Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 18:20:49 PST
From:         Coban Tun <tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU>
Subject:      burma says it will take back all moslem refugees

Subject: Burma says it will take back all moslem refugees

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              THE REUTER BUSINESS REPORT
                THURSDAY, JAN. 7, 1993
                EDITOR: RICHARD SATRAN
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RTw  01/07 1344  BURMA SAYS IT WILL TAKE BACK ALL MOSLEM REFUGEES

    By Atiqul Alam
    PINPYU, Burma, Jan 7, Reuter - Burma on Thursday set out to show it was safe
for all members of its Moslem minority who had fled to Bangladesh to come home
and that fears among the refugees were unjustified.
    "We are ready to welcome each and everybody," said Than Ayi, director of
west Burma's immigration authorities.
    "Nobody can better ensure their peace and safety than we do. And take our
word for it that they will stay here peacefully and as full citizens of this
country," he told journalists in the run-down Burmese village of Pinpyu, in a
Moslem-populated area.
    He said the government had opened five reception centres in areas from which
the Moslems, called Rohingyas, had fled to Bangladesh over the past 18 months.
    Each Rohingya, he said, was given nationality certificates on arrival,
food for 10 days and materials to build homes.
    Some 288,000 Rohingyas went to Bangladesh, alleging persecution by the
Burmese military.
    Journalists met Rohingyas who said there was a new mood and it was safe to
return.
    "Everybody is so hospitable and friendly," said returnee Abul Khair, as he
embraced an immigration official.
    "If this attitude remains, they will return in droves," the 60-year-old
farmer, who returned two weeks ago, said.
    Village chieftain Saled Ahmed, a rich farmer and one of thousands of Moslems
who did not flee, said the area was calm and a new mosque had been built there
in the last six months.
    Ahmed said most members of the minority who had gone to Bangladesh were
poor people looking for work.
    More than 8,500 refugees have returned since repatriation began last
September under an agreement signed in April by Dhaka and Rangoon.
    But the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last month
said it had evidence some of them were coerced into returning and distanced
itself from the programme.
    A Western diplomat said Dhaka should try to get the UNHCR involved again.
"There is a question of credibility involved, which Bangladesh would not get if
it wanted to go it alone," said the diplomat, who asked not be identifed.
    Rohyingyas interviewed by journalists said they had returned voluntarily.
    "I went away on my own and have returned on my own. I took nobody's advice,"
said Mohammad Sobhan, 42, a day labourer, who monitored radio broadcasts to
decide when he could come home.
    "Apart from monitoring, I took my final decision to come when I got the
feedback that a group of 120 people who left the Bangladeshi camps 10 days
earlier than me were all well settled in Buthidong area," he said.
    Burma refuses to permit the UNHCR to monitor repatriation, although many
Rohingyas insist on this before they will return.
    "As far as we are concerned, we don't see any role for them," Immigration
chief Than Ayi said.
    A local school teacher, who asked not to be identified, said Burma's
attitude towards the Moslems had changed.
    "There were discriminations between majority and minority, some elements
of torture," the teacher told Reuters.
    "But those phenomena are a thing of the past. There has been a sea-change in
the Burmese attitude. And we have reasons to believe it is going to last," he
said.
    "We know there had been lot of international pressures. Burma is already
isolated. Perhaps it has realised its mistake, that too much isolation harms
the country," he said.
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