Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s emissary has flown in Dhaka amid pressure over the situation in Rakhine State that has pushed over half a million Rohingyas into Bangladesh.A senior official at the foreign ministry has said U Kyaw Tint Swe, the minister of Suu Kyi’s office, arrived at Shahjalal International Airport in a Thai Airways flight in the early hours of Monday.
Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, Bangladesh Ambassador in Myanmar, and Manzurul Karim, Director General (South East Asia) of the foreign ministry, welcomed Swe at the airport.
The Myanmar minister is scheduled to meet Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at the state guesthouse Padma at 11 am on Monday before leaving Dhaka on the same day, foreign ministry officials said.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to restoring democracy in Myanmar, has sent the minister of her office to Bangladesh amid international pressure over the Rohingya crisis the Rakhine State for which her government stands accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Chinese government earlier pressured Myanmar to have talks with Bangladesh
The Myanmar Army still controls the majority of the government functions, including the defence, although democracy was restored with Suu Kyu’s party’s win in the 2015 elections.
Over half a million Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh since Aug 25 when a military crackdown began in the northern Rakhine State over alleged terrorist attacks on security outposts.
Bangladesh has already been already sheltering another 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled decades of persecution in Myanmar, and are trying to survive the harsh open-air environment without safe water and sanitation and food. Key figures in the government hope the Rohingya crisis would end through Swe’s visit. – Agency
