Myanmar special envoy arrives

The Bangladesh government is likely to reiterate its demand to Myanmar’s special envoy today asking to take back its citizens. 
Myanmar’s special envoy Kyaw Tin, who is minister of state for foreign affairs of the country, arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday on a three-day official visit. 
He is scheduled to hold a formal meeting with Bangladesh side led by foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque this morning. He will separately call on prime minister Sheikh Hasina and foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali. 
Bangladesh side will tell the envoy to ‘take Myanmar citizens back’ to their home in Rakhine State, an official said. 
At least 65,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, a third of them over the past week, since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in the north of Rakhine state, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN said on Monday.
In a diplomatic memorandum handed over to Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka, Myo Myint, on December 29, 2016, Bangladesh demanded repatriation of about 50,000 Myanmar citizens who had entered into the country since October 9, 2016.
Myanmar has also been constantly asked to take back about 3,00,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals and about 33,000 registered refugees staying in Bangladesh for years. 
Officials believe that there is significant uncertainty about willingness of the Myanmar authorities to create an environment so that the Rohingya refugees could go back.
Myanmar has a plan to take back only 2,415 Myanmar citizens in 2017, said Kyaw Zaya, director general of Myanmar’s foreign affairs ministry, Reuters reported on December 30, 2016. 
Bangladesh officials said that Myanmar was yet to formally convey its willingness to take back 2,415 Myanmar citizens.
Asked about Myanmar’s plan to take back 2,415 of its citizens, a senior official said they should begin with taking back about 33,000 registered refugees. 
The exodus of Rohingyas from northern Rakhine began after Myanmar’s army launched ‘clearance operations’ while searching for ‘insurgents’ behind deadly raids on police border posts in last October.
Escapees from the persecuted Muslim minority have given harrowing accounts of security forces committing mass rape, murder and arson. 
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina sent foreign secretary Shahidul Haque as her special envoy to Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in June last year for conveying Bangladesh’s intent for improving bilateral relations with the country, in general, and Suu Kyi’s government, in particular.

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