Not a single Rohingya returns to Myanmar: Momen

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said according to Bangladesh record no Rohingya repatriated yet to their land of origin defying Myanmar’s claim over some Rohingya volunteers’ return to Rakhine.

“They (Myanmar) are spreading falsehood everywhere …. As per our record not a single Rohingya went back (to Rohingya),” he told reporters at his office today.

On its facebook page, the Myanmar embassy post claimed 46 displaced persons returned to Myanmar today from Bangladesh on their own volition through Taung Pyo Letwe and Nga Khu Ya Reception Centers.

Momen said the Rohingyas, who have so far been verified by Myanmar authority as their nationals, didn’t get back to Rakhine fearing lack of conducive environment inside Myanmar.

The minister said the foreign ministry will issue a press statement after verifying the Myanmar’s claim of volunteer Rohingya return.

The officials of UNHCR and the RRRC in Cox’s Bazar are not aware of such voluntary return.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh on several occasions proposed Myanmar to invite international media and UN agencies as well as engage non-militant civilians to justify their claim of creating conducive environment for safe, dignified, and voluntary return in Rakhine. “But they never replied regarding our proposal,” he said.

About relocation efforts of Rohingyas to Bhashan Char, the minister didn’t confirm any particular date but said “I’ll be very happy, if they (Rohingyas) go (to Bhashan Char).”

Asked about possible relocation of Rohingyas to Bhashan Char from November 15, the Foreign Minister said he does not have any information on that specific date as he just returned home yesterday after wrapping up his Europe tour.

“It’s good”, he said in a separate briefing at his office.

The foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a long statement asking Nay Pyi Taw to stop the concocted campaign containing “baseless accusation, falsification, and misrepresentation of facts against Bangladesh”.

The statement said with “utter dismay’ Dhaka witnessed persistent campaign on the part of the Myanmar government “to mislead the international community with fabricated and misrepresentation of facts”. It said Myanmar was simultaneously accusing Dhaka of failing to initiate the repatriation process to “avoid its (own) obligations for sustained repatriation and reintegration of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas in safety and dignity”.

The statement came as Myanmar Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin recently accused Bangladesh of mischaracterizing Rohingya crisis as “religious persecution”, “driving an ethnic group out of the country”, “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide”.

In reality, the statement said, the international community made the observations “based on documented evidence, which bear the unmistakable signs of forcible deportation of a community from its ancestral homeland in Rakhine under atrocity crimes on civilian population”.