“Earlier, we promised to accept 300 returnees on a daily basis. With the help of technology, we are now trying to accept more [returnees],” Union Minister Dr Win Myat Aye, vice chairman of Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine (UEHRD), told The Nation in a phone interview.

More than 900,000 stateless Rohingya refugees live in crowded settlements in Cox’s Bazar. It is estimated that 741,000 of them have fled from Myanmar since August 2017, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The repatriation plan reached by Nay Pyi Taw and Dhaka to have the first of batch of 2,000 returnees has hit a stalemate since last November due to the refugees’ fears for their safety upon their return. The minister said there is “no limit” to how many returnees would be accepted, as it would need more discussion between the two countries. The refugees’ willingness to come back is more important, he said.

The minister denied accusations that Myanmar does not want to welcome back the Rohingya. He said the repatriation process could begin once Bangladesh accepted it. “We are now ready for this [repatriation of returnees], and Asean has acknowledged that. Now, we are awaiting Bangladesh’s decision and cooperation,” he said, adding that the timeline is up to Dhaka as well. In a bid to extend cooperation with international partners to make a success of the repatriation process, Myanmar on Tuesday re-signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNHCR and the United Nations Development Programme. The tripartite agreement was first signed in Nay Pyi Taw on June 6 last year, and has been extended for one more year.

Voluntary, safe and sustainable

“This MoU aims at creating conducive conditions for the voluntary, safe and sustainable repatriation of refugees and to create resilient livelihoods for all communities living in northern Rakhine state,” said a joint statement issued after the signing. Win Myat Aye stressed three core areas in which Myanmar agreed to cooperate with Asean during Asean secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi’s recent visit. Myanmar would prioritise capacity building, information dissemination and basic needs in order to speed up the repatriation process.

“First, capacity building programmes will begin soon. For that, we will supply some necessary equipment including computers, and ensure we improve our staff’s skills so they can quickly facilitate the process in a systematic way,” he said.

“The second core area is information dissemination. People from the other side (refugees who are now in Bangladesh) do not know anything about our readiness for the repatriation process. They do not have any access to the correct information there. So, we will find proper ways to disseminate the right information to the returnees.

“Lastly, we will provide all residents, including returnees, with the basic needs – health, education, shelter and creating jobs, etc. We will cooperate with Asean to ensure those living in Rakhine state have the equal right to basic needs, regardless of race and religion.”

The minister called for participation by returnees to make repatriation successful. He urged them to participate in the process of issuing National Verification Cards (NVC), which the Immigration Department handles.

“At the moment, most of the refugees mistakenly stick to a misleading belief that NVC card holders could be treated as foreigners,” he said. “Due to the lack of information, they still do not believe that NVC cards mean a lot in their path to citizenship. Such a belief is totally wrong, because issuing the NVC cards is the very first step in officially providing them with the right to citizenship.”

He stressed that the returnees would be entitled to citizenship only after being issued the NVC card. “It is not something that they [returnees] should be afraid of. It is part of the process that everyone has to go through to become a citizen of Myanmar,” he said. Myanmar could allow international assessment teams to observe the real situation on the ground, he said.

“The initial assessment that Asean [in March] recently undertook was totally independent, as they managed to observe things without a single interference by our government,” he said. “We just took them to the conflict-hit areas and ensured security for them, which means our security forces just took care of safeguarding them from any potential harm that may occur in a considerably conflict-hit zone.” He said Myanmar fully respected the freedom of the assessment team and supported them to freely observe the real truth on the ground. The minister said the comprehensive assessment of Asean would begin on the very first day of repatriation, which is expected soon.

A photo of the ticket issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA) has gone viral on Facebook.

Several netizens expressed surprise that a littering ticket was issued for rubber bands.

Others expressed their approval of the fine, saying that litterbugs should be punished regardless of the size of the item thrown.

In a statement on Monday (May 27), NEA confirmed that the offence was committed on May 23.

“NEA is aware of the images circulating online of enforcement tickets issued for leaving behind drink cans and throwing rubber bands in a public place,” the agency said.

NEA enforcement officers observed the man walking towards his vehicle and shooting two rubber bands one after another, which landed on a public road.

“Our officers thus informed him of the littering offence and issued him an enforcement ticket,” the agency said.

The photo of the ticket stated that the offender has to pay the fine by noon on July 8. The agency confirmed that the image was not doctored.

