Suu Kyi wants to take back all refugees

A visiting British minister has said Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is willing to take back all the Rohingyas.

"She [Suu Kyi] assured me she wants all refugees to return to Myanmar," Mark Field, minister of state for Asia and the Pacific at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said at a press briefing in Dhaka yesterday evening.

The minister, who earlier visited Myanmar and held talks with top government leaders, including Suu Kyi, said the country's de facto leader was "in a very difficult situation" and "trying to find the 'fine line' between international pressure and domestic compulsion".

Expressing UK's full support to Dhaka over the Rohingya crisis, he said the British government would keep supporting Bangladesh in the United Nations and all other international forums on this issue.

He said a lot of diplomatic efforts were underway behind the scene to resolve the crisis and it was no longer a "localised problem".

"We will utilise all diplomatic means we can at this stage.

"I have seen in my eyes a terrible situation and what we can do is to try to exert as much pressure with all of our friends."

Replying to a query, Mark Field said he would not speculate when and how the return of about half a million Rohingyas would take place.

He, however, cautioned that if Suu Kyi falls in Myanmar, then the military would have "full-fledged" power and the situation would be "the worst".

He argued in favour of a diplomatic solution rather than punitive sanctions at this stage.

The British minister pressed for an "urgent resolution" to the crisis during talks with Suu Kyi in Myanmar capital Naypyidaw. He said he made three proposals to Suu Kyi -- stop violence on the Rohingyas in Rakhine right now, allow humanitarian access to Rakhine and urgently and fully implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine, headed by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Alistair Burt, UK state minister, Department for International Aid (UKAid), also spoke at the press conference.

Earlier, the two British ministers had separate meetings with Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam.

After his meeting with Shahriar, Mark Field in a twitter message said the UK joined the Bangladesh government's call for an immediate end to violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

"In Dhaka, useful meeting with @MdShahriarAlam on Rohingya crisis. Join Govt of Bangladesh calling for immediate end to violence in Rakhine," he tweeted.

MYANMAR TO VERIFY NUMBERS

Myanmar is poised to begin "verifying" how many of the around half a million Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, it will take back, the country's Ministry of Information said yesterday, reports AFP.

Bangladesh, which is now hosting over 800,000 Rohingyas, including those who fled previous violence in Myanmar, has led the global chorus calling on Myanmar to take back the Rohingya and guarantee their safety.

But it is unclear how many Rohingyas, who numbered around one million in Myanmar before August 25, will be eligible for return to a country that does not recognise them as citizens.

Last week, Suu Kyi said her country would repatriate those who meet a strict criteria set between the two countries in 1993, when tens of thousands of Rohingyas were repatriated.

Verification would be carried out "soon" on Myanmar soil at two border points, the ministry said in a Facebook statement.

They would be checked at "Taungpyo Latwe village for those who return by road and at Naguya village for those who return by water," it said, quoting Win Myat Aye, minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement.

"After the verification process, the refugees will be settled at Dargyizar village," he was quoted as saying.

Dargyizar village is in an area of Maungdaw hit hard by the recent violence that saw hundreds killed and countless Rohingya villages gutted.