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Junta to take Rohingya back
The Myanmar junta have relented from their stand on the Rohingya boat people and are willing to work to solve the problem that has affected three countries in Southeast Asia, said officials from ASEAN countries
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The Myanmar junta have relented from their stand on the Rohingya boat people and are willing to work to solve the problem that has affected three countries in Southeast Asia, said officials from ASEAN countries.
The junta said earlier that they did not acknowledge Rohingya people as one of Myanmars' hundreds of ethnic groups and would "take measures" concerning reports of recent flows of refugees to Thailand and Indonesia.Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Myanmar were now willing to take back Rohingya, which they referred to as Bangladeshis, if a verification team later found that they came from Myanmar.
"In our informal discussion last night, Myanmar has acknowledged that in their northern province of Arakan, Rohingya people have lived for many generations. They refer to those Rohingya as Bangladeshis, who have settled in areas of Myanmar. If there is evidence that these people *Rohingya boat people in Thailand and Indonesia* are from their state, then Myanmar is willing to take them back," said Hassan.
All affected countries have agreed to bring the discussion on Rohingya to the multilateral forum of the Bali Process in April. The Bali Process is a 2002 initiative that aimed to increase cooperation among countries in the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific regions.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on Friday that the Myanmar authorities would work together with the ASEAN Secretariat to clear the status of hundreds of Rohingya boat people in Thailand and Indonesia.
Thousands of the Rohingya have fled Myanmar to a number of Southeast Asian countries reportedly to escape persecution from the military junta, only to find themselves being towed back to the sea by the Thai military.
"We are going to define the issue with Myanmar authorities about who these people are, how to refer to them and how to categorize them and how many of them there are and how we can help them," he said. "First of all, we need to know how many of them there are and where they really come from before we come to any decisions," he said.
He said the work would begin soon and he was yet to set a target for when the process could be concluded.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government would like to see Myanmar "share responsibility" with the other affected countries and be engaged more in the process of solving the plight of hundreds of the refugees in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
"We want the Rohingya to be returned to where they come from and the process will follow the procedure established by international standards. The Thai government has received many criticisms over the *treatment of* Rohingya people and what we are looking for is that all affected countries share the responsibility for their plight," said Abhisit in Thai.
Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the Bangkok Post on Thursday that the government would turn back Rohingya boat people if they tried to come to Malaysia.
"We have to be firm at all bor-ders. We have to turn them back," Abdullah said.
Malaysia has become the home of thousands of Rohingya in the past decades with the number being registered by the government reaching 14,300.- JP/Lilian Budianto