NEA added that two men were fined $300 each for leaving drink cans on a wooden box outside a unit at Woodlands MRT station in a separate incident on May 16.

The two offenders paid their fines on May 20.

“We would like to remind the public that littering has environmental consequences, and keeping our environment clean by not littering is a gracious and socially responsible thing to do,” the agency said.

Professor Paulin Tay Straughan, Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice) at Singapore Management University, told The Straits Times: “As long as it was intentional and he had no intention of picking it up, since he left it there, it is littering. If he littered, then it is against the law,” she said.

Around 39,000 people were fined for littering last year, according to NEA’s statistics issued earlier this month, 7,000 more than in 2017.

Under the Environmental Public Health Act, the maximum fine for a littering offence is $2,000 for the first court conviction, $4,000 for the second, and $10,000 for the third and subsequent convictions. First-time offenders will be issued with a $300 fine.

Repeat offenders prosecuted in court may be issued a fine or corrective work order, or both.

Here is a look at the hopefuls in the Conservative Party leadership battle and their stances on Brexit, with Britain currently due to leave the EU on October 31:

– In favour of no-deal –

— ESTHER McVEY

    The 51-year-old Brexit supporter and former television presenter, McVey resigned as work and pensions secretary last year over Brexit compromises. A blue-collar Conservative, she wants a clean break with Brussels.

– Open to no-deal in October –

    — BORIS JOHNSON

A former mayor of London, Johnson says he would get Britain out of the European Union, “deal or no deal”.

A key figure in the 2016 Brexit campaign, he served as foreign minister afterwards but resigned after falling out with May over the government’s Brexit strategy.

Charismatic and popular with grassroots Conservatives, the 54-year-old has maintained his public profile by writing a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

    — DOMINIC RAAB

An ardent eurosceptic with a black belt in karate, the 45-year-old former Brexit minister resigned in protest at the Brexit deal struck with the EU by May.

He says Britain should be ready to walk away from the EU without an agreement while still trying to negotiate a better deal than the one May signed.

— ANDREA LEADSOM

Leadsom stole a march on her rivals by quitting her position as leader of the House of Commons last week, hastening the prime minister’s demise and staking out her pro-Brexit credentials.

The 56-year-old got down to the final two in the 2016 leadership race, but pulled out before the decision was handed over to party members, with whom she was popular, after coming under fire for saying that being a mother would give her an advantage as prime minister over the childless May.

— JAMES CLEVERLY

The Conservative Party’s former deputy chairman, 49, is an army lieutenant colonel who entered parliament in 2015. A junior figure in the Brexit ministry, he says it would be best to leave with a deal, urging the EU to be flexible, but is prepared to lead Britain out without a deal if necessary.

– No to no-deal in October –

— JEREMY HUNT

The foreign secretary supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum but has switched since then.

A former businessman who speaks fluent Japanese, he is a resilient politician, having headed up the National Health Service for six years during a funding crisis.

The 52-year-old has said he will push hard for a new deal with Brussels without taking the possibility of a no-deal outcome off the table.

– Against no-deal –

    — MATT HANCOCK

The 40-year-old health secretary is one the party’s rising stars, a moderate who is widely seen as competent at his job and skillful at handling the media.

He is one of several ministers who opposed Brexit during the 2016 referendum before switching sides and defending the withdrawal agreement May struck with the EU.

He entered government in 2013 and has moved up the ladder quickly.

— RORY STEWART

The international development secretary, 46, is a former Foreign Office official who served in the coalition administration in Iraq following the US-led invasion in 2003. Says no-deal policy would be “damaging”.

– Yet to say –

— MICHAEL GOVE

Brexit campaigner Gove initially supported Johnson’s leadership bid in 2016. His last-minute decision to enter the race himself caused both men to lose out to May.

After a year in the political wilderness, he was appointed environment minister in 2017.

The cerebral 51-year-old is among the most ardent eurosceptics left in May’s government but is seen as a possible unifying figure between the two wings of the party.

— SAJID JAVID

A former investment banker and the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, Javid, 49, wants to be the face of a modern, multicultural and meritocratic Britain.

On the economically liberal wing of the Conservative Party, Javid voted for Britain to stay in the EU in 2016 but has since become an advocate of Brexit.

— KIT MALTHOUSE

A former deputy London mayor to Johnson, the 52-year-old is running as a Brexit unity candidate, having headed up the so-called Malthouse Compromise strategy designed to keep the party together and get a deal over the line.

