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Associated Press

Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled attacks in Myanmar said they were disappointed that a UN agreement signed last week did not address one of their key demands: citizenship.
Most refugees say they are desperate to go home, but fear going back unless they are given protection and citizenship.

On Wednesday, Myanmar and UN agencies signed an agreement that could – eventually – lead to the return of some of the 700,000 Rohingya who fled persecution in their homeland and are now crowded into makeshift camps in Bangladesh.
While the refugees welcomed the talks, they have also heard years of empty promises from the government in Yangon.
Mohammed Toiteb Ali, who fled brutal attacks last year that sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across the border, said Yangon could first give citizenship to the Rohingya who remain in Myanmar.


“When we are assured by seeing and knowing that they are enjoying their citizenship, then we will go back,” Ali said Friday, while strolling through the crowded market of the Kutupalong refugee camp.
Many said they would not be truly happy with an agreement unless it announces that the Rohingya will get citizenship and the return of the property they had lost.
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“When the whole world will see this, when we will see these developments, then we will go back,” said Mohammed Syed, another refugee who fled last year.
UN officials have called the agreement an important first step in complex discussions.
The agreement signed Wednesday will create a “framework of cooperation” designed to create conditions for “voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable” repatriation of the Rohingya. It does not address Myanmar’s denial of citizenship to the Rohingya.
Myanmar officials say they hope the agreement will speed up repatriation, but rights groups doubt Yangon will let many Rohingya go back, or if officials can guarantee the safety of those who do.
Myanmar’s statement did not use the word “Rohingya”, reflecting the insistence by the government and the country’s Buddhist majority that the ethnic group does not even exist.

Most people in Myanmar view the Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, though some have lived in the country for centuries, before modern borders existed. The agreement described the refugees as “displaced persons”.
Myanmar security forces have been accused of laying waste to Rohingya villages last year in Rakhine state, near the Bangladesh border, where most Rohingya lived. The military’s self-proclaimed “clearance operations” were set off by a Rohingya militant group’s assault on police posts.
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The UN and the US have described the military campaign as “ethnic cleansing.”
UN officials note that the Wednesday agreement gives its agencies access to Rakhine state, allowing it to better assess the situation and tell refugees about conditions back in their villages.


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Rohingya Muslims

Rohingya upset UN agreement did not address citizenship

Rohingya refugees walk as they await the arrival of a UN Security Council team at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh in April. Photo: AP

FILE - In this April 29, 2018 file photo, Rohingya refugees holing placards, await the arrival of a U.N. Security Council team at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled attacks in Myanmar say they are disappointed that a U.N. agreement signed earlier this week did not address one of their key demands: citizenship. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, File)

In this photograph taken on May 7, 2018, sand bags are seen on the roof of a shelter to weigh it down in preparation for the upcoming monsoon season in Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia. For the 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled to southeast Bangladesh in the past nine months, the approaching monsoon season poses the most serious threat since they were violently expelled from Myanmar. / AFP PHOTO / Munir UZ ZAMAN / TO GO WITH Bangladesh-Rohingya-Myanmar-refugee-weather-monsoon, FOCUS by Nick Perry and Redwan Ahmed

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Rohingya Muslim refugees are seen in the Kutupalong refugee camp in the vicinity of Cox's Bazar, southeastern Bangladesh, on May 2. Photo: Kyodo

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This photograph taken on April May 8, 2018 shows midwives attending a meeting on gender-based violence with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) workers (L) at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district. In a tragic race against time, aid workers are scouring the world's largest refugee camp for Rohingya women and girls raped by Myanmar troops before they could flee a brutal crackdown. Amid fears that newborns could be abandoned and new mothers die without care, specialists and Rohingya volunteers are searching the giant Kutupalong camp and surrounding hillside shanties where some 700,000 of the persecuted Muslims have fled in the past nine months. / AFP PHOTO / MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / TO GO WITH: Myanmar-Bangladesh-unrest-rape-Rohingya, FOCUS by Nick Perry and Redwan Ahmed.

This photograph taken on April 9, 2018, shows a general view of the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district. In a tragic race against time, aid workers are scouring the world's largest refugee camp for Rohingya women and girls raped by Myanmar troops before they could flee a brutal crackdown. Amid fears that newborns could be abandoned and new mothers die without care, specialists and Rohingya volunteers are searching the giant Kutupalong camp and surrounding hillside shanties where some 700,000 of the persecuted Muslims have fled in the past nine months. / AFP PHOTO / MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / TO GO WITH: Myanmar-Bangladesh-unrest-rape-Rohingya, FOCUS by Nick Perry and Redwan Ahmed.

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British Ambassador to the United Nations Karen Pierce speaks to Rohingya refugees at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, during a visit by the U.N. Security Council to Bangladesh and Myanmar, April 29, 2018. Picture taken on April 29, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Fogarty

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In this April 30, 2018, image provided by Myanmar's State Counsellor Office Facebook page, Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, smiles during their meeting with ambassadors from the U.N. Security Council at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. The ambassadors from the U.N. Security Council probing Myanmar's crisis over its ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority met on April 30, with the country's leader and military chief after visiting Bangladesh, where about 700,000 Rohingya who fled military-led violence live in refugee camps. (Myanmar State Counsellor Office via AP)

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Most Rohingya refugees say they are desperate to go home, but fear going back unless they are given protection and citizenship


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Rohingya upset UN agreement did not address citizenship

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Most Rohingya refugees say they are desperate to go home, but fear going back unless they are given protection and citizenship

Most Rohingya refugees say they are desperate to go home, but fear going back unless they are given protection and citizenship