Arakan News Agency
The Myanmar authorities, in coordination with the Bangladeshi authorities, are planning to facilitate the return of some 450 Hindu residents of Arakan province who have fled because of ongoing violence in the province since 25 August, ignoring any plan for Muslims.
“The government plans to facilitate the return of 450 Hindus who fled Arakan to Bangladesh by January 22, 2018,” local media quoted Myanmar’s Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Win Myat Aye, as saying.
“Two camps have been set up in the north of the province for returnees from Bangladesh,” he said.
Earlier, the Dhaka government has issued numerous calls for the return of Arakan Muslims to their lands. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement on November 23.
According to the agreement, those wishing to return to Myanmar should show a document confirming that they were living in Myanmar before heading to Bangladesh.
However, the Arakan Muslims who were stripped of citizenship rights in 1982 do not have any records in Myanmar.
The agreement raised great dissatisfaction with international human rights organizations and considered that the Myanmar government was seeking to evade international pressure.
Since August 25, the Myanmar army and extremist Buddhist militias have committed crimes, attacks and brutal massacres against the Muslim minority of Rohingya in Arakan province.
Since then, thousands of Rohingyas have been killed, according to local and international sources, as well as more than 650,000 fled to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.
