Myanmar minister to visit Bangladesh amid diplomatic pressure over Rohingya ‘ethnic cleansing’

Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is sending her minister to Bangladesh amid international pressure over the Rakhine State crisis in which her government stands accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Over half a million Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh since Aug 25 when the military crackdown began in the northern Rakhine State over alleged terrorist attacks on security outposts.

Aid agencies have been denied access to that area where it is believed that thousands have been killed or displaced.

Minister of the Office of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe will arrive in Dhaka on Sunday night, a senior official at the foreign ministry in Dhaka told bdnews24.com.

He will meet Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Monday before leaving Dhaka on the same day.

“There is only one meeting which is with our foreign minister,” the official who is not authorised to talk to the media said, adding that there is no schedule of his visit to Cox’s Bazar where those Rohingyas took shelter.

Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech to the nation over the Rakhine and Rohingya situation, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Sept 19. Reuters

The international community mounted pressure on Myanmar with UN

Secretary General Antonio Guterres

warning that the violence against Rohingya Muslims could spread to central Rakhine, where another 250,000 faced the risk of displacement.

The United States demanded punishment for Myanmar’s military leaders, who control Myanmar’s all key ministries including home and defence despite a return of democracy after decades of military rules.

British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mark Field in Dhaka said there are a lot of “diplomatic efforts” going on behind the scenes to solve the crisis, and the issue is no longer “localised”.

Bangladesh in an open debate at the UN Security Council urged the 15-body council not to shift its focus from Myanmar until a “logical solution” to the decades-old issue that turned into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis after the Aug 25 military crackdown.

Myanmar denied any wrongdoing.

​A helicopter hovers over the burning villages at Maungdaw in Rakhine State. The scene was captured by the photographer from Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf. Photo: mostafigur rahman​

Rohingya refugees scramble for relief materials at Palongkhali in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar as aid workers throw clothes from a truck. Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

Dhaka said Myanmar reinforced its military presence along the Bangladesh border with deployment of more than two divisions of armed forces.

There have been 19 reported incidents of Bangladesh’s air space violations by Myanmar helicopters and drones, an action that Dhaka sees as a “wilful provocation”.

Bangladesh also proposed UN-led joint verification for the safe return of the Rohingyas who are stateless for decades as Myanmar denies their citizenship.

Alistair Burt, state minister for development of the UK that took the international lead for political solution to the crisis, earlier said in Dhaka that the scale of the humanitarian crisis this time “perhaps provides an opportunity now to really deal with the issue”.