Myanmar minister visits Dhaka as ICC probes Rohingya killing
Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement Win Myat Aye arrives in Bangladesh on Wednesday to visit his country's Rohingya Muslims in Cox's Bazar and hold talks with officials in Dhaka.
The visit takes places at a time when the chief prosecutor of International Criminal Court Fatou Bom Bensouda has appealed for investigation into the forced exodus of the Rohingya population from Myanmar's Rakhine state.
The minister will visit Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar five days after the Rakhine state parliament approved a proposal to urge the union government not to resettle non-citizen Muslim refugees in southern the Maungdaw township.
The Myanmar minister, Win Myat Aye,, during the visit, will meet foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and also visit Rohingya camps along with other diplomats. He will speak to the Rohingyas who are listed for repatriation.
On Monday, the minister told Myanmar Times that during his visit to Bangladesh, he will speak to Rohingyas, humanitarian workers and the government officials about the repatriation.
“The rainy season is approaching. We want this process to move fast. I will meet with families residing in the camps and pass on a message that our side is ready for repatriation,” he was quoted by the Myanmar Times as saying.
However, diplomatic sources in Dhaka and Yangoon told Prothom Alo that Myanmar is still trying to delay the repatriation process.
They said that the 'people' in Rakhine state are opposing Rohingya repatriation and at the same time they have sent a cabinet minister to show that they are sincere about solving the problem.
ICC chief prosecutor’s appeal for ruling
The chief prosecutor for International Criminal Court Fatou Bom Bensouda has expressed her interest in investigating the forced exodus of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims. On Monday, she appealed to the ICC judges to rule whether the court has jurisdiction over the forceful displacement of Rohingyas from Myanmar.
Bensouda said that "consistent and credible reports ... indicate that since August 2017 more than 670,000 Rohingya, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh."
When she was asked whether the ICC has jurisdiction, she said: "This is not an abstract question but a concrete one, affecting whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute.”
However, there are doubts over the jurisdiction because while Bangladesh is a member of the court, Myanmar is not.
Rakhine state parliament proposal
The Rakhine state parliament on Friday approved a proposal to urge the union government not to resettle non-citizen Muslim refugees in southern Maungdaw township, Myanmar’s newspaper the Irrawaddy reported.
The report said that lawmaker U Tun Aung Thein, of Buthidaung township, introduced the proposal to parliament on Tuesday. Aung Thein said that he introduced the proposal “in consideration of national sovereignty, the security of the area’s mostly Buddhist ethnic Arakanese, and the rule of law”.
The Irrawaddy report said that lawmakers discussed U Tun Aung Thein’s proposal on Friday and approved it after there were no objections.
“The minority Arakanese people and other tribes have fled their homes because of overwhelming fears. The whole area has fallen to the hands of non-Myanmar citizens,” U Tun Aung Thein was quoted as saying in the report.
“Under such circumstances, resettlement of non-citizens in southern Maungdaw can harm sovereignty in the future. Locals have also released statements against resettlement of Bengalis in southern Maungdaw, and we must heed their desires,” he added.