interview that he was worried the board would become “a cheerleading squad” for the government. 

Richardson’s spokesman said the reference to pursuing his own agenda would seem to refer to his addressing with Suu Kyi the issue of two imprisoned Reuters journalists.

In his interview with Reuters, Richardson said he got into a furious argument with Suu Kyi at a Monday night dinner when he brought up the case of two Reuters reporters, who were arrested on Dec. 12 on suspicion of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. 

Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine. They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. 

“It’s important to note that he agreed to serve on the Board a month before the Reuters journalists were arrested,” said Richardson’s spokesman Bergman. 

The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in Rakhine in a campaign senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly all the allegations. 

The former New Mexico governor’s foundation, the Richardson Center, has “invested tens of thousands of dollars of its own money” in preparing for his role on the board “and were gearing up for a full year of robust programming for 2018,” Bergman said. 

Richardson led the first foreign delegation allowed to visit Suu Kyi in 1994 when she was under house arrest, Bergman said, ”and helped to get many Myanmar political prisoners out during military rule, some are currently serving in her government. 

“It is heartbreaking to see her indulging in similar practices, now that she is in power,” Bergman added. 

REPATRIATION CAMPS 

Former South African Defence Minister Roelof Petrus Meyer, one of the four remaining international members of the board, said on Thursday Richardson’s departure was “really unfortunate”. 

After touring temporary repatriation camps set up by Myanmar, Meyer said he thought the country was ready to take back the Rohingya refugees under an agreement with Bangladesh, where they are currently sheltering. 

“The security will be provided...the subject is so internationally covered so I don’t think (Rohingya) people should be scared,” he said. 

The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

Thursday’s statement from Suu Kyi’s office said the government was committed to “implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to the fullest extent possible and in the shortest timeframe, in accordance with the situation on the ground”. 

Additional reporting by Thu Thu Aung and Yimou Lee in Yangon, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Paritosh Bansal in Davos; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Martin Howell

Myanmar’s Union Minister for the Office of the State Counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe (right) and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Hassan Mahmud Ali exchange notes after signing the Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State in Naypyitaw on November 23, 2017. (Photo: AP)

Min Khant
RB Opinion
January 25, 2018

To repatriate innocent Rohingyas refugees who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh due to unbearable multiple violence of Myanmar regime’s military operations on them under the banner of ‘Operation Clearance’ against accused ARSA attackers since 25th August 2017, Myanmar state Counsellor, should better show in prior her ethical sincerity regarding the bilateral agreement struck between Myanmar and Bangladesh. 

The world community has regarded Rohingyas people, regardless of their belief (few are Hindu believers) in religion, as the most persecuted people in the world. Since then, though the world body could not adopt with having unanimous resolution due to the issue because of some super power nations’ unilateral bias for Myanmar brutal regime, the world community has been concerned about their fate whose destinies are in the hand of uncontrollable cheating and disgusting brutal regime of Myanmar. 

During the 2015 election campaign, Aung San Suu Kyi would impudently reply to the global reporters’ inquiries about Rohingyas “don’t be exaggerating the Rohingya issues as there were available genocidal issues on all ethnic groups of Myanmar along the nation”. In reality, rudely, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi does not heed the subject of Rohingyas who are Myanmar citizens and reside in Arakan State. 

The bilateral agreement that recently done between Bangladesh and Myanmar has been the case of entire world criticism while the Rohingyas refugees’ matter has been wholly carried out from top to bottom by the world people. 

Rohingyas refugees, in the year October 2016 and August 2017, who fled Myanmar for Bangladesh due to oppression and suppression of Myanmar military extrajudicial killing, in first Bangladesh did not allow them to cross to her territory. However, later, it had come to agree to sheltering them under the instant insistence of the world body, while which has taken the guarantee to support all due necessary for frustrated Rohingyas people. The most importantly, the world community has been carrying out all outstanding issues of Rohingyas by supporting procedural and humanitarian assistances to the host nations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. Now, the Rohingyas issues become the world headache question at this time. 

Apparently, the world body has been fulfilling the necessary things such as food, shelters, medicine, and teamwork technical co-operations throughout several groups of the world communities for a nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees, while neither Bangladesh nor Myanmar is feeding & fulfilling the compulsory amenities for the refugees in the land of Bangladesh. 

