By SCN Web Desk
Bangladesh’s Yunus promises support to Rohingya in first policy speech
\Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh, has delivered his first major government policy address in which he promised to support the Rohingya community seeking refuge in the country and maintain Bangladesh’s garment trade.
Setting out his priorities in front of diplomats and UN representatives on Sunday, Yunus pledged that his government “will continue to support the million-plus Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh”.
“We need the sustained efforts of the international community for Rohingya humanitarian operations and their eventual repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar, with safety, dignity and full rights,” he said.
Bangladesh is home to about one million Rohingya. Most of them fled neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 after a military crackdown now the subject of a genocide investigation by a United Nations court.
Earlier this month, medical charity Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said that more Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh from Myanmar with war-related injuries amid escalating conflict between the military and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) in western Rakhine State.
Yunus has also committed to holding free and fair elections in the near future.
Yunus himself was convicted of violating labour laws during the previous administration, in what had been denounced as a politically motivated trial.
“The Sheikh Hasina dictatorship destroyed every institution of the country,” Yunus said.
He added that his administration would “make sincere efforts to promote national reconciliation”.