LONDON: MPs have criticized the UK government’s stance toward Myanmar, accusing the country of “ignoring” the oppression of the Rohingya people in their homeland.
More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August after Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown in areas populated by the minority.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it had agreed with Myanmar to try to complete the repatriation of Rohingya within two years.
“The UK government should reflect on why so much evidence of discrimination, marginalization and abuse of the Rohingya people within Rakhine State in Burma (Myanmar) was seemingly ignored for so long, rather than translated into effective action by the international community,” read an extract from the report.
Rape and sexual violence are often used as weapons of war by the Burmese military, the report said, but the UK has been too slow to act as the Rohingya fled their country.
Those that have managed to escape are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
MPs also said that any international plans to return an initial 100,000 Rohingya to Myanmar without clear understanding of their legal status, final destination or whether they had even volunteered for the return trip, was of “grave concern,” according to the international development committee publication released on Monday.
The report noted there were already plans underway to repatriate displaced Rohingha people from Bangladesh to Myanmar without any consultation with the community. The UNCHR said in December that a joint working group had been set up to “develop a specific instrument on the physical arrangement for the repatriation of returnees in a speedy manner.”
Myanmar has said the exodus of people was caused by “clearance operations” carried out by the military in response to militant attacks on police posts. But the US and UN have described the crisis as “ethnic cleansing.”
The UK report urged that conditions for the return of the Rohingya must include their safety, security and access to fundamental human rights, adding that previous attempts to repatriate Rohingya and other ethnic minorities to Myanmar over the last two decades “do not inspire confidence”.
The committee said returning the Rohingya to live in Myanmar-run internment camps, with no assurances they would not face further abuse is “unacceptable”.
“We are going to have to work much harder to protect populations from threats and humanitarian crises,” said Stephen Twigg MP, chair of the committee.
“For decades, the Rohingya people in Rakhine State endured discrimination, marginalization and abuse. The Rohingya have paid a heavy price for the lack of consensus among the international community on how and when to decide to act effectively. We cannot fail them again.”
MPs also criticized the UK’s reluctance to send specialist sexual violence teams to gather evidence of the reported cases of rape, torture, and mutilations.
“The UK has 70 experts ready to deploy to Bangladesh to assist with this situation and yet we haven’t sent them. This flies in the face of the UK’s commitment to deter gender-based violence, championed by William Hague in 2012,” said Twigg.