The sympathies, of Bangladesh people and that of the state leader and other political leaders, were, so much thankful for morally supporting and allowing refugees to their land to be sheltered for the fled Rohingyas people, who had faced multiple horrendous absurdities of combined Myanmar atrocious forces and that of the people. While the highly educated state Counsellor had been, busy with the world diplomats in Nay Pyi Daw how to shielding military brutalities as the legitimate right of its sovereignty to punish on innocent Rohingyas and the atrocities sparked to flee nearly 700,000 Rohingyas people to Bangladesh. The operation clearance meant all the innocent Rohingyas people are either ARSA members or the sympathizers to the ARSA.

The Myanmar’s conspicuous attempts to ink with Bangladesh government to repatriate the Rohingyas refugees are to exclude world prominent organizations that have been taking care of the refugees. If Myanmar insists as an honest partner to the repatriation process, then the world body, Myanmar and Bangladesh should be involved as combined trilateral partners in the process as a matter of importance not to be ensuing such the exodus again at the border. What is the idea of Myanmar government to exclude the world community while the entire world community concerns about the Rohingyas refugees, as it becomes the regional and intercontinental problems to pay attention in a manner of a coordinated way? 

What Myanmar government should do first thing first is to clear the world’s demand to have the unhindered investigation into the brutal killings where many more innocent have already been killed. Women were being gang-raped, many villages were burned down and uncountable materials were damaged, and the landscapes of the localities were dismembered by Myanmar forces in townships such as Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung.

Myanmar government has hurriedly constructed some of the Transit Camps with the help of Myanmar cronies, whom the past governments let to exploit the resources of the country and compensate to high-ranking military officials for more than two decades, to keep the returnees for some days. In addition, the camps, which have already been built and cordoned off with barbed wire show the TC, are forever to keep the returnees to kill slowly and steadily them at the absence of world community’s supervision, while the repatriation agreement is only concerned with Bangladesh and Bangladesh itself won’t interfere to supervise strictly to Myanmar handling to the affairs.

Myanmar with having dishonest attitude to repatriate the Rohingya refugees by guaranteeing them in full citizenship, dignified, safety, and voluntarily coming back to their original locations rather than keeping them in TC camps, Myanmar regime only wants to cooperate with China, Russia, Japan and India only for necessary assistance in repatriation process. WHY?

Why doesn’t Myanmar regime want to cooperate with the WEST and OIC is just because those countries have been demanding to restore the rights of Rohingyas as the sons of the land, and outstandingly rhetoric about the brutality, and discriminatory policy of Myanmar military and Aung San Suu Kyi led regime. 

The Rohingyas repatriation process plan is a bogus from the beginning. On 23rd January 2018, the Immigration Department Director U Ko Ko Thaw interviewed with Mizzima Journal and said: “While the returnees were found they have never lived in Myanmar, then they would be taken action. But what kind of action he has never clarified. His interview meant as if Bangladesh government would add Bangladeshi to be Rohingyas returnees.” 

The interview was very clear that the government of Myanmar will make many Rohingyas people as illegal returnees and they will take action on ground of illegal immigrants or they will be sent back to Bangladesh accusing them as Bangladeshi. These are the government hypothesis to deal the Rohingyas under the bilateral agreement with Bangladesh government. 

The WEST had been advocating due to Aung San Suu Kyi’s release while she had been under long time house arrest by the consecutive military rulings of Myanmar. Daw Suu Kyi became famous in the face of Myanmar citizens not because of her fame in education obtained in abroad nor being a daughter of late General Aung San, but because of the world community’s right from the start classic propagation, particularly the west, and the USA.

Daw Suu Kyi, being as a Myanmar unexpected and highly educated modern age embolden RACIST, ‘she has now betrayed all the gratefulness owes to the WEST and the USA. That had been championing through cash, kinds and valuable times to release Suu Kyi and ascend to throne her to becoming the devastated nation to full fledge democratic one under the leadership of Laureate Daw Suu Kyi. 

