Rights Groups Slam ASEAN's Positive Take on Rohingya Repatriation Plan

VOA

By Zsombor Peter

June 21, 2019 

   FILE - Rohingya sits on a beach at Rawi island in Satun province Southern of Thailand Tuesday, June 11, 2019. Thai officials say they have discovered 65 ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees who were shipwrecked and stranded in southern Thailand.

BANGKOK - A report by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Myanmar's readiness to repatriate Muslim Rohingya who fled to neighboring Bangladesh paints a mostly positive picture of the country's efforts.

Asean Leaders Pressured to Push Myanmar on Rohingya Repatriation

Bloomberg
By Philip Heijmans
20 June 2019,

 

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. Photographer: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images

Southeast Asian leaders are facing pressure to take a tougher stance on Myanmar ahead of this weekend’s Asean summit amid accusations they’re failing to ensure the safe repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims.

Rohingya repatriation: Bangladesh asks Myanmar to come up with ‘package’

Dhaka Tribune
Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Published at June 16th, 2019

 Bangladesh is currently sheltering over 1.2 million Rohingyas in a number of refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

It’s Myanmar’s responsibility to create a conducive environment in Rakhine and to convince Rohingyas in Bangladesh to return to their homes, annoyed Dhaka tells unwilling Naypyitaw

An apparently annoyed Bangladesh has asked Myanmar to come up with a ‘package’ to ensure the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas, who had to cross into Cox’s Bazar to escape persecution in Rakhine.

President seeks CICA support to repatriate Rohingyas

The Daily Star

June 15, 2019

BSS, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Leaders and officials including President Abdul Hamid pose for a group photo during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Dushanbe in Tajikistan on June 15, 2019. Photo: Reuters

President M Abdul Hamid today solicited support and cooperation from Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) partners to repatriate the forcibly displaced Rohingya people to their ancestral homeland in Myanmar with safety and dignity.

Myanmar broke its promises

The Daily Star

June 13, 2019 

Staff Correspondent

Foreign minister says on Rohingya return

 

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen. Star file photo 

Myanmar has not kept its pledge of creating conditions conducive to Rohingya repatriation, and is spreading lies about Bangladesh, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said yesterday.

“In recent times, the media published reports of a Myanmar minister saying that Bangladesh was responsible for the delay in Rohingya repatriation; Bangladesh is not cooperating. Such a statement is blatantly false,” he told reporters after a meeting with foreign diplomats at state guest house Padma in the capital.

Bangladesh informs UN of Myanmar's non-cooperation on Rohingya repatriation

The Daily Star
June 13, 2019

                                          UN chief concerned over repatriation delay

 

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam shakes hands with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at a bilateral meeting on Rohingya issue and the celebration of birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in New York in USA on June 11, 2019. Photo: Courtesy

Bangladesh has shared the existing problems regarding the Rohingya issue with the UN and informed it about Myanmar's non-cooperation in starting the repatriation.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam conveyed these to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at a bilateral meeting on Rohingya issue and the celebration of birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in New York.

US-Bangla Dialogue Reemphasizes Voluntary, Sustainable Rohingya Repatriation

The Irrawaddy
By Muktadir Rashid  
13 June 2019

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque shakes hands with the United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale on June 10, 2019. / US Embassy in Dhaka  

DHAKA—The United States and Bangladesh in their seventh U.S.-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue in Washington DC on June 10 reaffirmed their commitment to an enduring partnership and emphasized the need for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of 1.1 million Rohingya to their homeland of Myanmar.

Myanmar is ‘lying’ about Rohingya repatriation, says Foreign Minister Momen

bdnews24.com
Senior Correspondent bdnews24.com
Published: 12 Jun 2019

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has accused Myanmar of ‘lying’ about the issue of the repatriation of the forcefully displaced Rohingya people.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, Momen said, “Myanmar has held Bangladesh responsible for the delay in repatriating the Rohingya refugees when Bangladesh stands ready to do it.”

Bangladesh, Myanmar Trade Blame over Stalled Rohingya Repatriation

Benar News  

Special to BenarNews
2019-06-10

Young Rohingya ride a traditional wooden ferris wheel during Eid al-Fitr celebrations at a refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, June 5, 2019.  

 
Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh have traded blame over stalled efforts to repatriate about 740,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees, who fled a brutal 2017 Myanmar military campaign that drove them from their villages to camps on the Bangladeshi side of their border.

The latest row flared up after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told reporters in Dhaka that Myanmar was reluctant to take back the Rohingya Muslims despite a signed agreement to repatriate them.

Govt: Bangladesh trying to repatriate ‘terrorists’

MYANMAR TIMES

Htoo Thant   

11 Jun 2019

More than 160 people on the list of refugees whom Bangladesh wants Myanmar to repatriate have been involved in violence in Rakhine State, said U Soe Aung, deputy minister of Social Welfare, Relief & Resettlement.

“We have evidence that 16,898 people had lived in Myanmar, we found no evidence for 8,340 people, and 168 people were on the terrorist list,” he told the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) session on Thursday.  

Myanmar Doesn’t Want to Repatriate Rohingya, Bangladeshi PM Says

The Irrawaddy
By Muktadir Rashid  
10 June 2019

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during an interview at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York on Sept. 25, 2018. / Reuters

DHAKA—Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Sunday that Myanmar does not want the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees currently sheltering in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district to be repatriated.

