UN ‘needed’ for Rohingya return

ENVOYS VISIT BANGLADESH AND MYANMAR

BANGLADESH prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked the UN Security Council on Monday (30) to press Myanmar to take back hundreds of thou­sands of Rohingya Muslims who fled a military crackdown to take refuge in her country.

Security Council envoys visited Hasina in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, before travelling to My­anmar for meetings with its government leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and military head Min Aung Hla­ing later on Monday.

“They should put more pressure on the Myanmar government so that they take their citizens back to their country. That’s what we want,” Hasina said.

The visit by the envoys to see the aftermath of a military operation in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, puts a global spotlight on the crisis which the UN and others have denounced as ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar denies the accusation, saying that the military was engaged in a legitimate counter-insur­gency operation.

Hundreds of Rohingya staged a demonstration last Sunday (29) as the UN envoys visited refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Some broke down in tears as they told the ambas­sadors harrowing stories of murder and rape in My­anmar. The demonstrators waved placards demand­ing justice for atrocities against the refugees until they were dispersed by police.

Many of them live in bamboo-and-plastic struc­tures perched on hills in the southeast Bangladesh district of Cox’s Bazar.

Senior diplomats from the 15-member Security Council – including delegates from permanent members the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – arrived in Bangladesh last Saturday (28) for a four-day visit to the camps. They later travelled to Myan­mar where they met Suu Kyi.

Britain’s UN ambassador Karen Pierce said the Rohingya “must be allowed to go home in conditions of safety”.

“It may take some time but we would like to hear from the government of Myanmar how they wish to work with the international community,” she said.

Hasina said the refugees should return “under UN supervision where security and safety should be en­sured. They want to go back to their own country. So the Security Council can play a very pivotal role.”

When asked whether UN supervision meant the deployment of peacekeepers, Hasina said: “Not ex­actly, well, that the UN will decide”.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Social welfare minister Win Myat Aye, who is leading rehabilitation efforts in Rakhine, declined to comment.

Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts in Rakhine State in August last year sparked the crack­down that, according to the UN and rights groups, sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years, but differences between the two sides remain and implementation of the plan has been slow.

The envoys were due to travel to Rakhine State on Tuesday (1) as Eastern Eye went to press. They are to go on a helicopter flight over the region to see the remains of villages torched during the violence.

Myanmar’s military has kept Rakhine in a lock­down since August, blocking access to independent observers, journalists and many aid groups except on tightly-controlled chaperoned trips. (Reuters, AFP)