Dhaka, Bangladesh: A right group, Neeti Gabeshana Kendra, invited writers, politicians and human rights defenders at Dhaka Reporters Unity on February 7, to discuss for resolving the Rohingya crisis which is going to worsen between Bangladesh and Burma including SAARC and ASEAN countries.
"If the Rohingya crisis has not resolved with utmost priority, it may emerge as a major problem for the South and Southeast Asian nations while venting anguish at the gross violation of human rights of the ethnic minorities in the Arakan state of Burma," said Writer and rights defender Farhad Mazhar.
"Apart from an ethnic issue of human rights, it has also become a religious problem and after the 9/11, this crisis has become more acute from international perspective and unless democracy is established in Burma the solution of this problem will not be easy," Mazhar added.
"Bangladesh should consider the crisis from the perspective of 1971 when its people had to take refuge outside its boundaries," said Asaduzzman, a Supreme Court lawyer.
"The crisis should be resolved immediately, involving international communities, emphasized ensuring the political and civic rights of the refugees," The daily Samakal executive editor, Abu Sayeed Khan said.
"We have been victims of persecution since 1962 in Arakan and the Burmese Junta conducted genocide there. We are moving from one place to another, risking our lives. Many of us are illegal immigrants in Bangladesh and we get no shelter in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. What is wrong with being Rohingyas?," said Kalimullah, joint secretary of the Rohingya League for Democracy, based in Saudi Arabia. "We had become stateless as we are not recognized by the Burma authorities and the neighboring nations also do not accept us even as refugees."
Dr. Mohamed Yonous, a Rohingya politician said we are not economic migrants; we depart from our land as a political migrant, where we have been facing persecutions of force labor, land confiscation, taxation, extortion and restriction of marriage, in religion, education and movement.
The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) should play some role in resolving the crisis as it involved the Muslims in Burma, said Brig (retd) Shafaiat Ahmed. "Bangladesh is badly affected by this problem and different South-East Asian countries are also coming in contact with this problem now. So a regional initiative has become important to solve the problem."
Prof Naimul Ahsan Khan of law department at Dhaka University, journalist Abu Sayeen Khan and Fazlus Sattar also took part in the discussion and urged the government to raise the issue at the upcoming ASEAN summit in Thailand this month and take a leading role to resolve the problem regionally.
The Neeti Gabeshana Kendra, director, Mahbubul Huq Ripon, read out the keynote paper and Sheikh Taufiq, another trustee of the Kendro, chaired the discussion program.
