BURMA and Bangladesh have signed an agreement covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence in Burma’s Rakhine state.
Burma announced the agreement today but provided no details on how many Rohingya refugees would be allowed to return home or how soon that might happen.
More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled from Burma into Bangladesh since August 25, when the army began “clearance operations” following an attack on police posts by a group of Rohingya insurgents.
The office of Burma’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the agreement “on the return of displaced persons from Rakhine state” was signed in Naypyitaw, Burma’s capital.
Ms Suu Kyi’s office said the pact follows a formula set in a 1992 repatriation agreement between the two nations after an earlier spasm of violence. Under that agreement, Rohingya were required to present residency documents, which few have, before being allowed to return to Burma.
It comes as the UN envoy on sexual violence said the widespread atrocities perpetrated by Burma’s military may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidew.
Parmila Patten said widespread use of sexual violence “was a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group”.
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