Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen has said Myanmar’s reluctance is proving to be a major obstacle despite Bangladesh’s willingness to achieve peaceful repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.
He also urged the international community to put pressure on Myanmar to achieve peaceful repatriation of the Rohingya refugees, said a press release on Wednesday.
The foreign secretary said this while addressing the first day of a two-day international e-conference – Connecting Rohingya Diaspora: Highlighting the Global Displacement – jointly organized ActionAid Bangladesh, Dhaka University Centre for Genocide Studies and BRAC University Centre for Peace and Justice, marking the 3rd anniversary of the massive Rohingya influx into Bangladesh.
“The Rohingyas from Myanmar have been subject to abuse since 1948. At present, the Rohingyas are acknowledged as the most persecuted community in the world. There is approximately 2.5 million Rohingyas scattered around the world, more than half of who reside in Bangladesh,” said the foreign secretary.
“The Bangladesh Government has successfully accommodated the massive influx of Rohingya Refugees and have also provided sufficient shelter to the Refugees,” he added.
He also expressed concerns over the possibility of conflict if the situation prolongs.
The e-conference was attended by experts, researchers, academician, human rights activists and humanitarian workers working on the Rohingya crisis from 12 countries, including Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen joined the e-conference as the chief guest, while Cherno Marenah, solicitor general and legal secretary at Gambia’s Ministry of Justice, joined as guest of honour.
“In October, Gambia will submit the first memorandum in the case at the International Court of Justice. We are working extremely hard along with international lawyers,” Cherno Marenah told the e-conference.
Manzoor Hasan OBE, executive director of Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) at BRAC University, presented the welcome speech at the e-conference.
Emphasizing on a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis, he said: “We will release the Dhaka Declaration after the culmination of the two-day e-conference. This will be the second Dhaka Declaration. The first one was released in 2018.”
While talking about the overall perspective of the conference, Dr Imtiaz Ahmed, professor for International Relations at Dhaka University and director of Centre for Genocide Studies (CGS), said: “The Rohingya issue is not only a bilateral issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar anymore, it has become an international issue. There has been a systematic genocide going on in Myanmar for decades. Even though previously the genocide had not gotten proper coverage, the 2017 events have brought it into the limelight”.
Thanking Gambia for presenting the Rohingya genocide at the International Court of Justice, he added: “This conference has three objectives- Presenting the miserable scenario of the Rohingya community to the international community, listening to the experiences of the Rohingya diaspora scattered around the world, and connecting the Rohingyas living both in and out of Myanmar”.
Dr Imtiaz also urged the international community to unite in order to achieve the peaceful repatriation of the Rohingya Refugees and reformation of the constitution of Myanmar to ensure the rights of the Rohingya Refugees as Myanmar citizens.
Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, told the e-conference: “We don’t want the plight of the Rohingyas to prolong. We all know that there was a massive influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh in 2017. The Rohingya diaspora themselves can play a crucial role in bringing about a change.”
The e-conference is divided into 4 panels among which 2 panels presented their views. Apart from this, the first day of the conference saw participation from representatives of the Rohingya diaspora, teacher and researchers from Saudi Arabia, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America and Thailand, who presented their views and research papers.