Myanmar Remains Disingenuous when it comes to Rohingya Repatriation

‘The returnees have to be sent back by Bangladesh. We can only welcome them at the border.’ Aung San Suu Kyi said that at the 43rd Singapore Lecture on 21 August 2018, and this piece, written for The Diplomat, reads it as strategy rather than description.

Three key excerpts are taken from the speech. Saying that returnees must be sent back by Bangladesh, and that Bangladesh must decide how quickly the process is completed, moves responsibility for the pace onto the state sheltering the refugees. Claiming readiness since 23 January 2018, under the memorandum signed the previous November, presents inaction as preparedness.

What the formulations leave out is the substance: accountability for the atrocities, conditions that would make return voluntary, safe and dignified, and restitution of rights and property.

The concern the piece names is obstruction by delay rather than by refusal, with Myanmar playing for time until the world moved to the next humanitarian crisis. The record since supports that reading.