Regime criticised as taking ‘pretend step’ with purported plan to repatriate Muslim refugees in Bangladesh

By Admin 27 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
27 February 2023, Sittwe

The Arakan Army (AA) has criticised the Myanmar junta’s plan to repatriate Muslim refugees from Arakan State currently residing in Bangladesh at a time when the country remains riven by conflict and instability, with the ethnic armed group’s spokesman saying the regime is taking a “pretend step” to gain international recognition.

Myanmar’s military regime has signalled that it plans to move forward with the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees who fled Arakan State amid brutal military crackdowns in 2016 and 2017.

But at an online press conference on February 27, AA spokesperson U Khaing Thukha questioned whether the junta’s purported desire to begin the repatriation was genuine.

“What the military regime is doing to accept the Muslim refugees in Bangladesh is just a show. Apart from Arakan State and some other areas, the country is not stable and the security is still not reliable. I believe that the military regime has a lot of political reasons behind its decision to re-accept Muslim refugees. The move to accept Muslim refugees is seen as a pretend step to gain international recognition of the military council’s rule,” he said.

The junta-controlled Myanmar Alin daily reported on February 24 that the military regime is preparing to re-accept more than 1,000 Muslim refugees living in refugee camps in Bangladesh as a pilot project.

Regarding the issue of Muslim repatriation, a group consisting of the junta-appointed Minister for International Cooperation U Ko Ko Hlaing, Minister of Border Affairs Lt-Gen Tun Tun Naung, Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Daw Thet Thet Khaing visited refugee reception centres in Taungpyo Letwe, Ngakhuya and Ngakhuya in northern Maungdaw on January 7.

But Muslim refugees in Bangladesh cannot return to Myanmar without security assurances, some Muslim Rohingyas have told DMG.

“We have told the military regime that we will return if there is life insurance for us. We cannot return home without life insurance,” said Ko Karmal, who is sheltering at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Even if the Muslims return, they say they do not want to live at the reception centres built by the military regime.

“If we are repatriated, we must be allowed to become Myanmar citizens. We cannot stay in reception centres. There are places where our ancestors lived. Only if they allow us to live there again will we be able to return home,” said Saw Yod Alam, who is also sheltering at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made multiple abortive attempts to repatriate Muslims from Bangladesh during its five-year term from 2016-2021.

More than 700,000 Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh when the Myanmar military carried out “clearance operations” following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attacks on several police outposts in 2017.