The mastermind, Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa principal Siraj Ud Doula gave instructions from jail while his accomplices, including two local Awami League leaders and several madrasa students, executed the plot on April 6.

Siraj plotted to murder Nusrat by setting her afire as she refused to withdraw a case filed against him over sexual assault on her on March 27.

Banaj Kumar Majumder, chief of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), said all this before the media yesterday after finalising the charge sheet against the 16.

The Plot

Four days after Siraj’s arrest on March 27, his associates Shahadat Hossain Shamim, Nuruddin and several others went to jail to meet him. Siraj instructed them to put pressure on Nusrat’s family members and even threaten them, if necessary, to make her withdraw the case against him.

Siraj’s men then formed a committee to free him with Nuruddin and Shahadat as its convener and joint convener. The committee’s task was to do whatever necessary to free him.

One of Siraj’s associates, Sonagazi municipality councillor and local AL leader Maksud Alam, gave Shahadat Tk 10,000 for carrying out the committee’s activities.

Failing to persuade Nusrat to withdraw the case, Shahadat, Nuruddin, madrasa teacher Hafez Abdul Kader and several other committee members met Siraj again at jail on April 3.

Siraj asked them to increase pressure on Nusrat and her family, and if necessary, kill her by setting her afire, said the PBI chief.

From the Tk 10,000 given by Maksud, Shahadat gave some money to his relative Kamrunnahar Moni to buy burkas.

Later, Shahadat and other accomplices of Siraj met at a tin-shed room beside the madrasa on April 4 and discussed the plot to kill Nusrat.

Nuruddin, Jabed, Jubayer, Umme Sultana Poppy and Moni, among others, were present there.

As per plan, Shahadat, who owns a mobile-credit recharge shop at Bhuiya Bazar, bought one litre of kerosene from a shop around 5:00pm on April 5 and carried it home in two black polybags.

The Fateful Day

The following day, Siraj’s associate Shahadat, Nuruddin and Kader entered the madrasa between 7:00am and 7:30am.

Shahadat brought a glass from the principal’s room and kept it with a black plastic bag full of kerosene in front of the washroom on the rooftop of the cyclone centre inside the madrasa compound.

Moni brought three burkas and four pairs of gloves, and kept those in a room on the third floor of the cyclone centre. Two other accused — Mohiuddin Shakil and Mohammad Shamim — stood guard in front of the centre so that no one could enter the building, according to the PBI.

Four other accused, Iftekhar Uddin Rana, Imran Hossain Mamun, Abdur Rahim Sharif and Kader took position in front of the madrasa main gate to make sure that only students could enter the madrasa compound.

One of Siraj’s associates, Sonagazi upazila AL president Ruhul Amin, was tasked with dealing with police and keeping an eye on the situation outside the madrasa.

Shahadat, Jabed and Jubayer entered the madrasa around 9:30am and put on burkas on the third floor of the cyclone centre.

Soon after Nusrat entered the madrasa to take the Alim exam, Poppy told her that someone was beating up one of her friends on the cyclone centre rooftop.

Nusrat rushed to her exam hall, some 15 yards from the main gate, and kept her belongings at the hall. She then ran towards the cyclone centre.

Poppy followed Nusrat and stopped her on the second floor. She then asked Nusrat to withdraw the case against Siraj but Nusrat refused.

As Nusrat and Poppy climbed the stairs to the rooftop, Shahadat, Jubayer, Jabed and Moni followed them from the third floor. They threatened Nusrat, asking her to withdraw the case. They also told her to sign a blank paper but she refused, said the PBI chief.

Shahadat then gagged Nusrat. Jabed and Jubayer tore Nusrat’s scarf into two. They bound her legs with one piece and her hands with the other.

Jabed then brought the plastic bag full of kerosene and the glass. He filled the glass with kerosene and poured it on Nusrat. He kept doing it until the bag was empty.

Instructed by Shahadat, Jabed struck a matchstick and set Nusrat ablaze. At the time of the incident, Jabed and the other accused addressed Poppy as Shampa to create confusion about their identities, said Banaj.

After setting fire to Nusrat, Poppy and Moni rushed to their exam hall while Shahadat and Jubayer got down to the second floor and changed their clothes.

They then scaled the boundary wall, dumped the burkas into the nearby madrasa pond and escaped.

