Myanmar plans to repatriate some 700,000 Rohingya Muslim minority who fled to Bangladesh to escape a brutal army crackdown to 11 "new villages," Foreign Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary Myint Thu told DPA yesterday.

Myint Thu said that 374 Rohingya refugees had been verified for repatriations and would return "within weeks," first to a transit camp and then a "new village with security" close to their original homes. Myanmar and Bangladesh were supposed to start repatriation of Rohingya refugees in late January but many are reluctant to return to a place without guarantees of basic rights and safety. Rights groups and the U.N. have said Rohingya returns should be voluntary, safe and to their place of origin, not to fabricated villages or camps.

Myint Thu said Myanmar was ready to work with U.N. agencies on repatriations and that a proposal by the UNHCR and UNDP was being assessed by the office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. The Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most people in majority-Buddhist Myanmar consider them to be unwanted Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. The army refers to the Rohingya as "Bengalis," and most lack citizenship.

The stateless Rohingya have been the target of communal violence and vicious anti-Muslim sentiment in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for years. Myanmar has denied citizenship to Rohingya since 1982 and excludes them from the 135 ethnic groups it officially recognizes, which effectively renders them stateless. An estimated 700,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh since an army crackdown was launched in Rakhine in August. Myanmar blames Rohingya militants for an Aug. 25 strike on security posts in Rakhine state that triggered a fierce army crackdown. The U.N. and the U.S. have said the retaliatory response by Myanmar security forces amounted to "ethnic cleansing."