New Delhi:
Terming the Rohingya crisis as a regional catastrophe, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Tuesday said that it is no longer an internal issue of Myanmar.
Mahmood appealed to the international community to put pressure on Myanmar to take back about 500,000 refugees living in Bangladesh adding that a total of 3,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed since the army crackdown was launched and Human Rights Watch has got evidence of 284 villages of having been bulldozed.
"It’s (also) not a bilateral problem of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Bangladesh didn’t play any role in creating this crisis. The center of the crisis is in Myanmar and the solution lies with Myanmar as well," he said.
"Even the international pressure has so far failed to refrain Myanmar military from implementing its long-term depopulation plan for Rohingyas," added Mahmood.
He said Myanmar had launched a large-scale military operation codenamed "Area Clearance" to confront "terrorists", but under the cover of anti-terrorism campaign continued to carry out ruthless atrocities on Rohingyas by mobilising the troops one month ahead of the crackdown.
“Bangladesh expects European Union foreign ministers meeting to take some crucial decisions against the Myanmar Military as they are scheduled to meet on October 16 in Brussels to discuss the Rohingya crisis,” Mahmood said.
