SINGAPORE: The violence which drove 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into Bangladesh was "without excuse", US Vice President Mike Pence told Aung San Suu Kyi in stinging comments on Wednesday.

On the sidelines of a summit in Singapore Pence piled the pressure on Myanmar’s de facto leader, calling for an explanation of the jailing of two Reuters journalists over their coverage of the crisis.

Suu Kyi has seen her reputation as a rights defender shredded by her refusal to speak up for the Rohingya, a stateless group reviled in the Buddhist-majority country.

She has already had an Amnesty International honour revoked this week and faced sharp words from Malaysia’s prime minister at a usually tepid meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Singapore. In direct marks as he sat next to Suu Kyi, Pence condemned the "violence and persecution" against the Rohingya as "without excuse".

Then in a front-on challenge to Myanmar’s civilian leader, Pence said he was "anxious to hear about the progress" being made to hold the perpetrators accountable. A crackdown led by Myanmar’s army last year sparked an exodus of the Muslim minority into neighbouring Bangladesh, taking with them accounts of atrocities -- rape, murder and arson of their villages.

UN investigators say the army’s actions amounted to genocide. Suu Kyi brushed off Pence’s comments. "In a way, we can say we understand our country better than any other country does," she said.

On Thursday a long-delayed -- and heavily criticised -- plan to repatriate Rohingya was set to begin, despite dire warnings their safety will be in jeopardy if forced to return to Myanmar. The process has undergone several false starts before. Myanmar does not want its Rohingya, who are officially described as "Bengali" illegal immigrants.

And the Rohingya do not want to go back without security guarantees and citizenship. But the fetid and overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh offer little future for the more than one million Rohingya who have fled successive waves of violence in Myanmar.

The Rohingya crisis has tarnished Myanmar’s reputation among large sections of an international community which helped shape its transition from outright military rule. Suu Kyi has no power over the army, which retains autonomy over all security matters. But she has come under fire for not doing more to speak out against the generals’ excesses.

She has also been criticised for her failure to speak up for two Reuters reporters jailed for seven years for breaching a colonial-era state secrets act after reporting on the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men during a military crackdown last year.

Pence called their case "deeply troubling", adding the US placed a "premium ... on a free and independent press". A senior US official told reporters that Pence asked Suu Kyi directly and repeatedly to pardon the two reporters during their talks.

The official did not say how Suu Kyi responded. The sentence prompted a storm of global outcry as an assault on freedom of speech, casting doubt on the direction and depth of Myanmar reforms.

In her only direct comments on the Reuters case Suu Kyi -- herself once a political prisoner held under house arrest by the former junta -- has said the pair were jailed under a fair legal process. "They were not jailed because they were journalists" but because "the court has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act", she said in September.

Suu Kyi’s civilian government had the power to drop the charges. Reuters has appealed the verdict and has been lobbying for the release of the pair who they say were set up by police and arrested to silence their reporting.

The High Court is likely to take up to five or six months to rule on the appeal, during which time the reporters will remain in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison. After numerous delays, the first significant group of Rohingya -- some 2,000 strong -- is due to return to Myanmar on November 15 as part of a repatriation deal signed with Bangladesh a year ago. However, the UN and rights groups maintain that conditions for their "safe, dignified and sustainable" return are still not in place.</s>COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh authorities said the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who fled army-led violence in Myanmar will begin as scheduled Thursday if people are willing to go, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off.

Refugee commissioner Abul Kalam told The Associated Press that he and other officials would go to Unchiprang, one of the sprawling refugee camps near the city of Cox’s Bazar, to urge some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh last year to go back to Myanmar voluntarily.

Kalam declined to say what Bangladesh authorities would do if refugees refused to go, but according to a U.N.-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

“If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them three days’ worth of food before handing over to Myanmar authorities,” he said.

The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August, after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the U.N., of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as “Bengalis” who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions are not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

“Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return,” Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families had already been taken to a transit camp in preparation for their return.

Bangladesh authorities have said they’ve worked with the U.N.’s refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers Thursday morning as usual.

“They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents,” said Setara, who only gave one name. “I don’t want to go back.”

She said other refugee families living at the Jamtoli camp whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government’s repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been going on for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar’s Rakhine State were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Thursday, Pence said that U.S. officials were “encouraged to hear that” the repatriation process would begin.

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.</s>U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticised Myanmar's military for the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in a meeting with the country's leader on Wednesday.

Pence also told Aung San Suu Kyi he was keen to hear that those responsible for the violence would be held accountable.

'The violence and persecution by military and vigilantes that resulted in driving 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh is without excuse,' he told Suu Kyi at the Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore.

'I am anxious to hear the progress that you are making of holding those accountable who are responsible for the violence that displaced so many hundreds of thousands and created such suffering, including the loss of life,' he added.

He said Washington was also keen to hear about progress in making it possible for the Rohingya to voluntarily return to the western Myanmar state of Rakhine from vast refugees camps in southern Bangladesh where they now live.

