Bangladesh, Myanmar, China tripartite talks on Rohingya issue Tuesday

Bangladesh, Myanmar and China will hold a virtual tripartite meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to expedite the Rohingya repatriation process.

Rohingya repatriation talks between Dhaka and Naypyitaw remained halted for nearly a year due to COVID-19 pandemic and general elections in Myanmar.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen will lead the Bangladesh delegation in the meeting scheduled to begin at 2pm (local time). Vice Minister of China Luo Zhaohui will join from Beijing with Bangladesh and Myanmar delegations, said a senior official.

The international community finds the repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar as the only solution to the crisis. Bangladesh wants to begin repatriation as soon as possible.

Bangladesh and China will share their ideas with Myanmar in the meeting to expedite the repatriation process.

Myanmar lacks seriousness

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen had said Bangladesh that Dhaka handed over a list of 840,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification.

“Myanmar has verified very few people. They’re very slow. They’ve verified only 42,000 people. There’s a serious lack of seriousness,” he said.

Dr Momen said they are doing their part but Myanmar is not.

He said he is always hopeful of beginning repatriation as history shows Myanmar taking back their nationals in 1978 and 1992.

Rohingya crisis

Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingyas as its citizens despite having lived in the country for generations and state-sponsored discriminations against them stretches back decades.

Many Rohingyas are deprived of basic rights and are forced to live in squalid camps in apartheid-like situation.

In late August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive targeting the mainly-Muslim ethnic minority in the pretext of “clearance operations”.

But Fortify Rights, in a report in July 2018, said the Myanmar authorities made “extensive and systematic preparations” for attacks against Rohingya civilians during the weeks and months before militants attacked police on August 25, 2017.

They “targeted, killed, and raped” Rohingyas and burned their villages, as the United Nations, Refugees International, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the US State Department itself, and many others have documented.

Over 800,000 Rohingyas fled the “genocidal violence” and Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas.

Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh looking for a solution

Bangladesh is trying in multiple ways – bilaterally, multilaterally, tri-laterally and through the judicial system – to find a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis.

Bangladesh says Rohingyas will “jeopardise regional and international security” if they are left unattended and not given the opportunity to return to their homeland.

Repatriation attempts failed twice in November 2018 and August 2019 amid Rohingyas’ “lack of trust” in the Myanmar government.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed the repatriation deal on November 23, 2017.

On January 16, 2018, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on “Physical Arrangement”, which was supposed to facilitate the return of Rohingyas to their homeland.