Bangladesh has reportedly been urged by Myanmar on Thursday to arrest and extradite more than 1,300 Rohingyas suspected to be involved in a rebel assault on government checkpoints in Rakhine state of Myanmar in August, 2017.
It may be mentioned that the rebel assault on government checkpoints in Rakhine state on August 25 last year led to a violent army operation in Myanmar against the alleged insurgents. The Myanmar army operation created a major humanitarian crisis as following which at least 6,50,000 people mostly belonging to the Rohingya Muslim community fled to the Bangladesh territory.
The massive crackdown on the Rohingyas incident also drew condemnations from different parts of the globe. The United States and the United Nations also criticised the ‘inhuman’ act of the Myanmar military. The UN condemned the army’s campaign and termed it as ‘ethnic cleansing’. Human rights organisations also accused the Myanmar soldiers of committing rapes, murders and razing Rohingya villages.
As per Efe news reports, the Information Committee of the Myanmar State Counsellor Office led by the Nobel Peace laureate and the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi published photographs of the alleged members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). According to the Information Committee, the Foreign Affairs Ministry—also led by Suu Kyi—made the demand to its Bangladeshi counterpart during a bilateral meeting held in Naypyidaw in mid-November.
However, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on a repatriation process for the Rohingya refugees who arrived in Bangladesh after the August violence. The repatriation process is expected to start next week.
But a number of humanitarian organisations have denounced the agreement on the grounds that conditions are not yet safe enough for the Rohingyas to return to Myanmar where some recent refugee arrivals have reported that the attacks were still going on in Myanmar.