Bangladesh PM Hasina leaves for UN General Assembly with proposals to resolve Rohingya crisis

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left for New York where she is expected to present her country's proposals in an effort to resolve the ongoing Rohingya crisis, at the UN General Assembly.

The exodus of Rohingya Muslims  from Myanmar has entered week with the numbers reaching nearly 400,000 in three weeks.

A special Biman Bangladesh flight carrying Hasina left Dhaka on Saturday afternoon for Abu Dhabi.

She is scheduled to take an Etihad Airways flight from there the next morning and expected to reach New York in the afternoon.

Bangladesh's Ambassador to the US M Ziauddin and Permanent Representative to the UN Masud Bin Momen will receive Hasina at the JFK Airport, Press Secretary to the PM Ihsanul Karim told bdnews24.com on Friday.

The 72nd General Assembly of the United Nations started on Sept 12. Representatives of 193 nations will take part in the general debate from Sept 19 to 21.

Hasina is scheduled to address the assembly on Sept 21.

The annual gathering of world leaders is taking place when hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing violence in Myanmar's northwestern state of Rakhine.

Last week, the United Nations appealed for $77 million to cope with the crisis but it now says that would not be enough.

According to the latest situation report on the website of Inter Sector Coordination Group or ISCG, 391,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border into Bangladesh since violence broke out last month.

The UN said it fears the number may reach one million by year-end if the situation remains unchanged.

Bangladesh was already home to almost half a million Rohingya refugees before the latest crisis erupted on Aug 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people.

Pressure is mounting on Myanmar government's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the army operation.

Twelve of her fellow Nobel peace laureates, among other eminent global citizens, called on her to act immediately to stop violence against Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi, however, is not attending the UNGA. A government spokesperson said "perhaps" she had "more pressing matters to deal with".

This is the first General Assembly of the UN after Antonio Guterres took over as secretary general.

In a rare letter to the UN Security Council, he expressed concerns over the Rohingya crisis.

In a news conference last Wednesday, Secretary-General Guterres described the military operation against Rohingyas as ethnic cleansing.

The Security Council has condemned the action by Myanmar authorities in a statement agreed on the country for the first time in nine years.

The European Parliament has threatened Myanmar with sanctions if it does not respond to global calls for stopping the persecution of Rohingyas.

India has also thrown its support behind Bangladesh over the issue.

China, however, says it is Myanmar's 'internal affair'.

The US has also condemned the operation against Rohingyas.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that Myanmar is facing a 'defining moment' and must stop the violence against the ethnic minority population.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told the media in Dhaka on Thursday that his country was facing an unprecedented situation as the crisis worsened than any other time.

He said Bangladesh would also strongly push for immediate implementation of the recommendations by the Kofi Annan commission.

The Myanmar government formed the commission after it drew condemnation for an army operation against Rohingyas following attacks on security forces in October last year. The army crackdown pushed some 67,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh.

Hours after the commission submitted its report, Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug 25 this year, triggering the latest wave of violence in Rakhine State.

Giving citizenship to the Rohingya Muslims and taking them back from Bangladesh after ‘joint verification’ are some of the key recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission.

After addressing the General Assembly on Sept 21, the Bangladesh prime minister is scheduled for a bilateral meeting with the UN secretary-general.

On Sept 18, Hasina will attend a high-level meeting on UN Reform, hosted by US President Donald Trump, and another on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

She is also scheduled to take part in a follow-up meeting of Global Deal for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth the same day.

The next day, she will attend a luncheon for world leaders hosted by Secretary-General Guterres.

Hasina will also join a panel discussion on women empowerment, chaired by Guterres. The same day, she will address the OIC Contact Group meeting, where she's expected to raise the Rohingya issue.

In the evening, the prime will join a reception for the heads of state and government of Commonwealth countries, to be hosted by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and current Commonwealth Chair-in-Office Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

She will also attend a reception hosted by President Trump and another by expatriate Bangladeshis later that night.

On Sept 20, she will join the signing ceremony of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

She will also attend the event 'SDG Implementation, Financing and Monitoring: Sharing Innovations through South-South and Triangular Cooperation'. Bangladesh is jointly organising it with the UNDP and the UN Office on South South Cooperation.

Bangladesh and UNDP will co-organise the opening segment of another event titled 'Creating a Policy Vision for SDG Finance: Facilitating Private Sector Investment in the SDGs'.

After attending this event, she will join a luncheon roundtable to be organised by the Business Council for International Understanding.

Hasina's New York visit ends on Sept 21 with a press conference at the Bangladesh's Permanent Mission to the UN on that evening.

She will leave for Virginia the next day and spend a week with her son Sajeeb Wazed and his family before flying for London from Washington DC on Sept 29.

The prime minister will take a flight for Dhaka on Oct 1 and scheduled to arrive the next day.