Pak feels trial of war criminals may create new wounds: FM
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni has said the Myanmar leaders during her latest trip to that country told her that they would take the Rohingya refugees back, reports bdnews24.com.
The Foreign Minister told the journalists at the foreign ministry Friday that Myanmar authorities in December last year said Rohingyas were not Myanmar citizens but Bangladeshis.
"At a meeting on trafficking in persons in Bali, I presented historical data and necessary evidence on Rohingyas' Myanmarese identity.
"During my Myanmar visit (May 16-17), its leaders admitted that they are Myanmarese and agreed to take them back," the foreign minister said.
She said Myanmar government sought a list from Dhaka on the number of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh as part of the repatriation process.
Dr Dipu Moni observed that the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar was not a new development, rather the Arakan people were continuously intruding into Bangladesh for long.
Dipu Moni said the refugee flow would not stop unless Myanmar authorities guaranteed qualitative change in its policy in Arakan state-Rohingyas' motherland.
Foreign secretary Md Touhid Hossain said: "So far, there is no change in the environment they live in."
The foreign secretary made it clear that Dhaka would not accept any foreign national as its citizen.
Around 30,000 residual Rohigya refugees, Myanmar Muslims from the northern Rakhain state, have been living in camps in Cox's Bazar district as they are unwilling to return to Myanmar.
Meanwhile, UNB report adds: the Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni said Pakistan has concerns about the trial of 1971 war criminals in Bangladesh saying Islamabad feels that it may create new wounds.
"They feel it's a history of the past. They feel many things may emerge through the trial process and they might be embarrassed. They don't want to go back to the past," Dr Dipu Moni made the opinion while speaking at a press briefing on her meeting with Pakistan State Minister for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan on the sidelines of recently held ICFM conference in Damascus.
Lime"]Dipu Moni said Pakistan wants to discuss this issue more with Bangladesh and she agreed. She tried to convince Khan that it is an obligation for Bangladesh under national and international laws to try the war criminals responsible for assassination, rape, arson and loot committed in 1971.
The Foreign Minister said Bangladeshi victims are still carrying the wounds caused by the war criminals during the country's Liberation War and 'we want to heal the wounds. We want to finish the unfinished task'.
She told the Pakistani State Minister that while holding the trial Bangladesh will ensure due process, justice and international standards.
Asked if the trial would affect bilateral ties with USA, China and Saudi Arabia who took side with Pakistan in 1971, Dipu Moni said she firmly believes that no country can take side with those involved in heinous killing, rape and arson.
Pak feels trial of war criminals may create new wounds: FM
