Foreign diplomats visit conflict-torn Rakhine
- by Earnest Huff
- in Culture
- — Oct 4, 2017
More than half a million Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh over the last five weeks after militant attacks on police checkposts there sparked violent reprisals, with entire villages burnt to the ground.
A group of foreign diplomats and United Nations agency heads participated in a tour of northern Rakhine State yesterday that was billed by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi as an opportunity to learn the "real situation" in the conflict-stricken area.
Bangladesh is to move to a camp at least 15,000 Rohingya refugees who have settled in a restive hill district near the border with Myanmar, a local official said Sunday.
The two governments have agreed to come up with a plan to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees who've fled a bloody crackdown by the Myanmar military.
Video posted on Facebook by a nationalist group, the Sinhala National Movement, shows protesters calling Rohingya "terrorists who killed Buddhists in Myanmar" and saying that they can't live in Sri Lanka.
There was no immediate comment from Suu Kyi's representative.
"We are looking forward to a peaceful solution to the crisis", said the top Bangladeshi diplomat following the talks. Non-refoulement means the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.
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Another MoU was signed between Myanmar authorities and the UNHCR on November 5, 1993 to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Myanmar nationals who were in UNHCR-assisted camps in Bangladesh.
The UN has urged a "safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of refugees to their area of origin".
Last week Myanmar troops uncovered the bodies of 45 Hindu villagers and accused Rohingya Muslims of carrying out a massacre.
Investigators appointed by Suu Kyi and led by former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan recommended in August that Myanmar review a 1982 law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless.
Modi's government has been criticised by activists for not speaking out against Myanmar's recent military offensive against the Rohingya, and right-wing groups in India have begun vilifying Rohingya living there.
Meanwhile, India's latest stand to deport around 40,000 Rohingyas staying in various parts of the country has been heavily criticised by several national and global groups.
"Everything was burned, even people were burned", said a refugee who identified himself as Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a right to stay in Myanmar.
