A member of the UNSC delegation talking to a wheelchair user Rohingya woman at a refugee camp near Cox's Bazar on Sunday — FE photo The visiting United Nations Security Council (UNSC) team pledged on Sunday to work sincerely on 'safe and dignified' return of the Rohingya refugees but they ruled out the possibility of any immediate solution to the crisis, saying ' there is no magic solution' to it.
They were talking to the media after visiting two refugee camps-one near the zero point of the border at Tombru in Bandarban's Naikhyangchhari and another at Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar.
The 15-member UNSC team led by Gustavo Meza Cuadra arrived here on Saturday to have a first-hand account of the Rohingya crisis. They will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban at 9.30am today (Monday) before departing for Myanmar at 10:30 am on a two-day visit.
Addressing the media briefing, Gustavo Cuadra said as Myanmar has created the Rohingya crisis, the solution also lies with the government of that country.
The UN and the world community are continuously putting pressure on Myanmar to resolve the issue, Cuadra said.
UNSC delegate from Kuwait Mansur Ayad Al Otabi appreciated the role of Bangladesh government and people in handling the refugee crisis.
Asked about Russia and China who vetoed a UNSC resolution on Myanmar, Chinese representative Haitao Wa said China is very much aware of how the Rohingya problem deeply impacts Bangladesh. He suggested resolving the problem through constructive dialogue between the two countries. But he also noted that there was no immediate solution to the crisis.
Russian representative Dmitry Polyanskiy said the UNSC delegation visited the camps to see the plight of the refugees in their own eyes. "There is no magic solution to the present crisis," he added.
In both the camps they talked to the refugees, who told their harrowing tales of torture and brutality unleashed by the Myanmar security forces.
Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs, and top officials of the local district administration accompanied the delegation during the visit amid four-tier security.
He told the briefing that as anticipated, the solution to the crisis would take time. "The UNSC delegation said that they had realised the depth of the problem and they had assured their full cooperation to resolve the issue," he added.
Amena, a 12-year-old girl, who fled from Rakhine along with her siblings to take shelter in the Tombru camp, narrated how the Myanmar army men shot her father Syed Alam and mother Sakhina in front of her. The delegation members consoled her, when she broke into tears while describing the scene.
Others told the stories of rape, slaughtering, arson and loot in Rakhine and said they wanted to go back to their native homes in Rakhine in a safe and dignified manner.
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees lined up on both sides of the road along the camps through which the UNSC team was passing. The refugees were holding placards and posters which say 'Welcome UNSC delegation', 'We want justice,' 'Protected return to protected homeland' etc.
During the visit, the UNSC team comprising five permanent members from China, France, Russia, the UK and the US, and 10 other non-permanent members were briefed by Bangladesh officials about the overall situation. Representatives of the UN and other international organisations also met the UNSC team to describe their humanitarian activities.
The delegation members arrived in Dhaka from Cox's Bazar in the evening and attended a dinner hosted by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam at Hotel Radisson.
[Our Cox's Bazar correspondent contributes to this report].
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