DHAKA: A Myanmar minister told Bangladesh’s president that Myanmar is ready to take back Rohingya Muslims who fled violence, though Bangladesh said it wanted the hundreds of thousands of refugees to have a safe and dignified return.
Myanmar’s Home Minister Kyaw Swe, on a three-day visit to Bangladesh, told President Abdul Hamid that Myanmar was ready to take back Rohingya under a deal the countries signed late last year, presidential spokesman Joynal Abedin said Friday.
Abedin also quoted the minister as saying that Myanmar will implement the recommendations by a commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The spokesman said Hamid expressed his concern for Rohingya and wanted a safe and dignified return of them as per the deal.
Kyaw Swe is scheduled to meet his Bangladeshi counterpart Friday to discuss further.
A statement from the Home Ministry said Kyaw Swe and the police, foreign ministry officials and others traveling with him intend to discuss border security, law enforcement and other issues.
Some 700,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since late August when Myanmar’s military launched a security crackdown that’s been widely criticized as amounting to ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has said it launched “clearance” operations against terrorists and has dismissed as false allegations from witnesses and survivors that troops and Buddhist mobs engaged in killings and rapes of Rohingya and set fires that wiped out villages.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi told the Security Council on Tuesday that conditions aren’t right for Rohingya to voluntarily return because Myanmar hasn’t addressed their exclusion and denial of rights and citizenship. Grandi also said Rohingya were still fleeing Myanmar and thousands more were expected still to try to leave.
The repatriation was scheduled to begin in January but Bangladesh said it needed more time to prepare and the security situation was a concern.
Bangladesh: Myanmar ready to take back Rohingya
Bangladesh: Myanmar ready to take back Rohingya
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
