Burma sets condition for accepting Rohingya migrants
by Usa Pichai
Friday, 27 February 2009 19:41
Hua Hin (Mizzima) The Thai Foreign Minister has said that the Burmese military regime has agreed to take back only those migrants, who have been verified as “Bengalis” from Burma, at the regional bloc’s summit in Thailand.
Kasit Piromya, the chairperson of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told the press on Friday after he had a meeting with foreign ministers from the 10 member countries, that the solution to the refugee problem required cooperation from these countries as well as the ASEAN Secretariat.
He said the Bengali ethnicity of the Rohingya in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia would be verified and then it would be confirmed that they were from Burma.
“The Burmese officials said that in the official ethnic groups list of Burma, there is only a Bengali group, but Rohingya has not been approved as an ethnic group in Burma,” Piromya added.
The solution to this issue would be worked out at two levels, firstly enlisting the cooperation of related countries at ASEAN and the second would be at a bigger level during the Bali Process.
Secretary General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan also said at a press conference that the Rohingya issue was a regional problem, and at the moment the solution could not be reached only by the countries in the bloc, so it would be raised during the “Bali Process” that is scheduled for April 14 to 15, 2009.
continue http://www.mizzima.com/
Burma Insists Rohingyas are ‘Bengalis’
CHA-AM, Thailand — Burma is insisting at the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) summit in southern Thailand that the boatpeople now fleeing Arakan State are not Rohingyas but Bengalis.
Thailand’s Foreign Minister, Kasit Piromiya, told a summit press conference that Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win told Asean colleagues at an informal dinner on Thursday that a reading of the region’s history would show the people now being described as Rohingyas were actually Bengalis and not members of any Burmese ethnic group.
continue http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15209
The Junta alway sets condition for everything….ASEAN should kick…
