Alwaght-Bangladeshis will go without food to help Rohingya Muslims fleeing genocide in Myanmar, the country’s prime minister has said.
Sheikh Hasina said her government would continue to support nearly a million Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighboring Burma to escape violence.
“If needed, we will eat a full meal once a day and share the rest with them,” she said.
The premier added she was pursuing a plan to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya on an island with the help of international aid agencies whom she praised for their support.
Sheikh Hasina made the statement at Dhaka airport on her return from New York after attending the UN General Assembly session. The UN has described the violence in Burma as ethnic cleansing.
Hasina accused Myanmar of creating tensions at the border, but said she has asked the country’s security forces to deal with the crisis “very carefully,” adding, "They pretended like they wanted a war".
Meanwhile a top UN official said Saturday Bangladesh's plan to build the world's biggest refugee camp for 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims was dangerous because overcrowding could heighten the risks of deadly diseases spreading quickly.
Hard-pressed Bangladesh authorities plan to expand a refugee camp at Kutupalong near the border town of Cox's Bazar to accommodate all the Rohingya.
But Robert Watkins, the UN resident coordinator in Dhaka, says the country should instead look for new sites to build more camps.
"When you concentrate too many people into a very small area, particularly the people who are very vulnerable to diseases, it is dangerous," he added.
The current crisis erupted on 25 August, when Myanmar’s army backed by gangs of Buddhist extremists brutally attacked Muslims in Rakhine state on the pretext of responding to the killing of security forces. In the ensuing operation, over 6,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed in what is clearly an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, instead claims they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. Myanmar has come under international criticism for failing to stop the ethnic cleansing in its Rakhine state and in turn an exodus that has become the largest refugee crisis to hit Asia in decades.
