Foreign diplomats inspect Bangladesh-Myanmar frontier area at Tambru Bazar in Bandarban on Wednesday in the wake of recent Rohingya inflow into Bangladesh. — Focusbangla photo
Ambassadors, high commissioners and mission chiefs of different foreign embassies and UN organisations on Wednesday visited Cox’s Bazar to see the plights of minority Rohingyas who fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar.
They visited makeshift shelters in Kutupalong and zero-line to see newly fled Rohingyas from Myanmar.
A foreign diplomat said she saw, standing near the zero line, smokes belching out in the horizon from arson in Rakhine villages even 18 days after the Myanmar military launched their ‘security operations’.
The ambassadors talked to a section of newly arrived Rohingyas who described their ordeal to the diplomats.
Several diplomats stressed the need for immediate end of persecution and said sustainable resolution of Rohingya crises would be possible only after repatriation of Rohingyas to their ancestral home in Rakhine State.
Diplomats of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France,
Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA, among others, joined the day-trip organised by the foreign ministry.
Most of the diplomats returned to Dhaka on Wednesday afternoon.
The diplomats are expected to report to their respective governments on Rohingya situation on the ground.
Some 3,79,000 minority Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, fled into Bangladesh till Wednesday, according to UN estimates, as Myanmar military and religious bigots launched a ‘security operation’ killing people and burning villages and houses on August 25.
The total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and refugees living in Bangladesh has risen to 8,00,000, according to unofficial estimate.
Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam and foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque and senior government officials accompanied the diplomats during their visit to Cox’s Bazar.
Rohingya crisis ‘is Myanmar’s own problem… Bangladesh is being affected by it,’ Shahriar Alam told reporters, adding that the problem was created by the Myanmar government and ‘they’ll have to resolve it,’ private news agency United News of Bangladesh reported.
Sri Lankan high commissioner did not join the trip, while Myanmar envoy was not invited.
The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to hold a closed-door discussion on Thursday night (Bangladesh time) on the deteriorating situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, at the request of Britain and Sweden.
Zaw Htay, director general of Myanmar state counsellor Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s office, said she would not attend the 72nd session of the UNGA as ‘she needs to monitor’ Rakhine situation, according to international news agencies.
Source: New Age