Mr. Kofi Anan and his entourage were hired by the State Counsellor, and she let them do the relevant works as if she would agree to implement the Rakhine advisory commission’s recommended results. Which were supposed to be implemented by the commission, and most of the world community organizations have agreed upon the recommendation to implement as soon as possible. Intrinsically many racist bound political parties of the nations and Buddhist monk associations were secretly asked to be pointing the Kofi Anan Rakhine advisory commission reports, particularly Rakhine leader, who had been an odd, currently detained vet. Aye Maung and many others from Rakhine state not to successfully implement the report. 

Amid from the world condemnation to the government of Myanmar in regards the dishonesty of her handling to Rohingyas affairs; Daw Suu Kyi has formed the ‘Advisory Board for implementation of Recommendations on Rakhine State’ couple of months ago by her chosen world dignitaries. 

Whom, Daw Suu Kyi believes as her coordinated partners in the brutal killings to make a small beautiful and possible EPISODE, which she wants to show the world as an authentic affairs of Rakhine’s while international investigation demand into the atrocities was strongly denied and saying such a world investigation to the brutality would breach the statehood of sovereignty of Myanmar. 

What she has earned the abroad classic education and the fame she obtained from not only in local but global at large are shameful, unmeritorious, and disgraceful while her mindset and personal attitude are not suited as wise women but the ugly & bad omen-lady for the world community. 

Mr. Bill Richardson, an American and a member of Advisory Board for implementation of Recommendations on Rakhine State, has resigned on 24.1.2018 from the advisory board after having fully understanding the deep nature of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who wants all the board members to act on behalf of her regime to shield from the world possible actions. What about the rest persons of the Advisory Board on Rakhine State, it is sure they will resign also? at the end. 

Right now, the world conscious community should not let the notorious Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her partners of outside the world to coil the Rohingyas affairs in the sight of the world people and off-putting the track from implementing as per the supposition of Mr. Kofi Anan recommendation in time. 

Right now, the world conscious community should not let the notorious Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her partners of outside the world to coil the Rohingyas affairs in the sight of the world people and off-putting the track from implementing as per the supposition of Mr. Anan recommendation in time.

The truth prevails in the end.

Rohingya Muslim refugee women with their children wait at a nutrition center to collect the diet for their children at Balukhali refugee camp 50 kilometres (32 miles) from, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Jan. 23, 2018.

By Michael Bowman
Voice of America
January 24, 2018

CAPITOL HILL — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators moved to confront Myanmar over ethnic cleansing on Wednesday, with one Democrat accusing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of holding up action on the Rohingya crisis because of his ties to the country's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

“The problem comes down to one specific issue — the relationship and friendship between Senator McConnell and Aung San Suu Kyi,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois told VOA. “Time and again when we’ve tried to tell the Rohingya story, the atrocities that are occurring to these people at the hands of the Myanmar military and suggest the need for leadership in Myanmar to stop it, there’s been an effort by Senator McConnell and others to stop the conversation.”

For more than two decades, McConnell was a prime sponsor of numerous sanctions measures aimed at the military junta which finally released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and permitted elections won by her party in 2015.

McConnell “felt and we all felt years ago that she [Aung San Suu Kyi] showed extraordinary courage,” Durbin said, “but that doesn’t mean that we can ignore what’s happening today in her country and the need for her leadership.”

McConnell 'deeply troubled'

Voice of America reached out to the Republican leader’s communications director, David Popp, for comment and was referred to a statement from last September in which McConnell said he was “deeply troubled by the humanitarian situation along the Burmese-Bangladeshi border” but said that “publicly condemning Aun San Suu Kyi — the best hope for democratic reform in Burma — is not constructive.”

Hours earlier, Durbin and 14 other senators, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida as well as Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Dianne Feinstein of California, introduced a Senate resolution condemning “the violence and displacement inflicted on Burma’s Rohingya and other ethnic minorities” and calling for “an immediate halt to all hostilities by Burmese authorities.”

The resolution seeks “voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation” for Rohingya refugees, who should “enjoy equal rights with others in Burma, including the restoration or granting of full citizenship, freedom of movement, and access to basic services.”

