DHAKA, Oct 25, 2017 (BSS) – Myanmar’s de’ facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi today said her country was set to start a process to repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh as home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal met her at Naypyidaw a day after the countries agreed to cooperate each other for their return home in a meeting, officials said today.
“Myanmar government has started works of repatriation of Rohingya people, who entered to Bangladesh illegally,” a Bangladesh home ministry official familiar with the talks quoted
Suu Kyi as telling Kamal in the Myanmar capital.
The Myanmar leader, he said, assured Kamal of simultaneously starting the implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission report in line with the demands of Bangladesh and the international community.
Home ministry’s information officer Sharif Mahmud Apu, who is accompanying the minister in Myanmar, said Kamal also cautioned Suu Kyi that unless they were repatriated the Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh could get involved in terroristic activities which would not be a good situation for either of the countries.
He, however, said, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared “zero tolerance” against any sort of terrorism and pledged not to allow them to stay on Bangladesh soil.
Kamal also apprised Suu Kyi of the Yaba smuggling from her country was causing a frightening impact on Bangladesh, while the Myanmar leader reassured him of taking measures to stop it.
Kamal’s talks with the Myanmar State Counsellor came a day after Naypyidaw agreed to “to halt the outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh,” and “to form a joint working group” in a meeting with a high level Bangladesh delegation which he leads.
Myanmar’s home affairs minister lieutenant general Kyaw Swe led the meeting on Burmese side while the two countries also agreed to take steps to boost border security as relations between the neighbors have been strained by the continuing flow of refugees into Bangladesh.
In the yesterday’s meeting between the two home ministers Bangladesh and Myanmar signed two agreements covering security and border cooperation.
“After joint working group, the verification, (the) two countries have agreed to arrange different steps so that these people can return to their homeland safely and honourably and in secure conditions,” bangladesh home ministry’s public security division secretary ostafa Kamal Uddin earlier told a briefing in Naypyidaw.
A Myanmar official told foreign news agencies there that the two countries agreed “to restore normalcy in Rakhine to enable displaced Myanmar residents to return from Bangladesh at the earliest opportunity”.