No favourable response from Myanmar to our proposals over Rohingya crisis: B'desh Minister

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 18 (ANI): Bangladesh State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Monday said that they made a few proposals to Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, but did not get any favourable response.

He also thanked all the friendly countries for coming forward and supporting them in the time of humanitarian crisis.

"We made a few proposals to Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, but haven't got any favourable response," Alam said.

However, he also mentioned that Bangladesh is not depending on anyone's aid.

"It's good that eight to nine countries have come forward for our support. The Bangladesh Prime Minister has said we will share whatever resources we have with the Rohingya refugees," he said.

"It's a security threat. We have had incidents in the past, that is why we are mindful."

"We are registering the Rohingya population as you know for the first time and the work has begun a week ago and we have ordered the law enforcement agencies and the local administration that the Rohingya population should not go outside of the designated area within the Cox' bazaar district," he said.

According to the minister, a total of around 8,00,000 refugees have taken shelter in Bangladesh since October 9, 2016, following an outbreak of violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina on Saturday left for New York to attend the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where she will be raising the issue of Rohingya crisis.

She will also make a formal proposal at the upcoming session for an early implementation of recommendations by the Kofi Annan-led Commission.

The Advisory Commission recommended that the Myanmar Government take concrete steps to end the enforced segregation of Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims; ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access throughout the state; tackle Rohingya statelessness and "revisit" the 1982 Citizenship Law; hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable; and end restrictions on freedom of movement, among other recommendations.

She will be addressing the UNGA on September 21.

Hasina will also urge the world leaders to play an effective role in stopping the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

The Rohingya Muslims, who have taken refuge in Cox's Bazar and Teknaf border areas in Bangladesh after they fled the barbarous persecution in Myanmar's Rakhine state, are now suffering due to an absence of food, shelters, medicines, sanitation facilities and clean water.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said around 4,00,000 refugees have fled from the violence-affected Myanmar's Northern Rakhine state and sought refuge in Bangladesh, where the limited shelter capacity is already exhausted.

Many of over 3,50,000 refugees, staying either under open sky or at the new refugee camps and shelters, are suffering from diarrhea and different diseases and don't have an access to even clean drinking water and proper medicines. (ANI)