Time News Desk: Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, referring to the victims of enforced disappearance, said that most of the missing people were later found in the BNP’s processions while some others went into hiding for personal reason and seven cases were found that they had died.

Bangladesh has a human rights commission and they are investigating the allegations of human rights violations, she said in an interview with the Bangla service of Voice of America in Washington which was broadcast on Tuesday.

Sheikh Hasina said her government had not only protected the human rights, but also preserved it by making aware the people about the human rights.

‘We are always investigating. Due legal action is taken in case of any human rights violation even it is committed by any member of law enforcement agencies, which was not seen in the past,’ she said.

The bodies of the victims were never found while the relatives of them even did not know what were their faults, she said. The people who are now talking about human rights violation, people even could not be able to seek justice, she said.

Sheikh Hasina has said everyone needed to understand the reality that the forcibly displaced Rohingyas are becoming a huge burden for Bangladesh and they must go back home.

‘They (Rohingyas) need to go back to their own country. Everyone needs to understand (the situation). It is not possible for us to take any more people, Rohingyas must go back,’ she said in an interview with the Bangla service of Voice of America (VoA) in Washington which was broadcast on Tuesday.

Referring to Bangladesh’s repeated call to the international community for safe and sustainable rehabilitation of the Rohingyas, she said it is impossible for a country alone to take responsibilities of such a huge population (1.2 million of Rohingyas).

‘Not only giving shelters, but also arranging livelihoods for such a huge population is a great responsibility which no country can shoulder alone,’ she said.

She mentioned that the entire world has now been rattled due to the Russia-Ukraine war, sanctions, counter sanctions and the ongoing Covid-19 and the prices of essentials are skyrocketing which put the global people to immense sufferings.

‘Those who came forward to help (Rohingyas), are now facing troubles over own survival,’ she said, adding that how much Bangladesh could do for the Rohingyas when this country has a huge population and it has to think of its people.

The prime minister said the children and teens of the Rohingya community are now brought up in a vast slum (Rohingya camp) where the scope of raising with humanitarian values and with sound health is very limited.

Bangladesh is not in a position to take any more people from Myanmar, she said, adding that Rohingyas should go back to their own country.

The prime minister said the prolonged stay of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh destroyed forests in Cox’s Bazar.

Alongside destroying the natural beauty, the huge numbers of Rohingyas caused immense sufferings to the locals while the arable lands of the locality are declining sharply, she said.

Besides, she said, many Rohingyas have got involved in smuggling of drugs and arms smuggling alongside human trafficking and they have involved in conflicts within themselves inside the camps.

About giving shelter to such a huge number of Rohingyas, the premier said she has given shelter to the Rohingyas thinking about the agony of the people of then Pakistan (now Bangladesh) when they had gone through inhuman tortures, including killings and rapes, during the Liberation War of 1971.

‘We saw sufferings (in 1971) with our own eyes,’ she said.

In this context, the Prime Minister also recalled her younger sister Sheikh Rehana’s appeal to shoulder responsibilities of several lakh people (Rohingyas) alongside 16 crore Bangladeshis.

‘Can’t you take responsibilities of several lakh people in addition to your 16 crore countrymen,’ she said, quoting Sheikh Rehana as saying.

The Prime Minister said she replied in affirmative, saying that if necessary the Bangladeshi people would take one meal a day and share another meal with the Rohingyas.

She said Bangladeshi people, particularly the leaders and activists of the Awami League, stood beside the Rohingyas with plenty of food while the international community later came forward and started to help the Rohingyas.

Responding to another query, Sheikh Hasina has said that the numbers of media is mushrooming during the Awami League tenure and they are enjoying freedom.

‘After saying everything, if someone says that he or she is not allowed to speak, what would be the answer? That’s what I’d like to know,’ she said,

The prime minister said there were only a few TV and radio stations before the Awami League assumed power in 1996, adding that those were even controlled by the then government.

She mentioned that she allowed the private sector to run the media after coming to power, saying that 32 private television channels are now operational among the approved 44 TV channels in the country.

People are taking part in television talk shows and they speak freely – true or false – and they criticize the government, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government took every measure to make the election commission independent as they can hold elections in a free and fair manner.

The election commission was under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Office and her government has made it free from its authority and allocated a separate budget for them to give the commission financial independence.

Now the government cannot interfere in the commission’s budgetary process and it is independent to spend its money at its will, she said.

About holding the next election under the caretaker government, she said her party Awami League had established the caretaker government through movement and the then prime minister Khaleda Zia said that none can be neutral except mad and child.

Khaleda Zia had manipulated the caretaker government system; they amended the related law to increase the age of chief justice by two years to appoint their own people as the chief adviser of the caretaker government.

She said the people will choose their government by casting their votes, adding that she has nothing to say if they do not vote for the Awami League.

SK