Burma Insists Rohingyas are ‘Bengalis’

By WAI MOE

CHA-AM — 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.

The plight of refugees embarking in open boats from Burmese shores in the hopes of reaching Malaysia and Indonesia is being discussed on the sidelines of the summit.

Kasit told reporters that the Rohingya issue would be tackled by the so-called Bali Process, which is intended to help fight the problems of people smuggling, human trafficking and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. A Bali Process meeting would be held on April 14 and 15, he said.

Journalists noted that Kasit referred to the Rohingyas as Bengalis. Thailand, like Malaysia and Indonesia, cannot legally send boatpeople back to Burma if the Naypyidaw government does not accept them as Burmese.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, told the English-language daily Bangkok Post that his country and others had to be firm in dealing with the boatpeople. “If we cannot be firm we cannot deal with this problem,” he said. “We have to be firm at all borders. We have to turn them back."

Malaysia did not want to be “unkind,” Badawi said. “But the problem has been about people who come without permits."

A diplomat at Thursday’s dinner said there was general agreement that the problem was a regional one.

The Asean foreign ministers were due to meet on Friday to discuss the proposed establishment of a human rights body under Asean's new charter, in the face of widespread charges that it will be toothless because of the bloc's policy of non-interference.

The terms of reference for the new Asean Human Rights Body were nevertheless “in progress,” according to Thai government spokesman Panitan Watanayakorn.

Panitan told reporters that the new body should be “up and running” by October.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit said Asean delegates “should agree in principle today or tomorrow” on the terms of reference.

He said Thailand hoped to see the founding of the body—agreed to in principle in Article 14 of the Asean Charter—during his country’s tenure as chairman of Asean. He said Asean would have “a legal personality” when the human rights body was in place.