Arakan News Agency
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi arrived in Dhaka to discuss with high government officials the current ethnic cleansing and persecution on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar’s western state of Arakan as well as finding a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis.
During her 24-hour visit, she will be discussing Rohingya issues with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali, and visit Ukhia to see the conditions of Rohingya refugees, according to diplomatic sources.
Marsudi came to Dhaka after attending a meeting along with the foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon yesterday.
Myanmar leader Suu Kyi met with regional foreign ministers to tackle growing international criticism of her army’s forceful treatment of the country’s Rohingya minority, which some critics say, constitutes crimes against humanity.
She came to Bangladesh to talk about the Rohingya issues as Indonesia wants to comprehensively address problems related to Rohingyas fleeing along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, said a foreign ministry official, adding all countries that attended the meeting in Yangon freely expressed their opinions in an effort to reduce regional concerns over a situation in northern Arakan.
Human rights groups have accused the military of perpetrating mass murder, looting and rape against the Rohingya in Arakan, where the army went on a counterinsurgency offensive after an October attack there on police outposts that killed nine officers.
According to Indonesian embassy officials, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will hold a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali and then together they fly for Cox’s Bazar by helicopter to visit the Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia.
Upon return from Ukhia, she will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Gono Bhaban at 5:00pm and depart for Jakarta same night.