'The greatest hope'

The resolution also urges the United Nations “to consider the feasibility of Bangladesh’s proposal for a ‘safe zone’ or for a peacekeeping mission to protect and defend vulnerable communities under international supervision.” In addition, it calls for the release of two Reuters journalists arrested and charged with violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

McConnell had declined to support an similar resolution in September, which demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi do more to protect the Rohingyas. “I don’t favor a resolution going after her,” he said at that time. “I think she’s the greatest hope that we have to move Burma from where it has been, a military dictatorship, to where I hope it’s going.”

Amid Capitol Hill’s renewed focus on the Rohingya crisis, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations quit a Myanmar government advisory board on the country’s troubled Rakhine State, decrying the panel as “a cheerleading squad for government policy.”

Absence of 'moral leadership'

In a statement Wednesday, Ambassador Bill Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico, described himself as a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi but accused her of an absence of “moral leadership” on the refugee crisis and of disparaging “the media, the United Nations, human rights groups, and in general the international community.”

Richardson added, “Without the commitment and moral leadership needed from the top, my engagement on the Advisory Board is no longer tenable.”

Neither Aung San Suu Kyi nor her spokesman responded to questions for comment.

Bipartisan outrage building

In Washington, bipartisan outrage over the refugee crisis has been building to a boiling point among lawmakers.

“Since August, more than 650,000 innocent men, women and children have been forced to flee a campaign of unspeakable violence that the United Nations has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” McCain said in a statement. “Many Rohingya believe their return home will be met with more violence. These displaced families deserve to have confidence that their return will be safe, voluntary and dignified. The United States and the international community should stand for nothing less,” added McCain.

“It is a most horrific circumstance,” Durbin told VOA. “When you go to a country and you say the word ‘Rohingya’ and the people of Myanmar stop to correct you, saying, 'There is no such thing — you can’t use that term,’ they deny, literally, the existence of the people who are the victims.”

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson speaks during an interview with Reuters as a member of an international advisory board on the crisis of Rakhine state in Yangon, Myanmar January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang

By Bill Tarrant
Reuters
January 24, 2018

YANGON -- Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying it was conducting a “whitewash” and accusing the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi of lacking “moral leadership”.

Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, quit as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months. 

“The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a whitewash,” Richardson told Reuters in an interview, adding he did not want to be part of “a cheerleading squad for the government”. 

Richardson said he got into an argument with Suu Kyi during a meeting on Monday with other members of the board, when he brought up the case of two Reuters reporters who are on trial accused of breaching the country’s Officials Secrets Act. 

He said Suu Kyi’s response was “furious”, saying the case of the reporters “was not part of the work of the advisory board”. The argument continued at a dinner later that evening, the former New Mexico governor said. 

Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters on Thursday that the Advisory Board was meeting about the “Rakhine issue”. 

“(Richardson) talked on a topic outside the agenda of the meetings and went beyond the framework,” Zaw Htay said. “We feel sorry for his resignation due to the misunderstanding.” Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine, from where 688,000 Rohingya have fled an army crackdown on insurgents since late August, according to estimates by the United Nations. 

They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. The government has cited police as saying they were arrested for possessing secret documents relating to the security situation in Rakhine. 

‘GOOD FAITH EFFORTS’ 

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called Richardson’s decision to resign from the board and his reasons for doing so “cause for concern”, but noted he had been acting as a private citizen in joining the board and visiting Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. 

”Ultimately, the Burmese government and military have the authority to determine whether the Advisory Board will succeed,“ Nauert said. ”The United States has made clear that we are willing to support good faith efforts to implement the Annan Commission recommendations.” 

The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in a campaign senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly all the allegations. 

Richardson said he was also “taken aback by the vigor with which the media, the United Nations, human rights groups and in general the international community were disparaged” during the last three days of meetings the board held with Myanmar officials. 

“She’s not getting good advice from her team,” Richardson said of Suu Kyi, whom he said he has known since the 1980s. “I like her enormously and respect her. But she has not shown moral leadership on the Rakhine issue and the allegations made, and I regret that.” 

Suu Kyi’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, told Reuters he had escorted the other board members on a trip to Rakhine on Wednesday, but that Richardson had not taken part.