The United States has accused the military of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who are widely reviled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

U.N.-mandated investigators have accused the military of unleashing a campaign of killings, rape and arson with 'genocidal intent'.

Myanmar says its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents in August last year.

Suu Kyi, responding to Pence, said: 'Of course people have different points of view but the point is that you should exchange these views and try to understand each other better.'

'In a way we can say that we understand our country better than any other country does and I'm sure you will say the same of yours, that you understand your country better than anybody else,' she added.

Amnesty International this week withdrew its most prestigious human rights prize from Suu Kyi, accusing her of perpetuating human rights abuses by not speaking out about violence against the Rohingya.

Once hailed as a champion in the fight for democracy, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been stripped of a series of international honours over the Rohingya exodus.

Pence also said that Washington wanted to see a free and democratic press in Myanmar, and the jailing of two journalists last year was 'deeply troubling' for millions of Americans.

'In America, we believe in our democratic institutions and ideals, including a free and independent press,' he said.

He did not mention by name Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Yangon in December 2017. They were found guilty in September of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.

On Nov. 5, lawyers for the two Reuters reporters lodged an appeal against their conviction.

At the time of their arrest in December, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers during an army crackdown in Rakhine state. Reuters published its investigation into the massacre on Feb. 8.</s>The head of Bangladesh's refugee commission said plans to begin a voluntary repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to their native Myanmar on Thursday were scrapped after officials were unable to find anyone who wanted to return.

The refugees "are not willing to go back now," Abul Kalam told The Associated Press, adding that officials "can't force them to go" but will continue to try to "motivate them so it happens."

The announcement came after about 1,000 Rohingya demonstrated at a camp in Bangladesh against returning to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled army-led violence last year.

At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox's Bazar, another Bangladeshi refugee official had implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.

"We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we'll take you to the border, to the transit camp," he said.

"We won't go," hundreds of voices, including children's, chanted in reply.

Bangladesh authorities had attempted to begin the repatriation of more than 700,000 Rohingya, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. According to a UN-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

The countries had planned to send an initial group of 2,251 back from mid-November at a rate of 150 per day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would continue to work with international partners including the UN "to ensure that the Rohingya themselves are part of any decisions on their future."

Bob Rae, who has served as Canada's special envoy to the region, on Thursday called for Bangladesh and Myanmar to "re-commit to real engagement with #Rohingya and UN agencies and find the path to voluntary safe and dignified return."

The huge exodus of Rohingya began in August 2017 after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

No sign of movement at transit camp

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya had fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions were not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

"Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return," Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families were to be transferred to a transit camp on Thursday, but the camp was empty except for security guards.

Bangladesh authorities have said they've worked with the UN refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers Thursday morning as usual.

"They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents," said Setara, who only gave one name. "I don't want to go back."

She said other refugees whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government's repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been continuing for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar's Rakhine state were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Thursday, Pence said that U.S. officials were "encouraged to hear that" the repatriation process would begin.</s>Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in Yangon in December 2017. They were found guilty in September of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, discussed the case of two imprisoned Reuters reporters with Vice President Mike Pence, right, in Singapore on Wednesday.

Pence met Suu Kyi on the sidelines of an Asia summit in Singapore.

“He raised the case of two Reuters journalists in particular and raised the request that a pardon could be made,” a senior White House official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “They had a very candid exchange of views on that.”

The White House official said Pence urged Suu Kyi directly to pardon the Reuters journalists “multiple times.”

The official declined to comment on Suu Kyi’s response in the closed-door meeting.

Two @Reuters journalists have been imprisoned in Myanmar since Dec. 12, 2017. See our full coverage: https://t.co/nfSZ28f5yF pic.twitter.com/OvMlSkDCqO — Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 14, 2018

Lawyers for the two Reuters reporters have lodged an appeal against their conviction.

At the time of their arrest in December, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers during an army crackdown in Rakhine state.</s>The head of Bangladesh's refugee commission said plans to start the repatriation of 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar on Nov. 15 were scrapped after officials were unable to find anyone who wanted to return.

The refugees "are not willing to go back now," Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam told The Associated Press, adding that officials "can't force them to go" but will continue to try to "motivate them so it happens."

The announcement came after about 1,000 Rohingya demonstrated against returning to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled Army-led violence last year.

At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox's Bazar, another Bangladeshi refugee official implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.

"We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we'll take you to the border, to the transit camp," he said.

"We won't go!" hundreds of voices, including children's, chanted in reply.

Bangladesh authorities had attempted to begin the repatriation of the Rohingya, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. According to a UN-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

The countries had planned to send an initial group of 2,251 back from mid-November at a rate of 150 per day.

The huge exodus of Rohingya began in August last year after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization, and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said on Nov. 15 the conditions were not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

"Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return," Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families were to be transferred to a transit camp on Nov. 15, but the camp was empty except for security guards.

Bangladesh authorities have said they've worked with the UN refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, Setara said she and her two children, age 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers on Nov. 15 as usual.

