Bangladesh, Myanmar to form joint working group

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to form a joint working group in a bid to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said this to journalists after a meeting with Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's representative Kyaw Tint Swe over Rohingya refugees on Monday.

The meeting started at 11:00 am at state guesthouse Padma in Dhaka.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque joined the meeting.

“Myanmar has proposed taking back the Rohingya refugees. We have agreed on forming a joint working group to oversee the repatriation process,” Minister Ali said.

In the meeting, Bangladesh handed Myanmar with a draft agreement of repatriation and suggested implementations of the Annan Commission report.

The refugees have claimed the Myanmar security forces are shooting at civilians, setting fire to their homes and raping Rohingya women.

Bangladesh is currently sheltering 507,000 Rohingya refugees, who have flooded in since August 25. At the same time, Bangladesh has been pushing Myanmar to take back the refugees.

The international community has thrown condemnation towards Myanmar for violence in Rakhine state – a fact proved by satellite images while denounced by Myanmar government.

Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to restoring democracy to the country, sent the minister of her office to Bangladesh amid international pressure over the crisis, which the UN has called an ‘ethnic cleansing’.

risingbd/Dhaka/Oct 2, 2017/NA/Mukul