The US should support the transfer of the North Rakhine State of Myanmar to Bangladesh if the latter fails to protect Rohingya and provide citizenship, according to a Congressman.
Congressman Brad Sherman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia & the Pacific, made the suggestion during a State Department hearing.
Mr Sherman convened the hearing to discuss the vital US interest in South Asia and mooted the proposal.
Details of the hearing, which took place on June 13, were made available on Sunday.
"Whether the United states will take the position that if the Myanmar government does not extend citizenship and protection to the Rohingya who are born there, that we will support the transfer of the North Rakhine State to Bangladeshi sovereignty," Mr Sherman asked Ambassador Alice G Wells during the hearing.
Ambassador Wells is acting Assistant Secretary of the State Department for South and Central Asia.
When Ambassador Wells argued that the US position is to support the territorial integrity of a country, the Congressman Sherman snubbed her by reminding that America acted as "a midwife" for the creation of an independent South Sudan.
"But when the people of the South Sudan were subject to horrific treatment by the Khartoum government, we were acting as midwife for the creation of the independent South Sudan," he said.
Ambassador Wells, in her reply, said the US is presently focusing on creating conducive condition for dignified and secure return of the Rohingya to their homeland in Rakhine.
When the Congressman asked her whether citizenship and passport are part of this, the ambassador said the United Nations report listed citizenship as one of the key issues that help restore confidence.
"I think that right now the Rohingya would like to rerun home, if the conditions support dignified return and the countries which are working in Myanmar ...," he said.
At this point, Mr Sherman, who was in the chair, interrupted the ambassador and said, " I would say if the Myanmar government does not announce that is dedicated to the protection of these people and the issuance of citizenship documents that we alter our position and called for the transfer of the North Rakhine to a country that will protect these people," "This is their land, they live there for generations, and they have been subject to ethnic cleansing and one might say attempt to genocide."
Defending his proposal, he also reminded the State Department officials that the US engineered the separation of South Sudan from Sudan, though Khartoum did not deny citizenship to the people of South Sudan.
Bangladesh is a poor country that has taken in people who are subject to ethnic cleansing and genocide, the Congressman said when he enquired about the US funding for the humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya.
Responding to a question, another official of the State Department told the hearing that since the beginning of the crisis in 2017, the US provided US$ 500 million for the Rohingya both in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
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