"They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents," said Setara, who only gave one name. "I don't want to go back."

She said that other refugees whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government's repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers, and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been continuing for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar's Rakhine state were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including US Vice President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Nov. 15, Mr. Pence said that US officials were "encouraged to hear that" the repatriation process would begin.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would continue working with international partners including the UN "to ensure that the Rohingya themselves are part of any decisions on their future."

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya had fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.</s>Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed has sharply criticised Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi for her handling of an ethnic crisis that led to mass killings and the exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from her country.

Mr Mahathir said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ms Suu Kyi was “trying to defend the indefensible” in justifying violence by Burmese security forces against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017.

Mr Mahathir said: “They are actually oppressing these people to the point of, well, killing them, mass killing, and burial in graves dug by the victims and that kind of thing.

“That may be relevant in ancient times, but in modern days, we don’t do that kind of thing.”

The 93-year-old political veteran’s own past treatment of dissidents was sharply criticised.

When asked about the issue at a news conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore, Mr Mahathir said that as a former political prisoner, Ms Suu Kyi should understand suffering.

It is highly unusual for leaders in the 10-nation group to publicly criticise each other.

Ms Suu Kyi became an icon for democracy after spending about 15 years under house arrest for opposing Burma’s military dictatorship.

She and her government have been widely criticised for the way they have treated the Rohingya.</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - China supports the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect domestic stability and approach to resolving the Rohingya issue, Premier Li Keqiang told the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke.

Pence on Wednesday voiced Washington’s strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims, telling Suu Kyi that “persecution” by her country’s army was “without excuse”.

Meeting Suu Kyi on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Singapore, Li said China attaches great importance to its ties with Myanmar and would build on their tradition of friendship, China’s Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday.

“The Chinese side supports Myanmar’s efforts in maintaining its domestic stability, and supports Myanmar and Bangladesh appropriately resolving the Rakhine state issue via dialogue and consultation,” the ministry cited Li as saying.

China is “willing to provide the relevant parties with necessary support in this regard”, he added, without elaborating.

More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees crossed into Bangladesh from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, U.N. agencies say, after Rohingya insurgent attacks on Myanmar security forces in August 2017 triggered a sweeping military crackdown.

The two countries agreed on Oct. 30 to begin returning refugees to Myanmar in mid-November. The U.N. refugee agency has said conditions in Rakhine are “not yet conducive for returns”.

China has close relations with Myanmar, and backs what Myanmar officials have called a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine.

China’s statement cited Suu Kyi as expressing thanks to China for the many times it has extended help to Myanmar, especially the constant understanding and support for the Myanmar peace process and the Rakhine issue.

A plan to begin repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar stalled on Thursday, amid protests by refugees at camps in Bangladesh and recriminations between the officials in both countries.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Bangladesh authorities said the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who fled army-led violence in Myanmar will begin as scheduled Thursday if people are willing to go, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off.

Refugee commissioner Abul Kalam told The Associated Press that he and other officials would go to Unchiprang, one of the sprawling refugee camps near the city of Cox's Bazar, to urge some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh last year to go back to Myanmar voluntarily.

Kalam declined to say what Bangladesh authorities would do if refugees refused to go, but according to a U.N.-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

"If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them three days' worth of food before handing over to Myanmar authorities," he said.

The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August, after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the U.N., of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions are not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

"Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return," Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families had already been taken to a transit camp in preparation for their return.

Bangladesh authorities have said they've worked with the U.N.'s refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers Thursday morning as usual.

"They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents," said Setara, who only gave one name. "I don't want to go back."

She said other refugee families living at the Jamtoli camp whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government's repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been going on for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar's Rakhine State were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Thursday, Pence said that U.S. officials were "encouraged to hear that" the repatriation process would begin.

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.</s>COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Bangladesh authorities said the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who fled army-led violence in Myanmar will begin as scheduled Thursday if people are willing to go, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off.

Refugee commissioner Abul Kalam told The Associated Press that he and other officials would go to Unchiprang, one of the sprawling refugee camps near the city of Cox’s Bazar, to urge some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh last year to go back to Myanmar voluntarily.

Kalam declined to say what Bangladesh authorities would do if refugees refused to go, but according to a U.N.-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

“If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them three days’ worth of food before handing over to Myanmar authorities,” he said.

The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August, after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the U.N., of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as “Bengalis” who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions are not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

“Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return,” Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families had already been taken to a transit camp in preparation for their return.

Bangladesh authorities have said they’ve worked with the U.N.’s refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers Thursday morning as usual.

“They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents,” said Setara, who only gave one name. “I don’t want to go back.”

She said other refugee families living at the Jamtoli camp whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government’s repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been going on for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar’s Rakhine State were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Thursday, Pence said that U.S. officials were “encouraged to hear that” the repatriation process would begin.

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence condemns Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims and called for Aung San Suu Kyi to pardon Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the two Reuters journalists imprisoned in the country.