“He said he was unhappy about the situation but I am not sure what he was unhappy about,” he said. “This is just the initial stage, this is the start of a whole year of business so I don’t know what happened to make him feel like that.” 

PANEL CHAIRMAN SLAMMED 

Before Richardson quit the advisory board had 10 members, including five from overseas, chaired by former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai. 

Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, also had harsh words for Surakiart. 

The board chairman, he said, was not “genuinely committed” to implementing recommendations regarding the issues of Rohingya safety, citizenship, peace, stability and development. 

“He parroted the dangerous and untrue notion that international NGOs employ radicals and that humanitarian agencies are providing material support to ARSA,” Richardson said, referring to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militants. 

Surakiart was traveling with other members of the board in Rakhine and did not respond to requests for comment. 

Another board member, former South African Defence Minister Roelof Meyer, told Reuters the visit to Rakhine had been “very constructive”. 

“If anybody would say that we are just a rubber stamp or a voice on behalf of the government that would be completely untrue, unfair,” he said. “We haven’t done any recommendations so far.” 

Other members of the board, which also includes British doctor and politician Lord Darzi of Denham and speaker of the Swedish parliament Urban Ahlin, were not immediately available for comment. 

Richardson said he declined to join the advisory board’s tour of a new repatriation camp in Rakhine State on Wednesday, instead traveling to Yangon.

MASS GRAVE 

Myanmar’s military said earlier this month its soldiers had taken part in the killings of 10 captured Muslim “terrorists” during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist villagers had forced the captured men into a grave the villagers had dug. 

It was a rare acknowledgment of wrongdoing during its operations in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which said legal action would be taken against members of the security forces who violated their rules of engagement and the villagers involved. 

Richardson said he has asked the board to recommend that the Myanmar government set up an independent investigation into “the mass grave issue, especially as it pertained to ... the involvement of the military”. He did not say how the board had responded. 

The Rohingya crisis erupted after ARSA attacks on security posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered a fierce military response. Myanmar says its troops were engaged in legitimate counterinsurgency operations. 

The U.N. on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees after agreeing a deal with Bangladesh on their return. 

Reporting by Bill Tarrant; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Panu Wangcha-um in Bangkok and Yimou Lee in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson

A man walks inside the camp set up by Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister to prepare for the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, outside Maungdaw in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

January 24, 2018

MAUNGDAW, Myanmar -- The United Nations on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees before they can return after fleeing Myanmar military operations last year.

An international delegation advising Myanmar toured the Taung Pyo Letwe refugee camp outside the town of Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border. Video of the camp shows long, plywood houses set on a rocky field and surrounded by a wire mesh fence topped with barbed wire. 

Bangladesh on Tuesday 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. 

But the United Nations said necessary safeguards for the refugees were still missing. 

“Until the safety and wellbeing of any child returning to Myanmar can be guaranteed, talk of repatriation is premature,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said in a statement. 

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said earlier “there are continued restrictions on access for aid agencies, the media and other independent observers” in Myanmar.

The UNHCR called on Myanmar “to allow the necessary unhindered humanitarian access in Rakhine State and create conditions for a genuine and lasting solution”. 

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. 

Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar’s crackdown as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.

FILLING OUT FORMS 

Myanmar officials told a news conference on Tuesday that Bangladesh was not ready to send back the refugees as scheduled because the potential returnees hadn’t completed the forms Myanmar provided attesting to their former residency in Myanmar. 

“They also have to check with the UNHCR about whether it’s voluntary,” Minister of International Cooperation Kyaw Tin told the news conference.

“They need a lot of time to fill out the forms and to determine if they really want to come back.” 

But a UNHCR spokesperson in Bangladesh told Reuters the agency had not been involved “in the bilateral discussions on repatriations or signed any agreements”. 

“We would like to be part of the process and discussions to ensure the reparations are voluntary, safe and sustainable and that any returns are in line with international standards,” said Caroline Gluck, UNHCR’s senior public information officer, in Cox’s Bazar. 

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centers and the temporary Taung Pyo Letwe camp to receive the first arrivals. 

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. 

Late on Tuesday, U.S. 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 U.N. organizations. 

Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui; Writing by Bill Tarrant and Euan Rocha; Editing by Nick Macfie

Rohingya Exodus