Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the ongoing Rohingya problem could be solved through her five-point proposal placed at the UN General Assembly on September 21 last.
“We don’t want any war; we believe all the problems can be solved through discussions. The Rohingya problem also can be solved in light of the five-point proposal that we’ve placed at the United Nations,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while receiving cheques of donations to her Relief and Welfare Fund from the leaders of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) at her office.
PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the programme. Sheikh Hasina said her proposals are: Ending ethnic conflicts, sending UN fact-finding mission to Rakhine State in Myanmar, sending back the forcibly evicted Rohingya people after ensuring their proper security and immediate and unconditional implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission’s recommendations.
Hasina said she could understand the pains and sufferings of the Rohingya people as she and her sister had spent a refugee life after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975. Referring to the influx of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals into Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said her government gave shelter to the Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds. “It would be inhumane if we don’t stand beside the Rohingyas during their time of distress.”
Recalling the miserable days of Bangladeshi refugees during the Liberation War in 1971, the Prime Minister said Rohingya people are facing the same kind of oppression that Pakistani occupational forces had inflicted on Bangladeshi people.
“At that time, three crore people of the country were displaced and one crore people took refuge in India,” she said.
The Prime Minister said the people of remote areas of Bangladesh have extended their support and assistance to the Rohingya people as they have got great human qualities.
Referring to the efforts of the members of armed forces, BGB, police and her party volunteers for their support to the Rohingya people, she said her government will ensure their health, sanitation, education, security and other facilities through rehabilitating them into Bhasan Char.
“We’re taking steps to move them into a safe place, where we’re constructing multipurpose cyclone shelters,” Hasina said. Terming militancy as an international problem, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh also witnessed militant incidents and the government controlled those with an iron hand.
