UN General Assembly 2018: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
drew on her own experience as a refugee at the meeting
Bangladesh has called on the international community to
assist in ensuring the repatriation of the Rohingya by creating a safe zone in
Myanmar.
Ms Hasina said that by accepting the Rohingya into
Bangladesh, her country had prevented the crisis from spilling out into the
rest of the continent.
Speaking at a panel event titled “The global compact on
refugees” on Monday, Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina recalled her own
experience of displacement while offering recommendations which would allow the
Rohingya to return home.
“In Bangladesh, we are faced with the largest forced movement
of over 1.1 million traumatised Rohingya at the shortest time. They have been
forcibly displaced from their homes in Rakhine State of Myanmar where they had
been living for centuries,” she said.
“We must not forget that every refugee deserves a safe
return to their homeland. The displaced people from Myanmar must be able to
return home with dignity, safety and security,” she added.
Ms Hasina said that by accepting the Rohingya into
Bangladesh, her country had prevented the crisis from spilling out into the
rest of the continent.
Chairing the panel, the UN high commissioner for refugees
Federico Grandi thanked Sheikh Hasini for sharing her own experience, which he
said was a reminder that the event was “about people and not just about numbers
and politics”.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a stateless Muslim
minority in Myanmar, fled to Bangladesh after violence erupted with the
country’s security forces in August 2017.
Myanmar’s powerful military generals have been accused by
the UN of carrying out a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” through their
persecution of the Rohingya in Rakhine State.
Ms Hasina said Myanmar must abolish its discriminatory
laws against the Rohingya, offer them pathway to citizenship and if needed
create a “safe zone” inside the country to protect them.
She also said that Myanmar must accept the
recommendations of a Fact-Finding Mission of the UN Human Rights Council last
month, which said that military leaders should be held accountable for their
crimes in Rakhine.
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The Bangladeshi leader’s comments came just hours after
Myanmar’s commander in chief warned against foreign countries interfering in
his country’s affairs.
Min Aung Hlaing said in remarks published by on his
website on Monday that “talks to meddle in internal affairs” would cause
“misunderstanding”.
The comments were the first time Min Aung Hlaing has
spoken in public since the UN mission’s report called upon him and five other
generals to be prosecuted for atrocities carried out last year, which include
allegations of mass killings and gang rapes.
Myanmar denies wrongdoing says its forces carried out a
legitimate operation to expel terrorists following attacks by Muslim militants
on police and army posts.
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court
(ICC) announced last week that she was launching a preliminary investigation
into the deportations of Rohingya into Bangladesh.
Also at the UN meeting, Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu urged developed countries to do more to assist with the numbers of
refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.
“Turkey is home to the largest refugee population in the
world,” said Mr Cavusoglu, who stepped in at the meeting for President Tayyip
Erdogan. “We have provided shelter to anyone needing protection. We have
provided education, health, and psychological services to anyone who needs
them.”
Mr Cavusoglu added that Turkey and Russia had a prevented
a “huge tragedy” by agreeing to create a demilitarised buffer zone in Syria’s Idlib province,
which would separate government troops from rebel forces. https://lnkd.in/g3BZqRB
Source: The national