Home minister to visit Myanmar Oct 23

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan today said he would visit Myanmar on October 23 for holding talks with the Myanmar government on repatriation of the Rohingyas, who were forcibly ousted from their homes in the Rakhine state and pushed into Bangladesh.

"The main agenda would be quick repatriation of the Rohingyas as the Myanmar's minister has assured here to take back their citizens during his visit to Dhaka recently," he told newsmen at his ministry at Bangladesh Secretariat.

The minister would lead a nine-member delegation including two secretaries, Inspector General of Police (IGP), additional secretary, Director General of Border Guard (BGB), Director General of Bangladesh Coast Guard and Director General of the Department of Narcotics Control.

Replying to a query, Khan said the delegation, expected to return on October 25, would visit Myanmar on invitation of the Myanmar government. "We want to resolve all the problems through discussion as we have some unresolved issues but the main agenda would be to send back all Rohingyas to Myanmar," he said.

The Home Minister said he would request the Myanmar government to ensure good environment for the Rohingyas in the Rakhine state, so that they would not come to Bangladesh once again by leaving their homes. "We hope the situation will improve through this visit and the Rohingya would no more come to Bangladesh," he said.

Replying to another query, he said, "We want to visit the Rakhine state where the Rohingyas live to see the situation there, if the Myanmar government allows us."

The minister however, said some five lakh Rohingyas came to Bangladesh long ago and now new five lakh Rohingyas arrived, adding, "They are still staying here despite our sincere diplomatic efforts to send them back. The government let out the Bhasanchar Island for the Rohingyas to save Teknaf and Ukhia from any social problem."

Earlier, the Minister for the Office of the State Counsellor of Myanmar Kyaw Tint Swe agreed to take back over half a million of its forcibly displaced Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh during his talks with the authorities here while visiting Dhaka as a senior representative of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Myanmar has proposed to take back the Rohingyas from Bangladesh," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told newsmen emerging from a meeting with the Myanmar minister on October 2.

On October 3, ambassadors of 20 mostly western countries based in Myanmar in a joint statement said they saw Rohingya villages were being burned to the ground with residents fleeing elsewhere while visiting the Rakhine state, the scene of the violent military crackdown.

The envoys represented the United States, the European Union, Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, Sweden and Finland.