Rohingya repatriation to delay

The repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar has been delayed as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior official at Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
He said the repatriation process, set to begin on Tuesday (today), could be started from the first week of February.
 "The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared. Their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining." the official added.
Some tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of lack of security guarantees. However, the Right Groups and the UN have also raised their voice demanding safe return of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
"Bangladesh will not force the Rohingya refugees to go back to Myanmar, It will be voluntary. In all of our documents, which Bangladesh and Myanmar signed, we have mentioned that it will be a voluntary return. We'll not force them to go back," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told the envoys stationed in Dhaka on Sunday.
But he would not give a specific date about the return of the first batch for the Rakhine State as the government does not want to draw media criticism if the deadline is missed.
Earlier, Myanmar agreed to receive the Rohingya refugees at two reception centres and a temporary camp near its border with Bangladesh over a two-year period starting Tuesday (today). The authorities have said repatriations will be voluntary.
Abul Kalam, Bangladesh's refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said on Monday that the return would have to be delayed. "There are many things remaining, the list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining," he told the media.
More than 655,500 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a crackdown by the Myanmar military in the northern part of Rakhine state in response to militant attacks on security forces on August 25. The United Nations described the military operation as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.
Meanwhile, Rohingya leaders in a Bangladesh refugee camp have drawn up a list of demands they want Myanmar to meet before authorities begin sending back hundreds of thousands in a repatriation process expected to begin next week and last for two years.
It is observed that the petition is the latest indication of the challenges ahead for Bangladesh and Myanmar as they try to engineer the return of refugees who fear continued military operations in Rakhine State and are dismayed about the prospect of a prolonged stay in "temporary camps" in Myanmar when they go back, according to The Burma Times.
The petition, which has still to be finalised, demanded the Myanmar government publicly announce it is giving Rohingya long-denied citizenship and inclusion on a list of the country's recognized ethnic groups. It asks that land once occupied by the refugees be returned to them and their homes, mosques and schools rebuilt.
It wants the military held accountable for alleged killings, looting and rape, and the release from jails of "innocent Rohingya" picked up in counter-insurgency operations.
It also wants Myanmar to stop listing people with their photographs as "terrorists" in state media and on government Facebook pages, the newspaper said.
Myanmar state newspapers this week issued a supplement listing the names and photos of alleged members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), whose attacks on security posts on August. 25 triggered a sweeping counter-insurgency operation, according to the Burma Times.
On January 16, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on 'Physical Arrangement' which will facilitate return of Rohingays to their homeland from Bangladesh.