Myanmar president asks UN to look after 'illegal' Rohingyas
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Yangon - Myanmar asked the United Nations to place 750,000 stateless Muslims in refugee camps, its president's website said Thursday.
Members of the Rohingya ethnic group are refused citizenship by Myanmar's government, which considers the Muslims of Bengali descentas illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, even if they have lived in Myanmar for generations.
"It is totally impossible to accept illegal Rohingyas," President Thein Sein told visiting UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, according to the website.
"The last solution on this issue is to hand over Rohingyas to UNHCR to set up refugee camps," Thein Sein was quoted as saying."Then, the UNHCR should look after them." "If a third country wants to accept them, we will send them," hesaid.
It was not clear whether Thein Sein, a reform-minded former general who took office in March last year, was considering allowing the UNHCR to set up refugee camps in Myanmar, which has never been granted before.//DPA
