Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito expected that repatriation of Rohingya refugees will begin soon as the global community, including Japan, is becoming more active day by day to resolve the crisis. He said, “Bangladesh and Japan are cooperating with each other over the issue.”
The Japanese ambassador made the observation while unveiling the cover of a book titled 'Bangladesh International Peace Building: Discourse from Japan Beyond' at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) auditorium on Tuesday.
Naoki said, “Bangladesh has sheltered around 1.1 Million Rohingyas who were forced out of their homeland in Rakhine State of Myanmar. Japan is helping Bangladesh for their safe and sustainable repatriation. Hopefully, the Rohingyas will return as soon as possible because of the international pressures which is increasing day by day.”
Observing that Japan has been working to bring peace across the globe, he said, “The Japanese Prime Minister has also called on Myanmar and its military to resolve the problem.” At the event, Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, the Department of International Relations of Dhaka University, said, “Bangladesh has changed and we are now witnessing the advent of a new Bangladesh. Now, Bangladesh has no enemies in the world.”
“Although the number of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh are more than total population of Bhutan, the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar is safer than the city of New York,” he said, adding that this could have been possible only for the peaceful nature of the people of Bangladesh.
Dhaka University Prof Rashid Uz Zaman, BIISS Director General Major General (Retd) AKM Abdur Rahman, Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Monirul Islam, Air Commodore (Retd) Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury and Lieutenant General (retd) Md. Mainul Islam also spoke on the occasion.
