Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, MP, said on Monday that while the world appreciated the role of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in handling the Rohingya influx, the role of Khaleda Zia and BNP was undermining the PM’s best efforts.
The minister condemned the heinous role of the Myanmar government in carrying out genocide against the Rohingyas and forcing them to flee their land.
“The influx of the refugees has created a volatile situation in South Asia and South-East Asia,” he said.
The minister said this while addressing a crowded press conference at the Press Information Department (PID) auditorium.
The minister also said that Bangladesh wanted a diplomatic solution to this grave humanitarian crisis.
It is an ethnic problem and not a religious one, he pointed out. The minister observed that this was not the first time that Myanmar had engaged in ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas and cited instances from 1978 onwards when the same was done. Inu also mentioned the different steps Bangladesh had taken to keep the eastern border peaceful and cited the MOU on Security Cooperation Dialogue of August 25, 2017 and the establishment of Border Liaison Office.
He also mentioned the two meetings between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with Myanmar’s State Councilor Aung Sang Su Ki in 2016 for the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.
“We’ve left no stone unturned to reach a peaceful solution so that the Rohingyas could go back and live peacefully in their own land”, he said.
The minister also elaborately narrated the various steps taken by the Bangladesh government to make the life of the refugees as livable as possible. “Despite our resource constraint we have tried our best to accommodate them as comfortably as possible, “he said. The minister in his written speech described the various steps, including humanitarian, diplomatic and political, taken by the Bangladesh government for the quick and safe return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar.
