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Myanmar vows to start Rohingya repatriation by mid-year

News Desk || risingbd.com

Published: 22:36, 19 January 2021   Update: 22:40, 19 January 2021
Myanmar vows to start Rohingya repatriation by mid-year

Myanmar has pledged to start much-demanded Rohingya repatriation in the middle of this year.

The country made their desire in response to a proposal placed by Bangladesh to launch the repatriation process by first three months of this year.

Naypyidaw showed its flexibility to take back their nationals at the tripartite meeting held virtually among Bangladesh, China and Myanmar over the crisis on Tuesday (January 19).

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, who led the Bangladesh delegation, was speaking at a press briefing at the Foreign Ministry after the virtual tripartite meeting this afternoon.

Chinese vice minister Luo Zhaohui and Myanmar Deputy Minister of International Cooperation Hau Do Suan led the delegations of their respective countries at the meeting.

The first tripartite meeting among the foreign ministers of Bangladesh, China and Myanmar was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in 2019 while the last official level tripartite meeting on January last year.

The foreign secretary said Dhaka today first proposed starting the repatriation in the first quarter, but Myanmar said logistical arrangement would take some more time.

“So, we said we can do it in the second quarter,” he said, adding that the Myanmar side showed their flexibility about Dhaka’s proposal to start by second quarter of this year.

However, the secretary said that there were lots of factors to complete the repatriation process but “we would like to work with hope”.

Masud said Dhaka has proposed to start the repatriation as village by village or by cluster of village so that Rohingyas could get confidence to return back home with their known neighbours together.

Masud said both Myanmar and China have showed positivity regarding Dhaka’s proposal of keeping international community’s presence, including UN, India, Japan and ASEN countries, in Rakhine when Rohingya repatriation happens.

He said Dhaka also pushed hard Myanmar to ensure conducive environment inside Rakhine state to build confidence among the Rohingyas to go back to their land of origin.

Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district and most of them arrived there since August 25, 2017 after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” by other rights groups.

In last three years, Myanmar did not take back a single Rohingya while the attempts of repatriation failed twice due to trust deficit among Rohingyas about their safety and security in the Rakhine state.

Dhaka/Hasan/AI