Jabed, however, did not take off burka. Wearing it, he came out of the madrasa through the main gate. He took it off at the bank building beside the madrasa.

Nusrat came down from the rooftop after she managed to free her hands and legs from the scarf that got burnt in fire, said the PBI chief.

Police later took her to hospital. With 75 percent burns, Nusrat died at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on April 10, triggering a huge public outcry across the country.

    Wirathu has long been the face of the country’s Buddhist nationalist movement, notorious for espousing hate against the Rohingya minority.

A warrant was “filed and applied directly at western district court against him (Wirathu) under article 124(a),” police spokesman Myo Thu Soe told AFP late on Tuesday.

He said he was unable to give specific details about the reasons behind the warrant.

    The law prohibits anyone who “attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government” and carries a maximum jail sentence of three years.

Wirathu’s monastery is in Mandalay but his whereabouts Tuesday or when he might be detained were unknown.

In 2013 the hardliner appeared on the cover of “Time” magazine as “The Face of Buddhist Terror”.

He has called for boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses and restrictions of marriages between Buddhists and Muslims.

A council of senior monks stopped him temporarily from speaking in public but the firebrand abbot has spoken at a string of pro-military rallies since the ban ended in March last year.

Facebook kicked him off the platform in January 2018 after a string of incendiary posts targeting the Rohingya.

Rights groups say these helped whip up animosity towards the community, laying the foundations for a military crackdown in 2017 that forced about 740,000 to flee over the border to Bangladesh.

Like many in Myanmar, Wirathu pejoratively refers to the minority as “Bengali”, implying the group are illegal immigrants.

Refugees’ testimonies of mass killings, rapes and arson spurred UN investigators to call for the prosecution of top generals for “genocide” and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is conducting a preliminary probe.

“The day when the ICC comes here… is the day that Wirathu holds a gun,” he said in a speech to a rally of hardline nationalists in October last year.

A firebrand Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, Galagodaatte Gnanasara, has maintained close ties with Wirathu.

Gnanasara was freed from prison in Sri Lanka last week following a presidential pardon.

    The 51-year-old attacker, identified by police as Ryuichi Iwasaki, died after stabbing himself during the rampage, and his motives for the horrifying assault remain unclear.

On Wednesday morning, police searched his home, not far from the scene of the morning attack, seizing unspecified material, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Local media said Iwasaki was living with relatives in their 80s, but gave no further details. His occupation was unknown.

Police had no comment on the investigation and declined to offer any further details about the attacker.

The rampage in the town south of Tokyo on Tuesday morning killed two people — 11-year-old schoolgirl Hanako Kuribayashi and a 39-year-old parent, identified as government official Satoshi Oyama, a Myanmar specialist.

Seventeen more people, mainly young children, were injured, according to authorities.

Iwasaki crept silently up behind pupils of the Caritas Gakuen (school) as they waited for their school bus and began slashing randomly at them armed with knives in both hands, before fatally stabbing himself in the neck.

Local media citing police sources said Wednesday that the attack took less than 20 seconds to unfold and that two additional knives were discovered inside the attacker’s backpack, which he had left at a nearby convenience store.

– Motive still unclear –

But there were few other details about the attacker and his motive for the assault, with neighbours telling local media that they knew little about the man.

A female neighbour told Kyodo news agency that Iwasaki had said good morning to her 40 minutes before carrying out the attack, an interaction she described as unusual.

The news agency said Iwasaki was believed to have gone to local schools, but there was no confirmation.

A man who identified himself as having taught Iwasaki in junior high school, when the suspect was around 14, told NHK he was “not the kind of child who stands out”.

“He and his friends would shove each other playfully, but he didn’t attack anyone violently,” the teacher said.

In the wake of the attack, Japan’s government said it would review measures to ensure the safety of children travelling to and from school.

Japan has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the developed world, and it is common for even young children to take public transport alone to get to and from school.

“The whole government will work in unison to ensure the children’s safety,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters after a ministerial meeting on the issue.

The attack shocked Japan, where violent crime is vanishingly rare, in part because of strict regulations on gun ownership.

On Wednesday morning, people were still arriving at the scene of the attack to lay flowers and other tributes to those killed.

Mourners in Japan sometimes bring drinks or food that the deceased enjoyed to their gravesites, and bottles of soda and juice could be seen Wednesday at the scene of the attack.

The Caritas school will be closed for the rest of the week, and officials said on Tuesday that they would offer students mental health support after the attack.