'Govt an abject failure in resolving Rohingya crisis'

The government has been an abject failure in resolving the Rohingya crisis, BNP has alleged, the incumbent couldn't generate international community's support in favour of Bangladesh regarding the Rohingya issue.

On the contrary, it has sidestepped the international community, including the United Nations, and gone ahead to sign an agreement with Myanmar regarding Rohingya repatriation, BNP said adding this unrealistic agreement will lessen international pressure on Myanmar.

These observations were made at a seminar organised by BNP on 'Rohingya crisis and repatriation strategy' on Sunday afternoon at a hotel in the capital. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar six years ago.

At the BNP seminar on the Rohingya problem, the party's secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, "This government has been an abject failure in resolving the Rohingya crisis. It has failed to mobilise international opinion to put pressure on Myanmar. The Rohingyas at present are creating a national security issue in Bangladesh. Seeds of extremism are sprouting in the Rohingya camps. Gunfights are taking place. The government has signed a bilateral agreement for Rohingya repatriation which will be almost impossible to implement."

BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury presented the keynote on 'Rohingya crisis and repatriation strategy' at the seminar.

The keynote pointed out that there were 1.2 million Rohingyas in Bangladesh at present. With infants being born in the camps, every year this figure was going up by 30,000. Rohingyas are creating problems for the country's economy.

The matter is also a threat to national security. This problem must be speedily resolved with Rohingyas being given Myanmar citizenship and ensuring their safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation. Along with the international community including the neighbours, pressure must be mounted on Myanmar to resolve the crisis.

The keynote went on to state that the two earlier repatriation efforts were failures. Now under a new agreement, Bangladesh has taken initiative to repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar under a pilot project. BNP sees this repatriation effort as a 'trap'. According to the UN human rights council, Bangladesh is using misleading and forceful measures to send the Rohingyas back to Myanmar against their will.

BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan said that the Bangladesh government has been an absolute failure in resolving the problem bilaterally and globally. He said that by resettling the Rohingyas on Bhasanchar, the government has sent a wrong message to the international community. The government's mismanagement has created disorder over the Rohingya issue. The solution to the Rohingya problem now no longer is in the hands of Bangladesh. It has become a regional and global issue now.

President of Gono Odhikar Parishad (Nurul-Rashed), Nurul Haque, said that the large neighbours and ASEAN countries are not taking any effective measures regarding the Rohingya issue.

Writer and political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman said, Bangladesh wants to resolve the Rohingya problem bilaterally. As a result, the pressure on Myanmar has lessened. The talks and the solution are being carried out exactly how Myanmar wants. Myanmar doesn't even admit to the Rohingya problem. Countries like India, China and Russia are not on Bangladesh's side on the Rohingya issue.

The keynote paper offered several guidelines on how to resolve the Rohingya crisis. These included increasing involvement of the UN and the international community in tackling the crisis and, as per the report of the UN independent international fact finding mission, defining the offences of Myanmar against the Rohingyas a genocide and crimes against humanity.

The seminar, moderated by BNP's organisation secretary Shama Obaid, was also addressed by Bangladesh Kalyan Party chairman Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, BNP Dhaka South convener Abdus Salam, former diplomat Iftekharul Karim, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, M Shahiduzzaman and others.

BNP said that the seminar was attended by representatives of 15 countries including the US, the European Union, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands.