Chinese special envoy pays 'secret' visit to Dhaka

Chinese Asia affairs special envoy Deng Xijun has 'secretly' visited Dhaka this time too and discussed about the repatriation of Rohingyas.

During the discussion, he laid an emphasis on starting repatriation of Rohingyas with 1176 people under a pilot project.  

The Chinese special envoy on Monday held separate meetings with foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen.

Diplomatic sources in Dhaka and Beijing confirmed the visit of special envoy to Prothom Alo. Deng Xijun on Sunday arrived in Dhaka on a three-day visit.

Preferring not to be named, a foreign ministry official said the Chinese envoy first held a meeting with foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen at the state guest house Padma.

Later, he made a courtesy call on foreign minister AK Abdul Momen at the Foreign Service Academy in the afternoon. Alongside bilateral relations, the Rohingya issue prominently came up for discussion during both of the meetings.

Myanmar government mouthpiece New Global Light said the Chinese special envoy on Friday met Myanmar military ruler senior General Min Aung Hlaing. During the meeting, they discussed Chinese cooperation in maintaining peace and stability in Myanmar and about the preparation of Rohingyas who left Rakhine.

A government website of Myanmar said Chinese envoy Deng Xijun on Friday met Ko Ko Hlaing, Myanmar minister for international cooperation.

During the meeting, alongside other issues, he discussed providing assistance for implementing the plan of repatriation of Rohingya people who were evicted from Rakhine.

About the meeting with the Bangladesh foreign minister and foreign secretary, officials, who attended the meetings, said the Chinese special envoy discussed the beginning of Rohingya repatriation under the tripartite initiative. He said Myanmar is interested in repatriation, the officials added.

Saying that Bangladesh is also interested in starting Rohingya repatriation, diplomatic sources said Bangladesh has not backtracked from its policy to send Rohingyas to Rakhine, who want to voluntarily go there.

Bangladesh expects let Rohingyas repatriate maintaining this policy. So Myanmar has to restore favourable environment in Rakhine to make Rohingya repatriation voluntary, safe and sustainable.

During yesterday's discussion, the Chinese envoy admitted the repatriation has to be favourable and voluntary. After the end of the rainy season, the repatriation has to be begun taking all the parties into consideration.

Bangladesh officials said the repatriation has to be started immediately as there is no reason to wait for repatriation year after year.

Rohingyas have visited Rakhine after six years. At the beginning the visiting team was interested in repatriation, later they declined to return.

Western quarters are also opposing repatriation initiated by China. Under such circumstances, Bangladesh is planning to cautiously start repatriation any time of this year.

This special Chinese envoy came to Dhaka three months ago.

In the beginning of April, he discussed starting repatriation with 1,176 Rohingyas under a pilot project.

He held a tripartite meeting with representatives from Bangladesh and Myanmar in Kunming and emphasised to start repatriation soon.

As per the expectation of China, the repatriation could not be started as Rohingyas were not interested to return Rakhine as there the environment is not conducive to return.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print and online editions, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam.