Describing the atrocities carried out on Rohingyas in Rakhine as genocide, the visiting three female Nobel peace laureates on Wednesday said the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
The three Nobel laureates-Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Shirin Ebadi of Iran and Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland-said the Myanmar government must be taken to task for committing genocide in Rakhaine and the world must take a stance against such atrocities. They said this when they met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban. After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters. He said the three Nobel laureates said it is a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar government. “The international community should do something in this regard,” he quoted the Nobel laureates as saying. They narrated the stories heard from the Rohingya refugees who have taken shelter in Cox’s Bazar.
They said they are shocked to hear the atrocities on the Rohingyas as it is simply genocide.
They wondered how the world can remain silent. They thanked the Prime Minister and the people of Bangladesh for standing beside the forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens. They called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a ‘kind mother’. They mentioned that Bangladesh now needs more international assistance for rehabilitation of the Rohingyas. The Nobel laureates said they met 100 women who were raped in Myanmar before fleeing to Bangladesh and most of the children lost their fathers. It is much more what the media said and the international community should act against it, they said. The Prime Minister narrated how the exodus of Rohingyas into Bangladesh started in 1977. She said Bangladesh has given shelter to the 10,78,000 Rohingyas, fled to Bangladesh after becoming victims of atrocities in Myanmar, on humanitarian grounds.
Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh wants to maintain good relations with its neighbours. She said Bangladesh already signed an agreement with Myanmar for repatriation of the Rohingyas. The Prime Minister pointed out that the foreign minister and the home minister visited Myanmar to end the Rohingya crisis.
Hasina reiterated her call to the international community to put extra pressure on Myanmar for solving the crisis. She also described how the influx of Rohingyas is affecting the local people and environment in Cox’s Bazar. PM’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi was present on the occasion.
