US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat has backed the Rohingya verification criteria based on principles agreed between Bangladesh and Myanmar in 1992 when the two countries inked an agreement for return of the persecuted Muslim-majority people.
According to her, the 1992 deal of Rohingya repatriation can have additional characteristics considering the changed situation.
“It is the two governments to decide,” she told a local online newspaper on the sidelines of an event in Dhaka on Saturday, after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier spoke to Myanmar's army chief over phone.
Tillerson had urged the army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, allowing safe return of ethnic Rohingyas, according to the 1992 Joint Statement with Bangladesh and 'without further conditions'.
Bangladesh, earlier, pointed to the changed situation and said the 1992 rules would “not be realistic” now.
According to a bdnews24.com report, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said the 1992 agreement can serve as the ‘principal base’ of repatriation discussions.
“Obviously things have changed since 1992,” Bernicat said. “It’s a good start because there was an agreement actually made. Obviously, the agreement of the 2017 will inevitably have additional different characteristics,” she said, adding that the US was ready to help the two governments like other international community.
“We are all very hopeful,” she said, given the fact that in the last one month there had been exchange visits by the ministers of two countries and both are working on forming a joint working group.
Speaking at the launch of an anti-TB campaign, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim lauded the US response to the Rohingya crisis.
Bernicat thanked the Health Minister and said the US would “continue to exert pressure on Myanmar”.
“We believe, like Bangladesh, the problem lies back in Burma itself,” she said.
She said Tillerson’s phone call “proved that we are continuing our efforts”.
Bernicat said they were focusing on the problem and putting pressure on Myanmar and urging the government and the army to do the right thing and bring the refugees back in a “safe and secure manner”.
She said the international community have interest to resolve the crisis in a way that “restores Rohingyas’ dignity and ability to live in that country where they born and where their ancestors were born.”
Over half a million Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh since Aug 25 to escape a violent crackdown in what the UN has described as ‘ethnic cleansing’.
Around 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have already been living in Bangladesh for decades.
Amid international pressure, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a statement on Sept 19 said her country is ready to take back their nationals after verification.
She said the verification criteria will be based on principles agreed to earlier in 1992 when the two countries inked an agreement based on which Myanmar took back nearly 250,000 Rohingyas as members of its society.
The online newspaper earlier saw the text of the 1992 agreement, article IV of which mentioned the criteria on how to verify them.
At that time, the Myanmar government agreed to repatriate in batches all persons “carrying Myanmar citizenship identity cards/national registration cards, those able to present any other documents issued by relevant Myanmar authorities and all those persons able to furnish evidence of their residence in Myanmar, such as addresses or any other relevant particulars”.
The Myanmar government in a spirit of “cooperation” agreed to accept after scrutiny all those people who took shelter in Bangladesh and whose presence had been “recorded through Refugee registration cards” issued by the government of Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said around half of the Muslim villages in the northern Rakhine State have been burned down, so the identification of Rohingyas based on their residence in Rakhine would not be realistic.
A diplomat who visited Rohingya refugee camps last month also told bdnews24.com that “it is unlikely that they hold any card issued by Burmese authorities”.
Bangladesh started biometric registration of the newly arrived Rohingyas, a process that the UN refugee agency UNHCR said would eventually help refugees “exercise the right to return when the time is right”.
