Sittwe, Arakan State: The Chief of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres on an official visit to Burma to discuss with the Burmese authorities on the issue of Rohingya boatpeople. The Chief visited Arakan State on March 10, in the afternoon, according to a businessman from Sittwe.
The chief visited Burma on March 7 for six days official visit and will leave on March 12. The UNHCR chief discussed a wide range of issues on Rohingya with the Burmese authorities and met with UNHCR’s partners and beneficiaries in Burma during his trip.
The UN staffs who have been working in northern Arakan were called to Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, before arrival of UN Chief at Sittwe. The refugee Chief met with UN staffs and discussed about the Rohingya matter, said a close aide of army who declined to be named.
The Rohingya people were very happy for hearing of UN refugee chief to be visited to the northern Arakan, but, unfortunately, maybe, the chief was barred or had no time to visit to northern Arakan. Therefore, the native Rohingya people did not able to express their sad experiences under the rule of Burmese military junta to the refugee Chief.
But, the SPDC authorities organized some people to talk with refugee Chief, when the UN Chief visits to the northern Arakan. They especially motivated them (some people) to say that “they are not Rohingyas, they are Bengali”, according to sources from Maungdaw.
On March 9, UN refugee chief traveled to Naypyidaw, Burma's remote capital about and met the junta's ministers in charge of foreign affairs, home affairs, immigration and border areas, the U.N. official said.
The UN refugee agency has expressed concern over the fate of hundreds of Rohingya Muslim migrants who were rescued in Indian and Indonesian waters in recent months claiming to have fled Burma and to have later been abused by Thai authorities, sources said.
Today, the Chief will return to Rangoon before flying to the south of the country where the migrants illegally board boats bound for neighboring countries.
Arakan is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim ethnic group that has made headlines recently following reports hundreds who fled by boat to escape poverty and hardship were mistreated by the Thai military.
Burma does not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group. Rights organizations say they have been harassed since the junta seized power in 1962, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says more than 200,000 live in Bangladesh, effectively stateless.
Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win during the 14th ASEAN Summit in Thailand said Burma does not have a Rohingya minority, but said it agreed to accept the boatpeople if they identify themselves as “Bengalis” born in Burma.
The root cause of this latest exodus from Burma is the junta's treatment of its Muslim minority, especially in Arakan state. The regime refuses to accept that they are Burmese citizens. "In reality, the Rohingya are neither Myanmar people nor Myanmar's ethnic group. And what is more they are” ugly as ogres’, the Burmese consul general in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, wrote in a letter circulated to the press.
