Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has expressed his expectation over resumption of the Rohingya repatriation process in this year.
“I’ve conveyed to my counterpart in Myanmar that we want the (repatriation) process to start,” he told reporters at his office on Sunday, the first office day of the New Year.
Dr Momen wrote a letter to Union Minister for State Counsellor's Office U Kyaw Tint Swe asking him to start the repatriation process in the new year.
The foreign minister said the Rohingya issue remains a big challenge for Bangladesh.
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.
The foreign minister said he wrote the letter to his Myanmar counterpart on the first day of the year, January 1.
“I reminded them of their promise. They promised to take back the Rohingyas with safety and security. They also promised to create a conducive environment in Rakhine, but no progress has been made,” Dr Momen said about the letter. “I said it requires political will and in the new year we hope you (Myanmar) will keep your word."
Referring to 1978 and 1992 when Myanmar took back Rohingyas, he said: "I have said, if they are not repatriated, there is a risk of unrest in the region.”
“Only Myanmar can solve the problem,” Dr Momen said, lamenting that "Myanmar's behavior is changing”.
“We are optimistic. We kept our bilateral, tripartite and multilateral talks continued. We are working within the legal framework. I am working on all the arrangements.”
The government has given a list of 6 lakh Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification. Only, 26,000 have been verified so far.
“They are taking time…they are very slow,” the foreign minister said.
Regarding the tripartite meeting, he said, Myanmar was delaying the meeting. China is the initiator of the tripartite talk with Myanmar and Bangladesh. “We are always ready. We will sit whenever they give us time.”
Japan has also involved itself in convincing Myanmar, the foreign minister said.
“We have requested Japan since they have huge investment in Myanmar. And they (Japan) said they will help us,” Dr Momen said, this is a new effort beyond China’s initiative.
Japan has a lot of big investments in Myanmar," he said. We asked them and they said they would help us. Because, Japan has influence over Myanmar.
This is beyond China's initiative. However, the structure has not yet been created at the initiative of Japan. We said and they liked it. '
“India has also told us that they will talk to Myanmar and help us. They also want the Rohingyas to return,” the foreign minister said, adding that “everyone agrees with us that the solution lies in Myanmar”.
