Bangladesh foreign minister starts Myanmar visit on Thursday

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will start his three-day Myanmar visit on Thursday to see the preparations there for the return of Rohingya refugees.

He left Dhaka on Wednesday night in a Singapore Airways plane, one of his aides said.

The foreign ministry earlier said Mahmood Ali will see the accommodation facilities, particularly installation of pre-fabricated houses for repatriation of the Rohingyas.

Bangladesh has sheltered nearly 700,000 Rohingyas since August last year when they fled ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Rakhine State.

Both countries have signed a deal to start the repatriation process. But the international community has been insisting on their safe, voluntary and dignified return.

The foreign minister with Indian State Minister for External Affairs VK Singh discussed his plan during a meeting on Friday in Singapore on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN Regional Forum.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque earlier last month said they had proposed to visit the Rakhine State to see the situation before the beginning of the repatriation from Bangladesh.

India said it is ready to cooperate in the repatriation process.

A senior official at the foreign ministry told bdnews24.com that the foreign minister would meet State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and her minister for foreign affairs.

He will travel to Rakhine State with the members of the joint working group, formed to start the process of repatriation, on Aug 11 before coming back to Dhaka.

The decision to visit Myanmar follows a meeting between the foreign minister and Myanmar’s Union Minister for the State Counsellor's Office Kyaw Tint Swe with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing in July.

China proposed to Myanmar that they should try to improve the situation in the Rakhine State in three steps – to stop violence, to start repatriation as soon as possible, and to promote local development.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who made a brief visit on Tuesday to Dhaka after Myanmar, also made five proposals to the Burmese authorities.

Those include -

* Full cooperation with independent commission of enquiry for steady implementation of the investigation in a reliable and transparent manner as soon as possible

* Full cooperation with UN agencies based on the MoU conclude with the UNHCR and UNDP to improve the environment for the return and resettlement of the displaced people.

* Closure as soon as possible of the internally displaced people camps or IDP camps in the central Rakhine State to give Rohingyas in Bangladesh confidence.

The fourth Japanese advice was to expedite the process of creating proper environment including housing to show that there is a nice place to go back to, and to conduct regular briefing by Myanmar government directly to the people in the camps in Bangladesh to improve communication.