Lifestyle
How sincere is Myanmar this time?.

How sincere is Myanmar this time?

Lifestyle

The fact that Myanmar has agreed to start taking back Rohingya's beginning mid-November could mark a turning point for Bangladesh whose past experience with the neighboring country has been far from pleasant. During the course of the last one year, Myanmar's actions, or a lack thereof, have led us to cast doubt on the sincerity of their commitment to the repatriation process. But we believe the latest development is a positive one. This time both the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary and Permanent Secretary of Myanmar Foreign Ministry have stated that Myanmar has the necessary political will which is quite encouraging.

Last month, the Bangladesh foreign minister said that the village-wise verification of 8,000 Rohingya's had been completed. The verification process—a joint exercise of the UNHCR and the Bangladesh government—is key to establishing the legal identity of Rohingya's and could go a long way in helping the persecuted minority exercise their right to voluntary return. We understand that this is a herculean task given the sheer number of Rohingyas who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. But we would like to see the expansion of the verification process so that greater numbers of Rohingya's have legal grounds to establish that they have been displaced. For this, both the UNHCR and the Bangladesh government would have to dedicate more resources and manpower to their joint exercise.

We hope Myanmar would demonstrate its political will, which they want us to believe they have, by conducting the repatriation process in a timely manner and not bring up newer issues to blunt the repatriation process, as they have been wont to do in the past.