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Dhaka, April 30 (PTI): Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the UN Security Council to press Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of its Rohingya nationals even as she called on India along with Russia, China and Japan to play a stronger role in resolving the refugee crisis.
Hasina has sought continued and mounting pressure on Myanmar from UN Security Council members "so that they(Myanmar) take their citizens back to their country (and) that's what we want" as the high-powered team led by UNSC President Gustavo Adolfo Meza Cuadra met her.
"They want to go back to their own country. So the Security Council can play a very pivotal role," she said.
"We expect countries like Russia, China, India and Japan to play a major role in resolving the Rohingya crisis," the premier's press secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted her as saying after a visiting high-powered UN Security Council team met Hasina at her office.
The 15-member UNSC currently does not include India, Japan and China but Hasina reiterated her call for mounting pressure from New Delhi as well the other three countries to tackle the crisis in view of their stake and influence in Myanmar.
External Affairs Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale earlier this month said New Delhi would extend full support to any efforts for resolving the Rohingya crisis, reiterating India's appreciation for Bangladesh's humanitarian gesture for the forcibly displaced people.
The delegation comprised of envoys from the 15-member council as they met the premier a day after visiting crammed Rohingya camps in southeastern Cox's Bazar where about 700,000 Rohingyas took refuge since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on the ethnic Muslim community in Rakhine state last August.
The Security Council met the Bangladesh premier ahead of their scheduled visit to Myanmar for meetings with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and government leaders.
"Myanmar should act in accordance with the deal it signed with Bangladesh (in January 2018) for repatriation of the Rohingyas (but) the repatriation of the Rohingya people will have to be ensured under the UN supervision," Hasina said.
When asked if UN supervision meant the deployment of peacekeepers, Hasina said, "Not exactly, well, that the UN will decide" but insisted that Myanmar must also implement the Kofi Annan Commission's recommendations.
"We (however) don't want conflict, we want peaceful resolution to the crisis," she said.
The UN has termed the Myanmar military's action as "ethnic cleansing" and rights groups have called it a "genocide".
Kuwait's ambassador to UN Mansour al-Otaibi, a UNSC delegation member, told the premier that the Security Council wanted to send a clear and strong message that "we're determined to end this humanitarian crisis".
The refugees pleaded for help ahead of the coming monsoon season as the envoys visited their camps, bamboo-and-plastic structures perched on hills near the border with Myanmar while the delegation told them that the UNSC would press Myanmar to ensure that they could return home in safety and freedom.
"The situation cannot remain without a solution and the message that we are conveying to Myanmar, to refugees themselves, to the rest of the world, (is) that we are determined to find a solution to this crisis," al-Otaibi said after the delegation wrapped up its three-day visit.
He said the Security Council would "try to explore ways and means to speed up implementation of the (accord) signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar for safe, free, voluntary and dignified return of the refugees".
The Kuwaiti diplomat added that the refugees themselves wanted guarantees of safety and crucially citizenship on their return to a country which regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Deputy Russian Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy, whose country has supported Myanmar, however, said yesterday that the council did not have a "magic stick" to resolve one of the world's worst refugee crises.
"(But) we are not looking away from this crisis, we are not closing our eyes," the Russian diplomat said at the Kutupalong refugee camp.
The Bangladesh premier earlier engaged the foreign ministry to pursue vigorous diplomacy with countries with direct borders with Myanmar alongside Russia and particularly sought enhanced Indian engagement in resolving the crisis.
"We want India to mount pressure on Myanmar so they quickly take back their displaced people," Hasina told a visiting non-government Indian delegation last month.
She warned that a longer stay by the Rohingyas in Bangladesh could create a security crisis as "when people remain frustrated and have no work, they could easily be indulged in militancy".
Gokhale during his Dhaka visit had said "India has been fully supportive of the efforts being made to resolve the crisis, including early repatriation of the displaced people".
India had sent relief material for 300,000 Rohingyas last September under 'Operation Insaniyat' to support Bangladesh in its humanitarian efforts while announcing plans for the second phase of such assistance.