Hasina's comment came as the proposal was placed in the
US Congress seeking integration of Myanmar's Rakhine with Bangladesh as
millions of persecuted Rohingyas have fled Myanmar and taken refuge in the
neighboring nation.
Dhaka: Bangladesh is happy with its 54,000 sq km
territory, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday as she criticised as
"flagitious" a proposal by a top US lawmaker to integrate Myanmar's
restive Rakhine state with her country.
The digit 54,000 km is might be mistakenly written by the author of #News18. It is 147,570 square kilometers (56,980 square miles) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh
The digit 54,000 km is might be mistakenly written by the author of #News18. It is 147,570 square kilometers (56,980 square miles) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh
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Hasina's comment came as the proposal was placed in the
US Congress on June 13 seeking integration of Myanmar's Rakhine with Bangladesh
as millions of persecuted Rohingyas have fled Myanmar and taken refuge in the
neighboring nation's Chittagong.
The proposal was made by Congressman Bradley Sherman,
Chairman of the Sub-committee on Asia Pacific, during a hearing on the State
Department's budget for South Asia.
Addressing a press conference here, a visibly irked
Hasina reminded Sherman of the civil war of his country in the past and said
Bangladesh would not do anything which would affect regional stability and
peace.
She said Bangladesh honoured Myanmar's sovereignty while
Rakhine was part of its territory and what Dhaka wanted was the safe return of
the Rohingyas to their homeland.
Hasina termed the proposal a "flagitious
proposition" and asked Sherman to rather mobilise a campaign for the safe
return of the Rohingyas to their homeland. This is a flagitious proposal...we
are happy with our 54,000 square kilometer territory, Hasina said.
She said the help Bangladesh extended to the Rohingyas is
on humanitarian grounds which does not mean, it wants to annex the Rakhine
state.
According to the UN estimates, nearly 700,000 minority
Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in the Rakhine
state since August 2017 when the army launched a military crackdown.
Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group
and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.
The continuous violence on the Rohingyas also made the UN
term it as an "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Hasina said
every nation was a sovereign nation.
Each state is a sovereign one. Why they want to attach
Rakhine State with us? The US congressman expressed his audacity by placing
such proposal, she said. However, Hasina said Bangladesh was maintaining a
cordial relation with Myanmar despite it imposed its burden on its neighbour by
driving out their nationals.
Hasina addressed the press conference a day after she
returned from a five-day trip to China, largely to draw Beijing's effective
support to mount pressure on Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas.
She said the Chinese leaders assured her of pursuing
their crucial ally Myanmar to end the crisis by taking back the Rohingyas.
China assured us it will remain beside Bangladesh in the repatriation of the
Rohingyas. Is it not a good news for us?," Hasina asked.
Source:
