Dhaka to seek lasting solution to Rohingya issue

Bangladesh will seeks a permanent solution to the Rohingya issue during a meeting with the special envoy of Aung San Suu Kyi today (Wednesday) that has been ignored by the Janta and political government of Myanmar for long.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Kyaw Tin arrived here on Tuesday to convey a message from Myanmar State Counsellor and leader of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to discuss the issue.
However, Bangladesh will place its position before the extraordinary meeting in Kuala Lumpur on the overall situation apart from the latest development on Rohingya issue and in a same way it will
discuss the issue with the UN official, according to the diplomatic sources.
The international community including the United Nations and the European Union in particular, the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has taken up the Rohingya issue seriously. OIC members are set to gather in Kuala Lumpur on January 19 to discuss possible actions on the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament (EP) has asked the government of Myanmar to allow the UN and other outside observers to assist in investigating recent events in Rakhine State's Maungdaw district.
The EP also urged the military and security forces to stop immediately the 'killings, harassment and rapes' of the Rohingya people, and the burning of their homes.
Besides, a team from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is now visiting Myanmar in this connection.
Meanwhile, the OIC Groups in Geneva and Brussels held emergency meetings during the past several days to discuss the ongoing crisis facing the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
The meetings sought to identify possible actions that may be taken in the lead-up to the forthcoming extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, according to officials at the OIC Secretariat.
According to the Foreign and Home Ministry, 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 allowed a number of Rohingyas on humanitarian ground but still the Rohingya influx is continuing. Following the November incident, around 50,000 people have fled Myanmar and entered Bangladesh.
"Bangladesh will reiterate its position and seek a permanent solution to the Rohingya issue as the trade-business and diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar is struggling for five decades due to border tension, lack of confidence that mostly based on Rohingya issue, although Bangladesh is trying to build up the relations to prevent actual border incidents and increase trade and investment for economic development for these two countries," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer.
Bangladesh has a 274- kilometer border with Myanmar. Of them, 210 kilometres are with highway connectivity and the rest 64km with river-way connectivity.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Deputy Director-General Colonel MM Anisur Rahman told the Daily Observer that the government is working to construct highways in our border areas so that the border guards can patrol border areas smoothly.
He said the BGB doubled its manpower and border posts to check Rohingya influx. It increased manpower to 4,000 from 2,000 after the Myanmar incident. Besides, the number of check posts has been increased to 30 from 15.
Foreign Ministry officials said the premier has given the directives to address the Rohingya issue, engage Myanmar at the highest level, keep the channels of dialogue open, set up mechanisms to resolve border disputes, strengthen confidence-building measures to prevent actual border incidents and increase trade and investment between the two countries.
"Dhaka eager for stronger relations with Myanmar through holding dialogues in different areas, however, for the benefit of the two peoples, the Foreign Ministry has been trying to convince Myanmar for more than a couple of years to create space for dialogues to build trust between the two nations," a diplomatic source said.
Bangladesh wants to start official dialogue to dissolve the pending issues including Border Liaison Office (BLO), allow vessels use its inland ports including Chittagong, Mongla, Narayanganj and Teknaf ports in Bangladesh and Pathein, Sittwe and Maungtaw 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 link with East-West and North-East corridors of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations); so, we need to talk and hear each other, the official said.
The Foreign Ministry said around 50,000 Myanmar citizens has taken shelter in Bangladesh since Oct 9 when the Rakhine state turned volatile following an attack on police outposts.
Around 300,000 Myanmar nationals have been in Bangladesh for years, according to the government figure.
Amid international outcry, Director General Kyaw Zaya of Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Dec 30, however, told Reuters that they would take back 2,415 citizens from Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, the Myanmar authorities have been maintaining this number since 2010 but never started the process to take back those verified even before 2006.