“Myanmar in no way wants them [Rohingya] back. This is the problem. We are trying to do our part,” the prime minister told a press conference at her official residence, Gonobhaban, in Dhaka when asked about possible solutions to the Rohingya crisis.

Voluntary organisations don’t want Rohingya repatriation: PM

Prothum Alo------ 

Staff Correspondent 

Dhaka | Update:  Jun 09, 2019

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said international volunteer organisations do not want Rohingyas to return to Myanmar.

“We took steps for their repatriation. However, a section of Rohingyas launched a movement against their return. Who instigated them? In fact international volunteers do not want the repatriation,” the prime minister told a press conference at her official residence Ganabhaban on Sunday.

Fighting between military and ARSA could not disrupt repatriation says army general

ELEVEN

Published 8 June 2019

Min Naing Soe 

Fighting between the Myanmar army and ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) could not hamper the ongoing repatriation process for those who fled Rakhine State, said Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, secretary of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team.

Rohingya Repatriation: America’s Last Chance

THE NATIONAL INTREST
May 30, 2019
by Nazmus Sakib

This is how the United States could gain leverage in a region where it is losing ground at an exponential rate.

The Rohingya refugees are probably going to be shifted to a newly “civilized” isolated Island in the middle of Bay of Bengal. However, China is reportedly offering Rohingya refugees $6,000 each to go back to Myanmar-Rakhine, the district from which they fled a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing.” On the other hand, China also helps Bangladesh government making the Rohingya Island habitable. The Burmese government, even Bangladesh government too, eventually might come onboard to send off the Rohingyas, without any promise of citizenship or permanent settlement, given the new rapprochement between Dhaka and Beijing, breaking away from its long-held “India first” policy. In the entire picture, however, the United States is missing in action. In fact, this might be the United States’ last opportunity to keep exerting its influence in the Bay of Bengal.

Rohingya repatriation: UNHCR, UNDP signs extension of MoU with Myanmar

The Daily Star

May 28, 2019

Star Online Report

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today signed extension of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Myanmar for one year aimed at creating conducive conditions for voluntary and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya from Bangladesh.

Rohingya Repatriation: Many twists and turns but no solution in sight yet

IPS
By Mohammad Zaman
21/05/2019

Amir Ali, a Rohingya violinist who was a member of a wedding band of the northern Rakhine State of Myanmar, attends a weekly prayer event to play the violin at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, March 7, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS/MOHAMMAD PONIR HOSSAIN

May 21 2019 - There are over a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including the latest batch of 800,000 that came after August 25, 2017 and the 250,000 that arrived since the first exodus of mid-1990s. As Myanmar nationals, the Rohingya Muslims have historically faced ethnic and religious persecutions, culminating in 2017 in a fierce, protracted genocidal campaign by the Myanmar army against its own people. The military launched a violent crackdown leading to arbitrary killings of Rohingyas, including children and the elderly, gang rapes of women, inhuman torture, and razing of village after village that forced all those people to seek shelter in Bangladesh, unleashing a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in recent history.

Rohingya repatriation: Dhaka pins hope on Asean involvement for progress

Dhaka Tribune 

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan

Published at  May 9th, 2019

 This photo taken recently shows a makeshift rohingya camp in cox’s Bazar Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

It is difficult to engage Asean as a civilian monitoring entity, but doable, officials say

Bangladesh has been trying to get the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a bloc of 10 nations that includes Myanmar, involved in the process of Rohingya repatriation, which was supposed to begin more than 15 months ago as per an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Bangladesh seeks ‘clear roadmap’ from Myanmar over Rohingya repatriation

UNB
UNB News
Publish Date - May 07, 2019, 11:02 PM
AKM Moinuddin - UNB Staff Writer

 Displaced Rohingya people at a makeshift camp in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar. UNB file photo

Dhaka, May 7 (UNB) – Bangladesh has asked Myanmar to come up with a ‘clear roadmap’ for the repatriation of Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar and identify all the issues that are hindering and obstructing the repatriation process.

Rohingya repatriation: Myanmar to extend ‘secret’ MoU with UNHCR, UNDP for another year

Dhaka Tribune 
Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Published at  May 6th, 2019

 File photo of Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Last year saw virtually no progress on important issues, including citizenship for Rohingyas

Myanmar has agreed to extend a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), regarding the creation of necessary conditions for the return from Bangladesh, of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to their homes in Rakhine, Myanmar, multiple sources told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Bangladesh asks Myanmar to clear all hurdles for Rohingya repatriation to begin

bdnews24.com
Senior Correspondent,  bdnews24.com 
Published: 03 May 2019

Fleeing Rohingyas watch from Bangladesh as their houses at Maungdaw in Rakhine State are set on fire allegedly by the Myanmar Army and other security forces. This photo of the burning villages was taken on Sept 11, 2017. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman 

  

Bangladesh has renewed calls for an early start of repatriation of the Rohingya refugees and urged Myanmar to remove all barriers preventing commencement of their return.

The request was made at the fourth meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on the repatriation of displaced Myanmar residents from Bangladesh to Myanmar held in Nay Pyi Taw on Friday.