Arakan News Agency
The Government of Myanmar stipulated that the Rohingya refugees fleeing to the violence of Buddhist militias in the Arakan province should provide identification papers to allow them to return to their areas.
According to a statement issued by the office of Myanmar Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, the repatriation of Rohingya refugees will be based on an agreement signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh in 1992, in which tens of thousands of refugees were repatriated after their identities were verified.
The 1992 agreement provided that all Rohingya refugees could return to their homes if they had a personal identity of Myanmar. Most Arakan Muslims were stripped of their nationality after constitutional amendments by the Government of Myanmar in 1982.
At a UN Security Council session last Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on Myanmar to “protect Rohingya, to return aid to them, to restore their usurped rights, to repatriate refugees of Arakan” and to grant them citizenship.
Since August 25, Myanmar’s army and Buddhist militias have committed crimes, attacks and brutal massacres against the Muslim minority of Rohingya, which have killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands of innocent people, according to local activists.
Last Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh from Arakan province had risen to 511,000.
