Our 5-point proposal can solve Rohingya crisis: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the ongoing Rohingya problem could be solved through her five-point proposal placed at the UN General Assembly on September 21 last.

"We don't want any war; we believe all the problems can be solved through discussions. The Rohingya problem also can be solved in light of the five-point proposal that we've placed at the United Nations," she said.

The prime minister said this while receiving cheques of donations to her Relief and Welfare Fund from the leaders of Bangladesh Association of Banks at her office.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the programme.

Sheikh Hasina said her proposals are: Ending ethnic conflicts, sending UN fact-finding mission to Rakhine State in Myanmar, sending back the forcibly evicted Rohingyas after ensuring their due security and immediate and unconditional implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission's recommendations.

Hasina said she could understand the pains and sufferings of the Rohingya people as she and her sister had spent a refugee life after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975.

Referring to the influx of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals into Bangladesh, the prime minister said her government gave shelter to the Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds. "It would be inhumane if we don't stand beside the Rohingyas during their time of distress."

Recalling the miserable days of Bangladeshi refugees during the Liberation War in 1971, the prime minister said the Rohingyas are facing the same kind of oppression that Pakistani occupational forces had inflicted on the people of Bangladesh.

"At that time, three crore people of the country were displaced and one crore people took refuge in India," she said.

The prime minister said the people of remote areas of Bangladesh have extended their support and assistance to the Rohingyas as they possess great human qualities.