Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the world community, particularly the ASEAN member states, to redouble their collective efforts to repatriate Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar side by side with executing the resolutions of security council and general assembly to ensure a sustainable solution to the crisis.
"Redouble our concerted efforts to ensure lasting solutions to this (Rohingya) problem, which originated in Myanmar; among all options, voluntary repatriation is the most viable one," she told by placing four proposals to be addressed by the global community for a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis.
Bangladesh, Canada, Gambia, Malaysia, Turkey, the UK and the USA hosted the high-level event on the Rohingya crisis titled "Have they forgotten us?" at the UN Headquarters on Thursday on the sidelines of the 78th UNGA session.
Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, President of Timor Leste, Antonio Vitorino, Director General (DG) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Karim A. A. Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Attorney General, Ministry of Justice, Gambia, Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Lord Ahmed, State Minister of the UK for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations and Uzra Zeya, the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, spoke on the occasion.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, gave the keynote speech
Foreign Minister Dr Ak Abdul Momen moderated the event.
"I urge the world community to remain seized of the matter and continue to keep this issue at the top of our agenda alongside continuing our humanitarian efforts to ensure the sustenance of these ill-fated and hapless human beings," the premier told in her first and second proposals.
Elaborating her third proposals, she said, "Pursue ongoing and available legal and multilateral mechanisms to ensure accountability of the perpetrators who committed persistent, systemic, and systematic heinous atrocities against this ethnic minority."
The prime minister said they are gathered here today to once again remind all the enduring suffering of Rohingya minorities since the world witnessed the tragic exodus of the Rohingyas from Myanmar for the last six years.
She said within a few months' time, nearly a million people ran into Bangladesh as they saw their houses being burnt; families being killed.
"Since then, we have been sheltering them on our soil and providing them with basic humanitarian services. I thank all our partners and friends for their solidarity as well as their political and humanitarian support for this cause," she said.
However, the issue has now reached a point of stagnation, she said, adding that not a single displaced Rohingya has been able to return to their homes in Myanmar in the last six years.
BDST: 1553 HRS, SEP 22, 2023
MN
