Bangladesh fears Rohingya radicalisation

Bangladesh is apprehensive that the systematic persecution faced by the Muslim minorities in Myanmar, specially the Rohingyas in the country's Rakhine province, may radicalise them dangerously.

"They are already very vulnerable and if radicalised, they may be recruited by terror networks, " Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told the OIC's meet in Kuwait. "The Rohingyas are being forced to register as Bengalis."  

Ali  was making a statement on behalf of the Asian Group for the second consecutive year during the inaugural session of the 42nd Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the OIC on Wednesday.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah opened the meeting.

Speaking on the theme of ‘Joint Vision to Promote Tolerance and Reject Terrorism’, Ali reiterated Bangladesh’s “zero-tolerance” policy against all forms of terrorism and violent extremism and reiterated the country’s commitment to forge global partnership to fight terrorism.

He raised the issue of Muslim minorities in Myanmar who were fleeing into neighbouring Asian nations to escape persecution for several decades.

Bangladesh has sheltered them in tens of thousands, and mass graves unearthed in recent weeks in Thailand and Malaysia bear testimony to their desperate efforts to flee the country using boats offered by smugglers in the Bay of Bengal.

As a member of the OIC Contact Group on Muslim Minority in Myanmar, the foreign minister at a sideline meeting referred a 1992 agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

He said in that agreement the Rohingyas of Rakhaine state were referred to as “members of the Myanmar society”.

He also pointed out US President Barack Obama’s speech at the University of Yangon in November 2012 when he recognised the Rohingyas as “part of Myanmar nation” and opined that they “…hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also cautioned Myanmar against “institutionalised discrimination” against the Rohingyas.

The foreign minister expressed Bangladesh’s concern that Myanmar authorities have barred the Rohingyas from being counted in the recent census, unless they identified themselves as "Bengalis".

He fully endorsed the OIC Secretary General’s view to exert pressure on the Myanmar government to restore their citizenship rights.

He also appreciated the initiatives of Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Myanmar and former Malaysian Foreign Minister Hamid Albar.

Ali welcomed his recommendations to tackle the situation through ‘short-term, mid-term and long-term’ approaches engaging regional and international partners.

He cautioned that the spillover effect of the Rohingya issue has now reached not only the shores of Bangladesh but also the shores of the three South East Asian neighbours .

“…and therefore this critical issue has to be dealt with from a regional and a global perspective in its entirety to find a permanent resolution to this long standing problem”.

The Kuwait embassy said the foreign minister later met his Indonesian counterpart Retno Lelter Marsudi and shared concerns over the plight of the “boat people”.

Ali thanked his counterpart for agreeing to provide temporary shelter to them.

He also stressed on the need for countries in the region to engage with Myanmar for a lasting solution to this problem.