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Myanmar, Bangladesh to coordinate repatriation of Rohingya
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DHAKA • A senior Myanmar minister has proposed taking back the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled across the border after a military crackdown, Bangladesh said, but gave no details of how the huge task could be achieved.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister A. H. Mahmood Ali yesterday held talks in Dhaka with a representative of Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Minister of the Office of State Counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe, and said the two countries had agreed to set up a working group to coordinate the repatriation of the Rohingya.
"The talks were held in a friendly atmosphere and Myanmar has made a proposal to take back the Rohingya refugees," Mr Ali told reporters.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has been severely criticised for her failure to curb the military crackdown on the Rohingya, had said in a speech last month that Myanmar would take back "verified" refugees.
This would be done according to the criteria set by the two countries in 1993, when tens of thousands of Rohingya were repatriated, she said.
Mr Ali gave no timeframe for repatriation and did not say whether Myanmar would also take back the 300,000 Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh during earlier violence.
He said the refugees would be verified by the joint working group, with the United Nations not involved.
There was no immediate comment from Mr Swe, Ms Suu Kyi's representative.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, do not qualify for Myanmar citizenship.
It remains unclear where the Rohingya would go if they were to return, since many of their villages have been torched. In a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed creating UN-supervised safe zones inside Myanmar to protect them.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE