3,000 Rohingya Muslims killed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since Aug 25: FM

A total of 3,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed following the army operation in the Rakhine State of Myanmar since August 25, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said today.

Tension had been brewing in the Rakhine state a month before the operation when the Myanmar government started increasing army deployment at many points of the state, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said while addressing a programme in Dhaka this morning.

According to UN agencies, 5,20,000 of the forcibly displaced people crossed over into Bangladesh since August 25; nearly 40,000 of them arrived in the last 10 days, said a foreign ministry press release issued yesterday.

The foreign minister today alleged that Myanmar is trying to defuse the mounting international pressure by proposing to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh.

The international pressure against Myanmar should be increased, he said at the programme in Bangladesh Institute of International & Strategic Studies (BIISS) auditorium.

Photo courtesy: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Terming the Rohingya issue “a problem of Myanmar”, the minister said the country has to solve it.

Myanmar army began a large-scale operation codenamed “Area Clearance” to confront “terrorists” but in fact they are continuing inhuman oppression on Rohingyas, Ali said while reading out a written statement at the programme.

“The core part of the Rohingya population came to Bangladesh for the very first time in the history,” he said alleging that the Myanmar government with the help of state media is spreading false information on Rohingyas and trying to create confusion in international arena.

“Myanmar government and its media have been spreading this entire issue as Islamic terrorism or radical Bangali terrorism. Efforts are on to confuse some of the neighbouring countries by this campaign,” the Bangladesh foreign minister alleged.

We have been repeatedly requesting Myanmar not to use the term “Bangali,” he said.

One week after a meeting with a senior minister from Myanmar, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali yesterday said Dhaka has not agreed to Naypyidaw’s proposal of following the principle and criteria of the 1992 deal to take back the forcibly displaced Myanmar national’s population.

On October 2, Myanmar formally proposed taking back the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh but offered no specifics on how the repatriation of such a massive refugee population should take place.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, proposed a bilateral agreement to facilitate the repatriation process and handed over a draft of the proposed deal to Kyaw Tint Swe, union minister for the Office of the State Counsellor of the neighbouring country.

Source: The Daily Star