Bengalis can apply for citizenship, but not Rohingyas: minister

 

He said Bengali residents of the state could not apply for citizenship under current legislation if they identified themselves as Rohingya because that ethnic group is not officially recognised in Myanmar. “Bengli” is the traditional word for describing this ethnic group in Myanmar, and this term must be used in the citizen-application process, the general said.

“I’ve already asked residents of Maungdaw: ‘Do you want to be Rohingya or do you want to apply for citizenship through the legal process’,” he said. 

If they refer to themselves as “Rohingya” the discussion ends, Maung Maung Ohn said. “If they want to be citizens, their [Bengalis’] applications have to be processed under the 1982 Citizenship Law,” he added.

The general said that applications could not be accepted from people belonging to an ethnic group that is not officially recognised. He aslo said that extemists and instigators would be face legal action if they break laws. 

Everything the government does is in accord with existing laws, the chief minister said.

It is not a problem to approve applications for citizenship for those who qualify under existing legislation, Maung Maung Ohn added.

He also said there were no plans to build housing for the Bengali residents of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) as they remained under watch. 

He said the citizenship screening process in Myaypon Township was proceeding smoothly, and that international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and agencies would soon have the chance to rent buildings and warehouses. In March, a mob ransacked the offices and warehouses of international NGOs and UN agencies after a foreign aid worker removed a Buddhist flag from the warehouse of an international NGO in a manner that was considered disrespectful. The attacks sparked an exodus of foreign aid workers from Myanmar’s second-poorest state, where they had long been accused by ethnic Rakhine residents of biased delivery of aid by favouring Muslims, who comprise about one-third of the state’s population. 

“The future of Rakhine State is very important and the Union government considers it an important area,” General Maung Maung Ohn said. 

He said it would take a “very long time” to scrutinise the citizen applications of all Bengalis living in Myanmar and called for cooperation among all people as well as end to narrowmindedness. 

The Union government is under pressure internationally over the “the Rakhine issue” and is considering shifting IDPs from camps to villages, he said. 

Rakhine State has experience two major eruptions of communal violence between ethnic Rakhine and Bengali/Rohingya residents of the state, since the end of direct military rule. More than 200 people were killed in the violence and about 140,000 people remain in IDP camps. 

Ethnic Rakhine people are also calling for greater autonomy from Nay Pyi Taw. They have accused the military of giving Bengali residents of the state the right to vote in the 2010 elections in order to dilute the power of Rakhine political parties. Earlier this year the two major Rakhine parties united to form the Arakan National Party, which is pushing for greater control over the state’s vast resources, which include offshore gas. 

The state is also seen as a strategic entry to the Bay of Bengal by China, which has plans to develop railways and highways linking a port there to Yunnan Province. It already operates a dual pipeline that transports oil and gas from Rakhine to Yunnan province.