Bangladesh Home Affairs minister hopeful that a solution to the Rohingya crisis can be found
During a meeting, Asaduzaman Khan and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi decided to deal with the emergency bilaterally. A ten-point agreement was signed, including the repatriation and resettlement of refugees "at the earliest date".
Dhaka (AsiaNews) – Bangladesh Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said he was hopeful a solution to the Rohingya crisis could be found.
He made his comments after a two-day visit to Myanmar where he met with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with whom he discussed the crisis involving Muslim refugees fleeing from the Rakhine State.
Speaking about his talks, Mr Khan said that a start on the path of finding a solution had been made, and the two sides would “overcome the crisis”.
Citing Ms Suu Kyi who said “Encourage the Rohingya to come home because they don’t want to come back,” the minister replied, “You surely know why the Rohingya do not want to return. They have no situation to return to in their native land.”
Since 25 August, when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked military border outposts, the violence that ensued drove 600,000 people according to UN sources into Bangladesh.
Such a crisis “must be solved bilaterally. This is what our Prime Minister [Sheikh Hasina] wants,” Minister Khan noted. “The Bangladesh government has proposed a joint working party to vet the recommendations in the Kofi Annan's report”. The latter was produced by former UN secretary general as the head of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.
The stakes are high, the minister said because "if the Rohingya were to remain in Bangladesh for a long time, they could be involved in terrorist and militant activists, which we try to keep under control. In that case we could not do much."
For this reason, the governments of the two countries reached a ten-point agreement that includes, “Stopping immediate entry by refugees into Bangladesh and repatriation of refugees at the earliest date and restoring normalcy in Rakhine Region for their resettlement.”
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