Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Dhaka has sought support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to mount an effective and coordinated pressure on Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis.
It also sought their active stance over Rohingya issue in the next ASEAN Summit to be held in Manila on November 13-15.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka said that the ongoing Rohingya crisis would be the top issue during the summit.
“Dhaka continues to pursue the ASEAN countries through diplomatic channels to mobilize their support on Rohingya issue. It also sought their active stance against the military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State that forced thousands of Rohingyas to flee from their country to Bangladesh,” a foreign ministry official told The New Nation on Tuesday, seeking anonymity.
The United Nations earlier said that Myanmar’s security forces resorted to mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly “ethnic cleansing”.
“Our envoys stationed in ASEAN states are working closely with their counterparts seeking their government’s active supports in this regard. They are also trying to motivate the nations to raise the Rohingya issue at the upcoming ASEAN Summit,” he added.
Terming Bangladesh’s relationship with ASEAN countries ‘extraordinary’, the foreign ministry official said, adding Dhaka attaches great value to its ties with the ASEAN nations and it is looking forward for their support to end the Rohingya crisis.
The foreign ministry official said that Myanmar, an ASEAN member country, was trying to keep the Rohingya issue off in Asian Summit insisting that the issue is an internal matter.
Some 21 heads of states and governments and several world leaders that include US President Donald Trump will attend the Summit.
The list of participants also includes United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres who has already taken an active role to resolve the ongoing Rohingya crisis by mobilizing global support.
An estimated 800,000 Rohingyas have already fled to Bangladesh amid escalating violence in Myanmar. The mass exodus has created a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in the Bangladesh’s border town of Cox’s Bazar with Bangladesh government seeking global support to shelter and feed the huge number of refuges and their safe and dignified return to Myanmar.
Denouncing the violence in Rakhine, the United Nations (UN) and the United States have both recently increased the pressure on Nay Pyi Taw to take steps to address the problem immediately, including safe and dignified return of the refugees to their homes, pushing for a full resumption of humanitarian aid in the Rakhine state.
But ASEAN members have remained largely silent over the issue drawing global criticism.
