Rohingya rep visit Myanmar to see repatriation facilities

Diplomatic Correspondent  :
After almost six years a group of 20 Rohingya representatives who were flushed out of their homeland from Rakhine state visited there with the assistance of several government agencies to inspect the newly constructed facilities intended to repatriate them in the coming days.

Sources said that 20 Rohingya representatives including three women and seven other officials of different departments paid the visit to at least two model villages made by the Myanmar government for their return under the pilot project of repatriation.

“During the visit the Myanmar side has shown us the model villages and hospitals in Maungdaw. We have also seen the
Rohingyas doing business there. Children can read up to class 10 as schools have been set up,” commissioner of the Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) Md Mizanur Rahman, who led the delegation, told the New Nation on Friday.

About the process of repatriation, he said, “The Myanmar side has told us that the repatriated Rohingyas will be kept at the reception camp for three days and from there they will be sent to the model villages.”

Asked about the satisfaction of the Rohingyas during their visit, he said, “The Rohingyas want citizenship before their return.

But citizenship is the internal matter of Myanmar. The Myanmar side has said that the Rohingyas have to fill their particular form for the citizenship.”

“The Rohingyas have to abide by the Myanmar rules. That is their political issue. What we want is their repatriation,” he said.
About the visit he further said, “It’s not that all arrangements are satisfactory, but what is important is that something is taking place for the repatriation process.”

Asked about the next steps, Mizanur Rahman said, “The Myanmar side will again visit the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar to move for the next course of action for the repatriation.”

Before leaving for Myanmar, the Rohingya representatives talked to the media and said that they wanted to return to their original villages where they resided and not the ‘concentration camp’ what they termed the model village made by Myanmar government.

Earlier, the delegation left Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar by two speedboats from the Choudhurypara jetty, heading towards the district town of Maungdaw in Rakhine State in Myanmar, to assess the situation there.

The team departed from the Naf River jetty at 9 am on Friday, accompanied by the BGB and Coast Guard for their safety. The delegation returned to Cox’s Bazar after the visit in the afternoon.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), along with several government agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is cooperating with the Rohingya delegation.

However, no representative from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was in the delegation heading for Myanmar.

Currently, Bangladesh is hosting around 1.2 million Rohingyas in different camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char after their exodus on 25 August 2017 in military crackdown.

Though multiple various efforts both home and abroad had been taken in the last six years, but it has not been successful to send back a single Rohingya to their homeland in Myanmar.

Even the Rohingyas in several times raised their demands by saying that they would not go back until meeting a number of their demands including citizenships and safety and security for sustainable return.

Last year Chinese outgoing Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said that they would make an effort to start the Rohingya repatriation in 2023.

In a bid to meet the demand of the Rohingyas, efforts have been made to assuage them about the arrangement made for them for their safe and sustainable return.

Mizanur Rahman told the New Nation that in January 2022, the initiative to repatriate Rohingyas began under the mediation of China.
At that time, a list of eight lakh Rohingyas was sent from Bangladesh to Myanmar for repatriation, and in the first phase of the pilot project, 1,140 Rohingyas were included.

Of them, 711 Rohingyas received Myanmar’s approval for repatriation, while Myanmar had objections to the remaining 429 Rohingyas.
A Myanmar delegation came to Teknaf in March this year to collect information about the 429 Rohingyas and the families of 51 more children born to them, he added.

However, different international bodies including UNHCR have been articulating that the return of the Rohingyas has to be made voluntary, safe and dignified.

On the other hand, the International Court of Justice (ICC) is investigating the allegations of rape, murder and arson committed by Myanmar’s security forces during the 2017 crackdown.

The court in July 2022 also asked the Myanmar government to prevent any sort of further act of violence and genocide. But it was found that Myanmar military was engaged in fierce fighting with ARSA rebels along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, heightening tensions in the region.

Apart from it, the ICC also ordered Myanmar to report on its compliance with the provisional measures every six months.