YANGON: Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees would be able to return to Myanmar’s Rakhine state after a deal struck with Bangladesh on Thursday, according to a statement from the Myanmar state counsellor’s office.
Some 620,000 Rohingya have fled a brutal Myanmar army crackdown launched in the wake of Rohingya militant attacks in August, amid reports of killings, and arson by security forces.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali signed the deal with Myanmar’s minister for the state counsellor’s office, Kyaw Tint Swe.
The repatriation process will begin within two months, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry in a statement.
That event came after Mahmood Ali met one-time democracy icon — and current state counsellor — Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, according to a statement in English on the state counsellor’s Facebook page.
The two countries also signed boundary agreements which establish the Naf river as a border between the two countries, according to a post on the Myanmar Foreign Ministry’s Facebook page. — dpa
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