Rohingya Crisis Talks: Myanmar team due today

A Myanmar delegation is coming to Dhaka tonight to discuss repatriation of the refugees who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Rakhine State.

The delegation led by a minister of Myanmar's State Counsellor Office, U Kyaw Tint Swe, would hold a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at 10:00am tomorrow, foreign ministry officials told The Daily Star.

The delegation would discuss the means of carrying out "repatriation of thousands of Muslim refugees as fast as possible based on the 1993 Myanmar-Bangladesh agreement", Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye told The Myanmar Times.

Bangladesh has renewed its demand for repatriation of all the Rohingyas, who would be more than 9,00,000, including those who entered Bangladesh since August 25.

Win Myat Aye also told the Myanmarese daily that the repatriation would be based on the 1993 joint statement between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

As per the statement, Myanmar agreed to take measures to halt the outflow of refugees to Bangladesh, and to accept, after scrutiny, all those carrying Myanmar identity cards and those able to present "other documents issued by relevant Myanmar authorities" and "all those able to furnish evidence of their residence in Myanmar" and "all those willing to return to Myanmar".

"The repatriation would begin after an agreement is reached during the discussion between the two countries," said Win Myat Aye.

According to Myanmar's Implementation Committee for Recommendations on Rakhine State, two places have been designated -- Taungpyo Letwe and Ngakhuya villages -- to receive the refugees.

The committee said the refugees who would be repatriated through land route would be received at Taungpyo Letwe and those passing through the rivers would be received at Ngakhuya.

The committee reportedly estimated to spend 2 billion Burmese kyat (Tk 12.02 crore) for the repatriation process and planned resettlement of the refugees at Dar Gyizar village, about 20km from Maungdaw township.

"There are many things to negotiate with regards to the security situation before repatriation," said Win Myat Aye, who also chairs the committee.

"We will repatriate all of the refugees whose identity we can verify based on the 1993 agreement."

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who faced mounting criticism over the "ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas", has recently said they need "to seek advice of UN-Habitat so as to include sustainable development aspects in the resettlement programme for the affected community" with regards of repatriation.

She said rehabilitation and resettlement programmes should not only be for the Muslims but for the Rakhines and other minorities, including the Hindus, who fled their homes.