Arakan News Agency
The government of Myanmar has announced its agreement with two United Nations organizations for the establishment of a framework to create conditions for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to their homes or places of their choosing.
The move came as the return of some 700,000 refugees from Bangladesh remains deadlocked despite an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh in November of last year to facilitate their journey home. One of the primary concerns keeping the Muslim minorities from returning is their deep distrust of the Nay Pyi Taw government, and removing the psychological barrier is no easy task.
“We are worried that we will be locked up (in camps) after our return,” said a man standing behind a barbed-wire fence that stands near the Bangladesh and Myanmar border. The location was about a one-hour ride on a Myanmar national army helicopter from the provincial capital of Sittwe in Arakan state in western Myanmar. This reporter accompanied Ichiro Maruyama, Japan’s ambassador to the country, who inspected the situation of Ronhingya refugees in the area.
The river running along the border is supposed to have a 45-meter-wide buffer zone on both sides and no buildings in those areas are allowed, but countless huts built by some 5,700 Rohingya refugees dot the riverside. Voices of prayer could be heard in the distance as it was in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Ambassador Maruyama asked questions over the barbed-wire fence to a Rohingya man, who responded by saying that he was worried about the possibility of being detained at a Myanmar facility if he returns.
The refugees fled to Bangladesh in part because of major clashes in 2012 between Buddhist residents of Rakhine and Rohingya minorities, which left a total of 192 people dead, according to a government report. In a bid to avoid contact between the two groups, Nay Pyi Taw placed internally displaced people, mostly Rohingya, in more than 20 camps in the western state, where some 130,000 still remain. Even before the clashes, the Myanmar government did not grant Rohingya people citizenship and restricted their movements. The treatment “become worse in those camps,” says a UN source.
Unlike the northern area closer to Bangladesh, Rohingyas in Sittwe are said to be long-term residents with a stronger sense of belonging to Myanmar. “We are not recognized as Myanmar citizens even though we live here. I have a national registration card, my parents also have the cards,” said Tin Hla, 41, in tears at his home in a camp near Sittwe.
Another man from the same camp confided, “We Muslims in Arakan can’t go anywhere even in Arakan state. Some Muslims risk their lives to go to nearby places to sell their crops.” His son has graduated from high school in the camp, but “he doesn’t know which university he can enter.” In another camp, a resident said he felt exasperated as the authorities instructed him to start farming although he had made his living through trading.
A temporary reception facility for returnees with a capacity to house some 30,000 people opened in Maungdaw in northern Arakan state, but only 62 men now stay there. The residents, who came back voluntarily, intend to invite their family members to come with them only when they feel comfortable with the domestic situation in Myanmar.
The Myanmar government’s advisory commission for Arakan state recommended a review of the civil rights law that stripped Rohingyas of citizenship and the lifting of restrictions on their movement. But these words have yet to be transformed into actions on the ground, say many Myanmar watchers.
Ambassador Maruyama, who has many years’ experience in Myanmar, pointed out that what the Myanmar government says is not trusted. “Improving their (Rohingyas’) conditions in a visible manner one by one will advance their return,” he said.
