Mehjabin Bhanu
Local media reported that on February 9, Junta leaders, including International Cooperation Minister U Ko Ko Hlaing, Border Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Tun Tun Naung, Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Dr Thet Thet Khaing and Immigration and Population Minister U Myint Kyaing, visited Maungdaw on the Bangladesh border and instructed the authorities to prepare transit camps for repatriation. Since the military’s taking over power in 2020, this is the biggest step forward for Rohingya repatriation. There has been a diverse reaction among the refugees to this event. Though the camp people want immediate relief from the inhumane condition, safety, security, and full citizenship rights after repatriation are their utmost priority. Every time the discussion of Rohingya repatriation has come to light, the Rohingyas have raised their demand for “safe and dignified” repatriation. The past two moves of repatriation also failed as the Rohingyas declined to return until a safe and dignified environment was created for them in Myanmar. Dhaka-Naypyidaw has agreed to solve the long-standing Rohingya crisis and repatriate approximately 1.2 million Rohingya people who have taken refuge in Bangladesh. In the light of Myanmar’s past experience, analysts say, it is doubtful whether Myanmar will keep its word in the end. Along with that, before the start of short-term repatriation, Bangladesh has to proceed carefully with a full roadmap of repatriation on this issue. According to diplomatic sources, the main point of discussion in the fifth phase of the Joint Working Committee meeting was that the Rohingya people should return to their homeland Myanmar voluntarily, with full civil rights and with dignity. Reminiscing Myanmar’s previous commitment on repatriation, Bangladesh emphasized the importance of verifying Rohingya information and creating a positive environment in Rakhine. The two sides have expressed their agreement in regular joint working and technical committee meetings on the resolution of information verification issues and repatriation issues. In a meeting to build trust and confidence among the Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh to return to their motherland Myanmar, Myanmar agreed to a proposal from Bangladesh to start short-term repatriation of Rohingyas. Naypyidaw also agreed to Dhaka’s short-term family-based repatriation proposal. About 1,500 Rohingya will return to Myanmar in the first phase of short-term family-based repatriation, diplomats said. Among them, Myanmar informed Bangladesh after verifying the information of about 700 adult Rohingyas. As they want to repatriate on a family basis, these adults are accompanied by their children and teenagers, most of whom were born in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Their number is about 500. On behalf of Myanmar, they have asked for information such as where these children and teenagers were born, the identity of their parents and the proof that their parents were in Myanmar. These data are now being collected on behalf of Bangladesh. After collecting the data, it will be sent to Myanmar for verification next month. If Myanmar agrees, then repatriation will begin. In this regard, Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen said, “We want to start repatriation on a limited scale within this year.” Past experience has shown that Myanmar has not finally agreed on the issue of Rohingya repatriation even after giving multiple dates. The country has never responded positively in this regard. The first repatriation attempt on 15 November 2018 failed due to lack of response from Myanmar. After that, the second round of repatriation date was fixed on August 23, 2019. The date of the second round of repatriation was fixed by China’s mediation, but this time too it was not implemented due to Myanmar’s lack of goodwill. According to the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner located in Cox’s Bazar, a large number of Rohingyas fled from Myanmar and sought refuge in Bangladesh due to political, social and economic persecution in 1991-92. For humanitarian reasons, the Bangladesh government allows them to enter Bangladesh and provides full cooperation. In 1992, 2,50,877 Rohingyas’ information was registered. Then arrangements were made to keep them in 20 camps. From July 28 of that year to 2005, a total of 236,599 Rohingyas were repatriated to Myanmar. Meanwhile, on August 25, 2017, 1.1 million Rohingyas crossed the border and took refuge in Bangladesh to save their lives in the face of torture and torture by the Myanmar government and army. On November 23 of that year, the main agreement was reached between the two sides of Bangladesh and Myanmar on the issue of Rohingya repatriation. The following year, on January 16, 2018, the two sides signed a field-level agreement on the issue of repatriation. Bangladesh has so far sent a list of 830,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification for repatriation. Myanmar has verified the list of only 58 thousand Rohingya from there. Diplomats in Dhaka say that in the past, Myanmar has not kept its word even after saying it several times. But this time Bangladesh wants to believe that Myanmar will keep its word and come forward to create a positive situation to solve the crisis. The Rohingya genocide case will be heard on July 22 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands. On that day, the ICJ judges will rule on whether Gambia can seek justice for the genocide of the Rohingya population, citizens of Myanmar, by the Myanmar government and the country’s army. Diplomats in Dhaka are hoping that the upcoming ICJ ruling will favor Gambia and increase pressure on Myanmar to resolve the crisis. A former military officer and a former military attache of Bangladesh assigned to Myanmar told this reporter on Thursday that Myanmar had made such a promise in 2011. Then the Prime Minister of Bangladesh himself gave Myanmar a list of about 6000 Rohingyas for verification. That list has not yet been verified by Myanmar. He also said that Bangladesh should not go for this short-term repatriation. If this happens, it will be a big disaster for both Bangladesh and Rohingya. Because Myanmar will say, this is what we are taking. Then maybe 1000 Rohingya will be taken. But this 1000 will be sold all over the world by showing it as a baby crocodile. So the government needs to launch repatriation based on a concrete paper. Otherwise, as far as I know Myanmar they will take a token number to show the world that they are serious about this issue. They will take this opportunity to reduce the international pressure on Myanmar on this issue. Again it could be a trap of Myanmar, where Bangladesh has to be careful. Because Myanmar is a country that cannot be trusted. Professor of International Relations Department of Dhaka University. Imtiaz Ahmed said in this context, ‘Why in short range, the whole matter needs to be clear. Because the date of when and in how many stages Myanmar will take back the entire Rohingya population needs to be determined in advance. Otherwise, repatriation of such tokens may cause loss to Bangladesh. Myanmar showing such token repatriation to the UN ICJ court could divert the entire incident into a different sector. Short-term repatriation without ensuring the repatriation of all Rohingyas is not right
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