Arakan News Agency
President of the European Rohingya Council, Dr. Hla Kyaw, criticized the agreement between the Myanmar and Bengali governments on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.
In an interview with Anadolu, Kyaw highlighted the actions of the Myanmar government and army to erase any evidence of the Rohingya’s connection to their land.
Kyaw began his speech on the attack by the Myanmar army on August 25, which caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh, amid very difficult humanitarian conditions.
“The attacks of the Myanmar army and Buddhist extremists on civilians were ethnically cleansed, in which thousands of Muslims were killed, and about 300 villages were destroyed,” Kyaw said. “Over 600,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh by cutting rivers or fleeing through mountainous areas and the sea”.
“The Government of Bangladesh has made several calls for the return of Rohingya refugees to their areas, and on 23 November, the Myanmar and Bengali governments signed an agreement.”
Kyaw said the agreement forced Rohingya refugees to return to their homes to provide proof of their property, although Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of their nationality in 1982.
Kyaw noted that the Government of Myanmar should approve the documents to be submitted by the Rohingya.
“The agreement has received very angry reactions from human rights defenders around the world,” Kyaw said. The Myanmar government is trying to escape international pressure and sanctions by deceiving the world. There is nothing positive about the agreement regarding the return of the refugees. “
He pointed out that the Rohingya fled with just their clothes at the attack of the Myanmar army, and some were not wearing enough clothes, in order to save their lives, so how to them in these circumstances to take with them documents.
He explained that the army deliberately burned all houses, to burn with it all the documents and papers, and the Government of Myanmar on the basis of these actions signed agreement with Bangladesh, where it will be impossible to return the Rohingya to their areas.
“Even if we assume that all the Rohingyas have returned to their homes, then injustice will not stop,” he said.
He said that he spent the last two months in refugee camps in Bangladesh. “Everyone I met with refugees does not want to go back to Arakan (the homeland of Rohingya), as long as security and citizenship are not restored,” he said.
He compared, Arakan region with the black hole, in terms of lack of information from there, stressing that the Myanmar authorities did not allow journalists to enter it.
Kyaw praised Turkey’s humanitarian and international role in the crisis of the Rohingya Muslims.
“Turkey has played a major role in terms of its assistance and in terms of international politics. There is no solution to the crisis of the Rohingya Muslims except through a lasting political solution, by directing the international community and the United Nations towards the Arakan region,” he said.
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, west of the country.
Since then, thousands of Rohingyas have been killed, according to identical local and international sources, as well as some 826,000 (about two-thirds of the Rohingyans living in Myanmar) to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.
