Myanmar to join Rohingya meeting in Thailand May 29

BANGKOK, May 19 (TNA) - Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha says that Myanmar has initially agreed, together with all other invited parties concerned, to participate in the International Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, to be hosted by Thailand on May 29, 2015 and to be focused on solutions to Rohingya-related problems. According to the Thai prime minister, each country joining in the May 29 meeting can freely designate their representatives and whether the country of origin, referring to Myanmar, will cooperate on solutions to Rohingya-related problems will be observed in the final resolution at the end of the forthcoming meeting. The Thai leader proposed, however, that international organizations support development programs in the country of origin, and that political agenda of individual countries not to be involved in solutions to the ongoing exodus of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims. The prime minister also stressed on Thailand's policy on assisting Rohingya migrants based on humanitarian and human rights principles under international and Thai legal frameworks. The prime minister insisted that there would be no opening of new temporary shelters for Rohingya migrants specially, but only confined areas pending legal procedures against them. The prime minister mentioned the Thai government's two approaches to cope with Rohingya migrants aboard floating vessels, including providing them with humanitarian assistance in accordance with their demands voluntarily, namely giving medical treatment to those sick or injured, if their vessels float out of Thai territorial waters and taking care of them based on the same principles if their vessels float in Thai territoral waters but the intercepted Rohingya migrants need to be prosecuted for illegal entry into the Thai Kingdom. The prime minister expressed his belief that certain and appropriate solutions on Rohingya-related issues should be concluded at the end of the upcoming International Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, especially those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after laws of countries of origin, transit and final destinations are considered, together with doctrines of relevant international organizations. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn is, in the meantime, scheduled to visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, on May 20 to hold talks with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman on an urgent solution to Rohingya-related problems. The Malaysian foreign minister reportedly met his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Malaysia’s Kota Kinabalu City on May 18 for the same purpose. The separate talks were set before the International Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean to be held in Thailand on May 29, in which about 15 countries, including Australia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Bangladesh, as well as international observers, namely those from the United States and relevant international organizations, participate. Meanwhile, the Thai court approved arrest warrants against six more suspects in an alleged Rohingya trafficking case in the Thai South, raising the combined number of suspects to 71. Police Lieutenant General Montree Potranant, Chief of the Provincial Police Region 9, told reporters out of the 71 suspects, 33 of them have already been in custody and 38 remain at large. Police Lieutenant General Montree reported that no senior military officers have been found involving in the case so far and interrogators are likely to finish gathering witnesses and evidence in mid-June 2015. Thai Navy Chief Admiral Kraisorn Chansuvanich confirmed that Rohingya migrants receive food and water in the Thai waters on the humanitarian basis, but they are to be prosecuted for illegal entry. (TNA)