Bangladesh sees the result of the United Nations (UN) resolution on Rohingyas as its ‘diplomatic success’.
“We’re happy with the results,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told reporters on Sunday at his office terming it as a success for Bangladesh as 132 countries voted in favour of the resolution.
The resolution on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Vietnam and Zimbabwe stood beside Myanmar while India and Japan refrained from voting the draft resolution.
The foreign minister said Dhaka has no displeasure against the countries which abstained from voting in the UN resolution as well as voted against it saying it is a “strategic” decision.
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“Those countries could play a better role which voted against the resolution. We don’t have any displeasure against them,” he said.
A total of 26 countries, including India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Singapore abstained from voting on the resolution on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.
Momen said the countries, those wanted to remain neutral in the UN to use their leverage on Myanmar in finding the solution, talked to Bangladesh before taking their the decision.
“We are happy about that,” he said.
The foreign minister said Rohingya issue remains a big challenge and expressed his expectation over resumption of the repatriation process in this year. “I’ve conveyed to my counterpart in Myanmar that we want the (repatriation) process to start,” he said.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district and most of them arrived there since August 25, 2017 after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” by other rights groups.
Bangladesh and Myanmar signed the repatriation deal on November 23, 2017.On January 16, 2018, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on “Physical Arrangement”, which was supposed to facilitate the return of Rohingyas to their homeland.
Myanmar did not take back a single Rohingya from Bangladesh over the last three years while the attempts of repatriation failed twice.
