Myanmar out to mislead int’l community

Bangladesh yesterday accused Myanmar of remaining engaged in a “persistent campaign” to mislead the international community to avoid its obligations for “sustained repatriation” and reintegration of the Rohingyas.

Dhaka also rejected “baseless accusations, falsification, and misrepresentation of facts” by Nay Pyi Taw, and urged it to stop concocted campaign and concentrate on the fulfillment of its obligations.

“Myanmar must act decisively to address the real causes that are preventing the displaced Rohingya from going back voluntarily,” said the Bangladesh foreign ministry.

The ministry said it was a “matter of utter dismay” to witness such tenacious campaign with fabricated information, misrepresentation of facts, unsubstantiated claims and undue accusations on part of Myanmar to mislead the international community.

Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas who have fled their homeland in Rakhine after being persecuted by their own country. Myanmar didn’t take back a single Rohingya from Bangladesh over the last two years.

Two repatriation attempts were unsuccessful as Myanmar “failed to remove trust deficit” among the Rohingyas and there was “lack of conducive environment” in Rakhine for their return.

Bangladesh said Myanmar should seriously consider a comprehensive participation of the international community in creating conducive environment for the return as well as in the monitoring of repatriation and reintegration process.

“Myanmar should also cooperate with the international community to eliminate the culture of impunity for the sake of a durable solution to the protracted problem,” the foreign ministry said.

STORIES COOKED UP

The ministry said Myanmar Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin resorted to misrepresentation of the whole issue.

He also laid unjustified blames on Bangladesh in his effort to refute the well-founded remarks by the Bangladesh foreign minister on the Rohingya crisis at the preparatory ministerial meeting of the 18th NAM Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 23.

In his statement, Tin accused Bangladesh of mischaracterising the Rohingya crisis as “religious persecution”, “driving an ethnic group out of the country”, “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide”, among others.

In reality, such observations are made by the international community based on documented evidence, which bear unmistakable signs of forcible deportation of a community from its ancestral homeland in Rakhine in the face of atrocity crimes against the civilian population, said the Bangladesh foreign ministry.

It said the nature and extent of atrocities in 2017 surpassed all previous records.

Tin claimed that the crisis is confined only in the northern strip of Rakhine State and people of different faiths are living in harmony in the remaining areas across the country.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry said it is a “well-known fact that continued disenfranchisement of the country’s ethnic minorities by successive governments of Myanmar and suppression of their rights and justified demands by force rendered Myanmar as one of the world’s largest homes to Internally Displaced Persons and a leading source of cross-border displacements”.

A substantial number of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals of varied ethnic and religious backgrounds are in temporary shelters in different countries for decades and only a few could return and reintegrate into their homeland.

WHAT HISTORIANS SAY

According to historians, Rohingya is a distinct ethnic community evolved over centuries through mingling of migrated people of various races and cultures from different parts of the world with the local people in Rakhine.

As such, on two previous occasions Myanmar recognised displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh as their lawful residents and repatriated them.

After the recent influx, Myanmar signed bilateral instruments with Bangladesh identifying them as “Myanmar residents”.

As far as the nationality of the Rohingyas is concerned, there cannot be any scope for confusion.

The foreign ministry said attempts to create controversy over their identity at this stage clearly indicate that Myanmar still pursues the policy of exclusion and marginalisation of its ethnic minorities.

The Myanmar statement blamed ARSA as usual for initiating the crisis and preventing the displaced Rohingyas from returning in order to advance their political agenda.

“Myanmar should understand that so-called ARSA attack on August 25, 2017 can never justify highly disproportionate military response, widespread human rights abuses, and atrocity crimes on a particular ethnic community,” said the foreign ministry.

Bangladesh has reaffirmed that there are no ARSA activities at Rohingya camps.

“It’s not possible to operate terrorist bases anywhere in Bangladesh because of high alertness and effective preventive measures by the security forces in line with “zero-tolerance policy” of the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” the ministry said.

Bangladesh has taken adequate measures to ensure that the potential returnees are able to express their views on return without any influence or threat from any quarter.

Dhaka said the Myanmar government was yet to demonstrate any political will to implement the provisions of bilateral instruments and to address the underlying political, economic, security, and social causes rooted in the problem.

Inordinate delay in verification of past residency of Rohingyas with arbitrary rejection of substantial number of displaced people as “not included in the registered list of household” and excessive focus on technicalities are clear manifestations of Myanmar’s utter reluctance to resolve the crisis through dialogue and negotiation, it added.

The claim has been substantiated through their failure to effectively dismantle the IDP camps in Rakhine and resettle the people to the places of their origin or places of their choice, as well as taking back the people sheltered at the international boundary (zero line) as they require no involvement of the government of Bangladesh, said the foreign ministry.

‘NON-COOPERATION’

Myanmar often complains against Bangladesh for “non-cooperation in repatriation”. Dhaka said such accusation was totally baseless and it could be guided by an ulterior motive.

It said no Rohingya agreed to return during two previous repatriation attempts, as they are “not assured of safety, security, and sustainable livelihood” in Rakhine.

Bangladesh maintains its principled position of not preventing anyone willing to return to Myanmar anytime.

The foreign ministry said, “It always stands ready to extend all possible cooperation to those who volunteer to return. Sincerity of Bangladesh in facilitating earliest repatriation of Myanmar residents has been unquestionably established through its actions.”

Dhaka said Nay Pyi Taw usually tries to give a positive impression about the involvement of UN agencies and other partners in Rakhine State.

It said access to Rohingya villages is reportedly still highly restricted for the international community.

Myanmar persistently denies a meaningful engagement of UN bodies and other partners in creating conducive environment and monitoring of return and reintegration in Rakhine.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh has consistently been pursuing the policy of resolving this protracted problem through dialogue, maintaining friendly relations with Myanmar. Unjustifiable accusation on the part of a party, entirely responsible for the protracted crisis, is totally unacceptable, Dhaka said, adding that such venture would undermine Bangladesh’s current efforts to resolve the crisis.