Experts see no imminent solution to Rohingya crisis

Experts and local government representatives of Cox’s Bazar on Monday warned that they saw no solution to the Rohingya crisis as Myanmar was totally unwilling to take back the members of the community living in Bangladesh.

‘A solution to the Rohingya crisis is highly unlikely in next 10 years,’ security analyst Shakhawat Hossain said at a discussion in Dhaka on the need for Rohingya repatriation.

The Institute of Conflict, Law and Development Studies and Bangla daily Bhorer Kagoj jointly organised the discussion.

Myanmar, ‘a notorious country’ controlled by senior general Min Aung Hlaing, ‘is totally unwilling to take them  back,’ he said, adding that Min Aung was facing five serious charges from UN bodies for atrocities against the minorities while he was a relatively junior officer.

 Shakhawat, a retired senior military officer of the Bangladesh Army, said that Bangladesh would be in a big trouble unless the Rohingya crisis was solved within next 10 years.

He called for helping the Rohingya voice to be heard at the international level over the crisis.    

 Emphasising steps to protect the local communities from the adverse impacts of the Rohingya crisis, Ukhiya upazila chairman Hamidul Haque Chowdhury said that no one would feel what pain and sufferings the local people had been going through politically, economically and socially for several years.

 Describing the Rohingya camps as ticking bombs, he said that the government had allocated 6,500 acres of land for the settlements but it would not be sufficient due to population explosion inside the camps.

Mentioning China and India, he said only showing sympathy by ‘friendly’ countries would not be enough. ‘Our bosom friend India must come out of the veil’ for ensuring Rohingya repatriation, he added.  

Former foreign secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury suggested pursuing interim measures for dealing with the Rohingya crisis as he also saw no possibility of repatriation in next 10 years.

Mentioning the recent legal moves by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court over the atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya people, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam said that the Myanmar government ‘is not out of the jurisdiction of the ICC and the ICJ’.

Disaster and relief secretary Shah Kamal, migration specialist Asif Munier, retired judge AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik, among others, took  part in the discussion presided over by ICLDS chairman Muhammad Zamir.

Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamal Dutta moderated the discussion.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net