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Chittagong, Bangladesh: Burma’s Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Brigadier General Phone Swe and Chief of police Brigadier General Khin Yee told that in a meeting on the sidelines of the 3rd Bali Regional Ministerial Conference held on April 14-15, according to UNB, Dhaka.
The SPDC authorities have been campaigning in northern Arakan since last month to establish Bengali people in stead of Rohingya people. Local people are in panic that the authority concerned will coerce them to say Bengali in placed of Rohingya, said a Businessman from Maungdaw.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni refuted the claim of Burma’s authorities’ that Rohingyas were not an ethnic entity of Burma. Dr. Dipu said Rohingyas were in Burma for centuries and many Rohingyas even held high posts in the government of Burma.
Previous repatriation of quite a few hundred thousand Rohingyas and acceptance of list of further 28,000 Rohingyas proved that they were very much part of the population of Burma, Dr. Dipu Moni added.
Dr. Dipu Moni attended the conference held in Bali from April 14 to 15. It was co-chaired by Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith MP and Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr. N Hassan Wirajuda.
In the conference, she mentioned that the Bali Process had earned respect for its specific emphasis on the suffering of the victims of smuggling and trafficking in persons---a disproportionate number of which were women and children.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister also expressed its readiness to extend assistance to Burma for early repatriation of the remaining Rohingya refugees to their homeland and Burma must take back its own people she said at the meeting of the 3rd Bali Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and Related Transitional Crimes.
She also stressed multilateral approach by the countries of the region to solve the Rohingya problem.
The Bali meeting was attending by 41 Asia–Pacific country members, 19 observing countries and 13 international organizations along with three Australian ministers. Its aims are: People smuggling, trafficking and related transitional crimes.
The Deputy Home minister Phone Swe accompanied by a Rohingya delegation, made up of seven members, arrived in Maungadw on March 31, from Rangoon. The Burmese ruling junta has been in recent times trying to establish the nomenclature “Bengali people” in Arakan in place of “Rohingya people” through some pro-junta Rohingya leaders. These leaders are being given some facilities or are being threatened indirectly. They held meeting with local people and took Video camera, and maybe, it would be shown in Bali meeting, said a local elder.
