Rohingya repatriation will take more time

Against this backdrop, it is difficult for Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s new government to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the near future. Former ambassador and now Senior Member of Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies (MISIS) Wynn Lwin said the issue can be discussed but it is a disgrace that Suu Kyi cannot handle the case. He insisted that the word Rohingya “did not exist” and claimed that the Muslim minority in the Rakhine state came from Chittagong area in Bangladesh and in his opinion should be called “Chittagong Muslims.” “It is difficult for the 135 ethnic groups to accept this word [Rohingya],” he said. As long as Bangladesh does not use this word, it can lead to a better bilateral relationship, he added. Subscribing to the same view, MISIS Chairman Nyunt Maung Shein said there are many areas in bilateral relationship and Bangladesh should set the Rohingya issue aside and focus on other issues. Executive Director of Myanmar Journalism Institute Thiha Saw said in earlier days the word ‘Rohingya’ was used in documents, but it is ridiculous that now they are saying there is no Rohingya. Meanwhile, Rakhine State’s Chief Minister U Nyi Pu in an interview with The Myanmar Times recently said, “It will take more than one five-year term under the NLD-led government to bring the state’s divided Buddhist and Muslim communities together again.” “It is impossible to unite them at once. We will have to do it step by step. So we need to give the process a lot of time. Therefore we cannot say it can be accomplished in our five-year term,” the chief minister said. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Rohingya Muslims started to flee Myanmar in a mass scale in 1978 and again in 1991-92. After a long negotiation and with the help of UNHCR, a deal was sealed and repatriation process started after the 1991-92 influx. In 2012, more Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh during sectarian clashes in the Rakhine State. At present, about two to five lakh Rohingyas are staying in Bangladesh, creating social and security problems for the country. In 2014, during a meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Thant Kyaw in Dhaka, Naypyitaw agreed to take back 2,415 Myanmar nationals for repatriation, but is yet to act on its word. The Myanmar government on 29 March, 2014 banned the word Rohingya and instructed officials to register the minority as Bengalis in the 2014 Myanmar Census. An extremist monk group, commonly known as Ma Ba Tha, protested a US statement on Rohingya and staged a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Yangon last week. According to Myanmar media, the group will hold another protest rally in front of the US embassy today.