DHAKA, Nov 24, 2019 (BSS) – Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jiming today said Beijing was playing a role in finding a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis as his country shares Bangladesh’s concerns over the issue.
“China is trying to persuade Myanmar all the time that the eventual solution of the Rohingya issue will be beneficial to both the countries (Bangladesh and Myanmar), and I believe that the Rohingya issue will be settled in the end,” he said.
The envoy said “China cares, China contributes, and China acts” in resolving the crisis and with its traditional friendship with Bangladesh and Myanmar Beijing “will do whatever they can to help alleviate the situation and push forward early repatriation”.
But he simultaneously added that despite its good relations with Myanmar, Beijing could not lecture “Myanmar what to do” since it is a sovereign country that requires China to pursue the matter diplomatically following the principle of equality and mutual respect”.
“Here I want to make it very clear that, Myanmar is a sovereign country as Bangladesh is. China has no right to lecture Myanmar what to do,” he said.
The envoy’s comments as he joined a seminar titled “Finding way to Peaceful Repatriation of Rohingyas” at the Jatiya Press Club under the auspices of the Bangladesh Post newspaper.
Jiming said it is a well-accepted idea in many countries that China has a huge influence over Myanmar as “whatever we (China) say Myanmar will listen and do accordingly”.
But he feared that this idea might lead one to believe that China was always on the side of Myanmar for economic interests and would not really help Bangladesh, which actually was a wrong conception.
“What I and my colleague in Yangon (Nay Pyi Taw) Ambassador Chen Hai have been doing is to convey messages and to make suggestions. We have never forced the two sides to do anything that they do not want to,” he said.
He said representatives of the Bangladesh, China and Myanmar in an informal meeting in New York this September reached a consensus on starting Rohingya repatriation as early as possible, forming a joint working mechanism within the three countries and promoting development in the area as fundamental solution.
The Chinese envoy said Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh, concerned Bangladesh foreign ministry official and he himself have been staying in touch with each other in the past two months to implement the consensuses those were made during the New York meeting.
He said they have already found a lot of common ground and decided that the 3,450 Rohingyas who have been verified by Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Hindu Rohingyas and those living along the “zero-line” would be the prioritized groups for early repatriation.
Moreover, he said Myanmar has agreed to engage more with the displaced people to build trust by talking face-to-face with them and to change the wording on Myanmar’s (National Verification Certificate, NVC) to erase misunderstanding; while Bangladesh has decided to allocate additional resources and manpower to adopt more pragmatic approach to repatriation.
Describing Chinese efforts in resolving the crisis, the Ambassador said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had visited Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2017 after the influx to mediate between the two neighbours — while he chaired three rounds of informal meetings among China, Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2018 and this year — to find out a tangible solution.
Ambassador Sun Guoxiang Special Envoy for Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been doing “shuttle diplomacy” between Bangladesh and Myanmar, he said.
Apart from mediating, the envoy said China has been contributing to solving the Rohingya crisis by providing aid and medical team for the Rohingya and host community of Bangladesh.
On the Myanmar side, he said China has provided 1100 sets of assembled house, and another 1000 will be provided to Myanmar for providing accommodations for Rohingya returnees.
“China’s assistance in this regard may not seem to be much in monetary terms compared to other donors, but what we provided is tangible stuff solely meant for the Rohingyas with defined purposes, leaving no space for other institutions, NGOs or individuals to benefit from it,” he claimed.
The Ambassador who arrived in Bangladesh in late August this year said the Rohingya issue has become one of the priorities of his work during his not-too-long stay here.
Former Chairman of Nation Human Rights Commission Kazi Reazul Hoque presented the keynote paper while United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative Steven Corliss, Security Analyst Major General Abdur Rashid, among others, also spoke at the seminar.