Rohingya MP slams Rakhine inquiry commission report as "unfair"
April 30, 2013
Shwe Maung, a Rohingya member of parliament from Rakhine state, objected to the commission’s terminology, saying that the word “Bengali” fails to reflect reality and people’s sense of their own identity.
“The report is unfair,” he said. “The usage and recommendations are similar to what Rakhine ethnic people have been demanding.”
Immigration officials have begun registering people in the state, as a first step on the road to citizenship. But the debate over terminology is hampering the process, which is already complicated by a lack of access to documents and a history of corruption.
On Friday, authorities registering people in a Muslim refugee camp as Bengali were blocked by a crowd demanding to be recognized as Rohingya. Police fired, injuring at least one person, a 15-year-old boy, according to Shwe Maung.
Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said the injury was an accident and that two people from the camp have been arrested for throwing stones at police.
The issue of citizenship is crucial. Kyaw Yin Hlaing, the commission’s secretary, said the government plans to eventually return Muslims deemed to be citizens to their original homes, if possible, but has yet to decide what to do with non-citizens.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the report “fails to address the need for accountability for ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity that happened in last June and October.”
Doubling the number of security forces “without first ensuring implementation of reforms to end those forces’ impunity is a potential disaster,” he added.
Robertson said family planning initiatives could be problematic if they are not implemented carefully.
“It’s quite chilling to start talking about limiting births of one particular group,” he said. “Will coercive measures get taken on the ground even if the union government says people can take this voluntarily?”
Last week, Human Rights Watch issued the most comprehensive and detailed account yet of what happened in Rakhine state last year. The report accused authorities — including Buddhist monks, local politicians and government officials, and state security forces — of fomenting an organized campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya.
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Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon and Todd Pitman in Bangkok contributed to this report.
