BD expects to drum up support for Rohingya return at ASEM meet

Bangladesh wants to make the best use of ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting to mount pressure on Myanmar and expedite talks for sending back Rohingyas to their homeland ahead of bi-lateral meeting between Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's State Counsellor and Charge of Foreign Ministry Aung San Suu Kyi from 22 to 23 November.
Foreign Minister Ali travelled to Naypyidaw on the German Foreign Minister's plane with the EU high representative to attend the 13th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the ASEM on Sunday evening.
 "We are expecting a louder voice from the international community at the meeting as some of them visited Rohingya camps and everybody knows the situation," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer on Sunday.
AH Mahmood Ali left Dhaka on Sunday to join the ASEM meeting along with his "Draft Agreement" which is likely to be signed in the bi-lateral meeting, however, the ASEM foreign ministers meeting is going to be held in Myanmar from  20 to 21 November.
Bangladesh is to seek a permanent solution of the Rohingya issue that has been ignored by the Junta and political government of Myanmar for ages. Bangladesh will place its position before the meeting in Myanmar on the overall situation apart from the latest development on Rohingya issue and in a same way it will discuss the issue with  Suu Kyi, according to diplomatic sources.
"High profile officials from PMO, Home Ministry and Disaster Management Ministry will join with us on the bi-lateral meeting," the official added.
"We are very close, obviously there are some differences of opinion, like restriction on some words like "Rohingya", "Displaced", however, it will be a new Agreement if both the parties agree," the official added.
Rohingyas have started entering Bangladesh since the Myanmar army inflicted torture, killing, rape and arson attacks on the villages of the minority Muslims. Bangladesh government has allow the persecuted Rohingyas to enter the country on humanitarian ground but still the influx continues. More than 60,000 people have fled Myanmar and entered Bangladesh.
"Bangladesh wants to start official dialogue to resolve the pending issues including Border Liaison Office (BLO), allow vessels use its inland ports including Chittagong, Mongla, Narayanganj and Teknaf ports in Bangladesh and Yangon, Pathein, Sittwe and Maungdaw ports in Myanmar for each other's use, signing a Memorandum of Understanding to hold regular dialogues on security matters, establish communication network under BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) to linked with East-West and North-East corridors of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) so we need to start the "Agreement Negotiation" first.
Citing the UNGA's draft resolution of the third committee meeting, the official the UNGA called upon the Myanmar government to end the ongoing military operations in Rakhine State and to hold the perpetrators of the systemic violation and abuse of human rights of Rohingyas, that obtained 135 votes, that reflects that most of the nation are agreed with the Bangladesh's stand.
But it is also the fact that the countries that voted against are Myanmar, China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Syria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The 26 countries abstaining from voting include India, Japan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand while the absent nations include Iran and South Korea, so we would get a chance to talk with them in the ASEM meeting.
The resolution will put additional pressure on Myanmar to address the issue and the people of the world are expected to be much more aware about the Rohingya tragedy, so we are hopeful.
Even neighbouring countries including Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka were absents from the voting system. "So many factors including geopolitics and religion are involved in decision making on Rohingya crisis," a senior official said.
The Foreign Ministry said during the bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister "when the issue of the exodus of displaced Myanmar nationals was raised, the Chinese Foreign Minister stated that as a friend China will help resolve the issue and will not be partial to any side."
Even the Japanese Foreign Minister said, "Abstention from voting doesn't mean opposing Bangladesh," so we are hopeful, he added.
"He acknowledged that Bangladesh is facing the brunt of continuing influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh," the Foreign Ministry said.
"As a friend of Bangladesh and Myanmar, China wants the problem to be solved peacefully, and we are walking on the path," he added.