Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The visiting UK’s Senior State Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi has said the ultimate solution to ethnic Rohingya problem was to settle in their homeland, Myanmar.
“I fully agree with your Foreign Minister (Dipu Moni) ..this is a problem that Burma has to fast and foremost deal with,” she said at a press conference at the British High Commissioner’s residence in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday.
Baroness Warsi said the Rohingya people should be settled in their homeland and they should be given equal opportunities like other Burma nationals. She also said that the UK has been working on the issue with the Myanmar.
“They (Rohingya) have to be recognized as their (Myanmar) citizens,” she said the Muslim Rohingya’s were effectively being left out by their own country and were made stateless and ‘most marginalized’. She also hoped that Rohingyas would get due rights in democratic Myanmar.
About her experience in Bangladesh in last three days, the British State Minister said she got a good experience in the country and heard positive voices from major political parties to safeguard democracy.
She said both leaders realized that full participation of all political parties in the next general election was essential to continue democracy smoothly.
When asked about the popular demand for banning ‘religious political parties’ and the party-Jammat-e-Islami- accused of mass killing and war crimes, she said the UK would not favour parties of extremism, but would suggest the government to make changes through ‘ballot’ box, according to reports.
Baroness Warsi ended her three-day visit in Bangladesh Wednesday after meeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Leader of Opposition Khaleda Zia and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, apart from visiting Sylhet, home to majority of Bangladesh-origin UK citizens, and the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
BBN/SSR/AD-21Feb13-12:20 pm (BST)
