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Bali process failed to solve Rohingya boatpeople issue: AI |
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by Salai Pi Pi
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Friday, 17 April 2009 00:23 |
New Delhi (Mizzima) – A two-day meeting of leaders from regional countries held in Bali, Indonesia, was unable to produce any concrete solution concerning the plight of Rohingya boatpeople, stranded on the coasts of Thailand, India and Indonesia.
Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher for Amnesty International, said the Burmese junta’s refusal to accept Rohingya as citizens of Burma made it difficult to come up with a concrete solution for the boatpeople during the Bali process.
“An obstacle for the summit in producing a sustainable means to resolve the problem was the position taken by Myanmar [Burma] regarding the Rohingya people,” he commented.
Police Chief Khin Yi, representing Burma’s military government at the meeting, gave notice that his government refused to accept Rohingya as citizens of Burma and denied allegations that the ruling junta is suppressing them.
While welcoming Burma’s willingness to talk about Rohingya issues, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, in an interview with ‘The Sydney Morning Herald ', said Burma’s refusal to recognize Rohingya as citizens and the denial of oppressing them made it challenging for regional leaders to come up with a solution.
According to the website for the Australian Foreign Ministry, regional leaders from Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh discussed with Burma’s delegate on the issue of Rohingya boatpeople over breakfast at the summit.
“The representative from Burma indicated they were prepared to sit down and talk with Indonesia about the Rohingya people. There are currently some 300 to 400 in Aceh province [Indonesia]. He said Burma is willing to sit down and go through the situation with Indonesia and the UNHCR, regarding the verification processes for refugee status and the like,” Steven Smith is quoted as saying by the website.
But Chris Lewa, an expert on the Rohingya issue and director of the Bangkok-based Arakan project, said the Bali process was ineffective in addressing the root causes of why Rohingya flee Burma, with regional leaders instead trying to find a way to push them back to Burma.
“It is very likely that the regional leaders tried to find a way for Burma to accept the Rohingya people back to the country,” Lewa said.
But she added that repatriating the boatpeople would not be the best solution and should not be done unless the Burmese regime lifts restrictions on the Rohingya community in northern Arakan state in western Burma.
“As long as the situation is not normal and until restrictions are lifted for Rohingya, I don’t think repatriation should be considered,” she remarked.
The issue of Rohingya boatpeople came under the spotlight in recent months after reports emerged last December and January that several hundred Rohingya boatpeople were rescued from seas off Thailand, India’s Andaman Islands and Indonesia’s Aceh province.
According to survivors, the Thai Navy arrested them and, after briefly detaining them, sent them back into the sea on boats with no engines. However, Thailand has officially denied the allegations.
An official at the Thai Ministry for Foreign Affairs told Mizzima last month that Thailand would take up the issue at the Bali Process Ministerial Meeting to be held on April 14-15 in Indonesia, under the framework of ASEAN, in which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would also participate.
Leaders of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, during their 14th summit earlier this year, also decided that the issue of Rohingya boatpeople is of regional concern and agreed to bring it under the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking and Related Transnational Crime, that was launched in 2002 in the hope addressing the issues though regional cooperation.
Although the Burmese military government says Burma does not have a Rohingya minority, it agrees to cooperate with Thailand and accept the boatpeople if they identify themselves as “Bengalis” born in Burma, as opposed to Rohingya.
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