Planned return of Rohingya to Myanmar requires monitors, rights groups say

YANGON – International agencies must be allowed to monitor the newly agreed-on repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh to the homes they fled in Myanmar, rights groups said on Friday.

The two governments signed a pact late Thursday settling terms for the repatriation process. They aim to start the return of Rohingya in two months from the sprawling refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh over the past three months.

Bill Frelick, director of refugee rights at Human Rights Watch, said, “The idea that Burma will now welcome them back to their smoldering villages with open arms is laughable,” using the former name for Myanmar. “Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages.”

More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military launched a brutal counterinsurgency in their villages across northern parts of Rakhine state following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25.

The United Nations and United States have described the military’s actions as “ethnic cleansing,” and rights groups have accused security forces of atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings.

While Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said repatriation of the largely stateless Muslim minority would be based on residency and would be “safe and voluntary,” there are concerns that the military could be obstructive.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh said a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare the way for the return of the Rohingya.

But it gave scant details about the criteria of return and of what role, if any, the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, could play

“It is standard practice in voluntary repatriation operations that UNHCR would be involved to ensure international standards are met for any type of return agreement,” said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic. “We haven’t seen the paper.”

Rights watchers said other important points that were not addressed in the statements released separately by the two governments included the protection of Rohingya against further violence, a path to resolving their legal status and whether they would be allowed to return to their own homes.

Charmain Mohamed, Amnesty International’s director for refugee and migrant rights, said the U.N. and international community “have been completely sidelined” and the talk of return is “premature” as long as the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh continues.

Driven out of Myanmar predominantly by chaos, starvation and fear, hundreds continue to pour daily into Bangladesh, humanitarian workers say. While the violence has mostly ceased, Rohingya say they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets.

“We will go back if they don’t harass us and if we can live life like the Buddhists and other ethnic groups. Our educated children should get government jobs like the others,” said Sayer Hussein, 55, who arrived in Bangladesh two months ago.

Thousands of Rohingya, mainly old people, women and children, are still stranded on beaches, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh.

Some independent estimates suggest there could still be a few hundred thousand Rohingya in Rakhine.

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