Myanmar FS arrives today to join talks on JWC

Myanmar Foreign Ministry's Permanent Secretary U Kyaw Zeya arrives today (Monday) to participate in the much awaiting dialogue to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) for repatriating Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
Although the formation process of this group is behind the schedule as per the deal signed by the two countries last month in Myanmar, but Foreign Ministry is hopeful about the JWC without drawing any conclusion on some areas.
The official said Ali hoped for an agreement on allowing Rohingyas to return to Myanmar. "Both countries have almost reached an understanding on this issue and there are a few points (still) to be agreed upon ... We hope to reach an agreement."
 "We are hopeful, to be able to form the JWC taking 11-13 members from each country, however, everything would be clear by tomorrow," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer.
Foreign Ministry sources said the JWG would decide four major things (i) fix up the module of the working group, (ii) identification of Myanmar citizenship, (iii) start the process of repatriation and (iv) ensure the engagement of UN Agency in the process.
"We exchanged about 50 letters and proposed  a plan several times with Myanmar to fast-track the draft of the repatriation process but still there are some gray areas, we hope we could be able to reach or draw a conclusion in this regard," the official comments.
Some 507,000 new arrivals of Myanmar's fleeing Rohingyas have been reported as of September 30, including 453,300 new arrivals identified in IOM's Needs and Population Monitoring assessments in four upazilas of Cox's Bazar district.
"The most crucial part of the draft is to verify and accept back those who were settled in Myanmar and fled to Bangladesh after the violence erupted," official said. According to him Myanmar has not given Bangladesh any timeframe to take back the Rohingyas who were forced to flee their homeland in the face of a brutal military offensive in the Rakhine state.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have discussed about the repatriation of the refugees but failed to reach an agreement. Both countries have, however, agreed to halt the mass exodus of the refugees to Bangladesh and restore stability in the Rakhine state to facilitate the repatriation.
The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar daily, said Myanmar Foreign Ministry's Permanent Secretary U Kyaw Zeya told reporters in Nay pyi taw that they would go for a "step by step" process on the repatriation issue although Dhaka wanted it to start as soon as possible.
It also said that the Myanmar government has estimated that it can repatriate about 300 Rohingyas from Bangladesh per day.
"The Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence in Myanmar would be scrutinized under four main principles of a 1992 agreement between the two countries before repatriation," it categorically said.
According to the report, the refugees would be accepted at two checkpoints points in Taungpyo Letwe and Nga Khu Ya villages before resettling them in Maungdaw's Dar Gyi Zar village.
U Myint Kyaing said the Bangladesh government proposed amending parts of the agreement to help the repatriation process but the four main principles of the agreement will not change.
The four main principles states that returnees need evidence of their residence in Myanmar, repatriation must be voluntary, the parents of children born in camps must have lived in Myanmar, and refugees separated from their families need confirmation of this from a Bangladeshi court.
However, the report published in Irrawaddy said there was a huge gap regarding the numbers of people who fled to Bangladesh between the ground survey of Rakhine State government and UN statistics.
"We have nothing to argue on the number [of refugees]. Whatever the number they are saying, we won't accept if they don't have evidence of their residence here," U Myint Kyaing said.
"In 1992, Bangladesh signed a repatriation agreement with the then military regime of Myanmar, following which 236,599 Rohingyas returned to their homeland. But another 2,415 were denied entry even after meeting the criteria under the arrangement…" "There is nothing wrong with the agreement, however, we are going to set something there what we need to discuss," a senior official said.
Last month, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said the previous arrangement will not work now as the current situation is 'entirely different' and verifying Rohingyas based on their residence in Rakhine is not 'realistic' anymore.
However, it refused to involve the international community including the United Nations in the discussions and made Bangladesh to go by the 1992 repatriation agreement for striking a new deal.
"Bangladesh and Myanmar are in the process of negotiation for a bilateral agreement to repatriats displaced people and expect to form a Joint Working Group to facilitate the repatriation, lest we see" said the official.
Meanwhile, Rights groups have raised concerns over the repatriation process, including where the persecuted minority will be resettled since hundreds of their villages have been razed, and how their safety will be ensured in a country with raging anti-Muslim sentiment.