MT Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday reiterated her call to the international community and the United Nations (UN) to play intensified role in solving the Rohingya crisis by repatriating the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals to their motherland.
The premier made this call while UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi paid a courtesy call on her at the bilateral meeting room of Lotte New York Palace hotel here.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen briefed the newsmen about the activities of the Prime Minister on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
In the meeting with Grandi, Sheikh Hasina also emphasized enhancing UNHCR’s activities in Myanmar on Rohingya issues.
In reply, Grandi said that he would visit Myanmar soon.
The Prime Minister restated that the Rohingya crisis can only be resolved through repatriating the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to their motherland Myanmar.
The UNHCR High Commissioner also agreed with her on this matter.
During the meeting, they discussed in details the present activities of UNHCR to help the Rohingyas who took shelter in Cox’s Bazar and Bhashanchar in Bangladesh.
Later, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim A A Khan QC also called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the same venue here.
They discussed various aspects of cooperation between Bangladesh and the ICC.
The Premier has assured the ICC Prosecutor that Bangladesh will continue cooperation with all ongoing efforts at the ICC to ensure justice and accountability for the Rohingya victims in Myanmar.
Khan in the meeting expressed his interest to visit Bangladesh early next year.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of the UN Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif also paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In the meeting at bilateral meeting room of the Lotte New York Palace hotel here, they discussed Bangladesh government’s steps considering the importance of sustainable urbanization and the areas of future cooperation.
In this connection, the Prime Minister informed him about the success of the Ashrayan Project undertaken by her government for the landless and homeless people of Bangladesh.
Replying to a query regarding the recent incident of landing shell at Bangladesh-Myanmar border, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister said the incident of falling shell by Myanmar inside Bangladesh border is an “unintentional mistake”.
The Myanmar authority informed that they are not shelling inside Bangladesh targeting it, he added.
“That particular border area is very much crisscrossed. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the border — they are not shelling inside our border intentionally, one and two shells that landed inside our border, it happened by mistake,” he added.
Momen also said that Bangladesh Foreign Ministry summoned Myanmar Ambassador and the Myanmar authority promised that they will maintain cautiousness.
Responding to another question, the Foreign Minister said that the US government did not give any specific information regarding sanction on some former and present RAB officials.
He said the government wanted to know the reason of imposing sanction.
“Still, they did not give any specific information. So we do not know…..,” he said.
