No Rohingya is included in Myanmar’s more than 100 national races, says a government deputy minister.
The Deputy Minister for Immigration and Population, Kyaw Kyaw Tun replied to a question of Khin Saw Wai, an MP representing Rakhine State, during a parliamentary session of the Lower House on Wednesday.
“There has never been a Rohingya race in Rakhine State. According to the censuses collected in the colonial period, in 1973 and in 1983, the country’s ethnic groups include no Rohingya. That term was not mentioned either in the British gazettes,” the deputy minister said.
He added that according to the 1973 and 1983 censuses, non-ethnic citizens in Myanmar include Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Bengali and Nepalese.According to the deputy minister, when the Myanmar was ruled by the caretaker Government in 1958, related departments mentioned people coming from Bangladesh to settle in Myanmar as Muslims in their official records for issuing national identity cards.
After the 1973 censuses had been collected, the term ‘Bengali’ was recorded and no ‘Rohingya’ term was recorded, he added.
In last July, President Thein Sein in meeting with visiting UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mr. Antonio Guterres in Nay Pyi Taw said Myanmar would not allow illegal immigrant Rohingyas to live in the country.
He said that according to history, the British colonialists took Bengalis into Myanmar before it regained independence in 1948 making them engage in farm work. At that time, some settled down in the country because of their good jobs.
According to the law, Myanmar only accepts the third generation born of parents who had come to live in the county before 1948. In Rakhine State, there were complicated problems such as descendents of Bengalis who came before 1948 and illegal immigrants in disguise of Rohingya, said the President.
Source link: http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/politics/2580-no-rohingya-in-myanmar-ethnic-groups-deputy-minister-says