Dhaka for ‘non-militarised safe zone’ for Rohingyas in Rakhine

NEWAGE
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury |
Published:  May 08,2019

Lavrov critical of UN high-ups’ Rohingya dealings

Bangladesh has sought to establish non-militarised safe zones by Myanmar in highly militarised Rakhine State for receiving Rohingya people in safety with support from ASEAN and other international actors.

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen raised the matter of establishing ‘non-militarised safe zones’ with support from ASEAN countries and other international organisations in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last week, according to diplomatic sources in the Russian capital.

There should be a mechanism including surveillance by civil authorities of the ASEAN countries and the UN bodies for ensuring safety of the returnees in Rakhine State, Bangladesh officials said. Myanmar is a member of ASEAN. 

Lavrov, a proponent of bilateral solutions to the Rohingya crisis, was also urged to use his good office with Myanmar for creating an environment in Rakhine conducive to expedite repatriation of the group from Bangladesh, officials in Moscow said. The two ministers discussed the matter in a brief closed-door meeting before joining a formal meeting flanked by their respective delegation across the table.

The Bangladesh side was expecting that the Russians would actively engage with Myanmar for facilitating resumption of the repatriation process that had faltered on November 15 last year.

Lavrov, however, has said before venting bluntly his annoyance against positions on Rohingya issues taken by chiefs of three UN organisations saying, ‘I see no solution other than a bilateral one based on dialogue and mutual understanding, the way it should be between neighbours.’ 

‘I heard that the heads of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [Filippo Grandi] and the International Organisation for Migration [Antonio Vitorino], as well as the UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Mark Lowcock, were in Dhaka just the other day,’ the Russian foreign minister said at a press conference in presence of Momen after the meeting on April 29. 

‘These high representatives, probably contrary to the mandates of their organisations, expressed doubts about the expediency of starting the repatriation of 8,000 refugees,’ Lavrov said, according to a transcription posted on the website of the Russian foreign ministry. 

‘This figure was agreed by Bangladesh and Myanmar. These refugees are ready to return. I was surprised that representatives of the UN and its specialised agencies showed interest in keeping refugees on the territory of another country,’ he continued.

Lavrov hoped ‘this position [of three UN officials] will not be shared’ by the UN member states and its secretary general Antonio Guterres. 

Grandi, Vitorino and Lowcock visited Bangladesh for three days starting from April 24 and called on Momen on April 25. 

Grandi, Vitorino and Lowcock stressed the need, during their visit, for a dignified, safe and long-term future for the Rohingya people with finding ‘a just and lasting solution’ to the protracted crisis in Myanmar.

More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017. 

The UNHCR and the government failed in their first attempt for sending the first batch of Rohingya people on November 15 last year as nobody agreed to go back with referring to absence of environment for return in Rakhine. 

The ongoing Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to about 1.2 million according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh authorities.

Link :http://www.newagebd.net/article/71770/dhaka-for-non-militarised-safe-zone-for-rohingyas-in-rakhine