BSS-31 Bangladesh witnesses global figures visit over Rohingya crisis

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BSS-31

ROHINGYA-BANGLADESH-VISITS

Bangladesh witnesses global figures visit over Rohingya crisis

DHAKA, July 1, 2018 (BSS) – The global campaign on Rohingya crisis visibly
witnesses a revamped campaign drawing to Bangladesh UN secretary general
Antinio Guterres simultaneously with a number of high-profile global
dignitaries to mount pressures on Myanmar and express solidarity to Dhaka’s
stance on the issue.

Guterres met Bangladesh Prime Minister along with World Bank President Jim
Yong Kim at the beginning of his three-day tour when he reassured continued
UN pressure on Myanmar and support Dhaka in ending and handling the Rohingya
crisis.

“He (Guterres) said the UN would keep continued pressure on Myanmar on the
issue and simultaneously give Bangladesh its constant support for resolving
and handling the crisis,” premier’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim told
newsmen after the meeting.

But, he said, the UN Secretary General feared the ethnic minority Muslim
Rohingyas could be exposed radicalization and laid importance on an education
system for their protection from such phenomenon.

“The UN secretary general said Myanmar should as well be made understood
what their action (crackdown on Rohingyas) could yield,” karim said.

The UN secretary general and the World Bank chief arrived in Dhaka while
International Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer, British Minister for
Asia and the Pacific Mark Field and UK Special Envoy for Gender Equality
Joanna Roper were already in Bangladesh and visited the crammed Rongngya
camps in southeastern Cox’s Bazar, bordering Myanmar.

Bangladesh now shelters over a million Rohingyas while the latest influx
began since August 25 last year as Myanmar military launched a crackdown at
their abodes in Buddhist dominated western Rakhine state.

The UN earlier described the action as a “textbook example of ethnic
cleansing” and the rights groups called it “genocide”.

More than 700,000 of them broke into Bangladesh territory crossing the
border since then.

The Bangladesh premier focused on a chronological history of influx of
Rohingyas from Myanmar into Bangladesh since 1977 until their latest exodus
and told the UN chief that her government extended refuge to 1.1 million
Rohingyas only on humanitarian grounds.

But, she said, despite a bilateral agreement that Myanmar reached with
Dhaka earlier this year for Rohingyas repatriation, Naypyidaw was “yet to
take any action for its implementation”.

Canada and the European Union (EU) earlier last week imposed a
simultaneous and nearly identical sanction against seven Myanmar military
officers while the United States on the next day expressed its strong support
to sanctions on the Myanmar military officials who were behind the brutal
military actions.

After the visit to the Rohingya camps today, the British minister said
what he witnessed in Rohingya camp was truly heartbreaking, and only
redoubles his determination to support the refugees and keep up the pressure
on the Myanmar authorities.

“We will continue to use international pressure and dialogue with the
Burmese (Myanmar) authorities to make progress, including through our support
for the EU sanctions,” he said. The visits of the high profile global
figures, however, came two days after China said to have a crucial stake in
the crisis, assured Bangladesh of its help for returning the Rohingyas.

The assurance came as Bangladesh foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali met his
Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing while they later jointly sat with
Myanmar’s Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe there in what officials said an
“informal meeting”.

International aid officials and media reports suggest Myanmar authorities
now visibly started to return some of the Rohingya Muslims as transit camps
in Rakhine state stood ready to welcome back 150 Rohingyas every day but
Myanmar immigration officials to do no work other than greeting visiting
delegations and journalists.

BSS/TA/AR/1928 hrs