On November 23 2024, Nurul Islam, Chairman of the Arkan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) joined experts and government officials in Bangladesh for an event “National Dialogue: Working Towards a National Consensus on Rohingya Policy of Bangladesh.”
The National Dialogue on the Rohingya issue was convened by the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) of North South University at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIIS). The event was aimed at bringing together all political parties in Bangladesh to come up with a national consensus on the plight of the Rohingya, who are national from Myanmar that have sought refuge from the ongoing genocide taking place against them in Myanmar perpetrated mainly by the Myanmar Military. While many topics were raised during the event, some notable discussion points included:
- The push for a UN Conference on the Rohingya in 2025
- The failure of bilateral and trilateral solutions to bring about repatriation since 2017.
- Providing education to Rohingya children up to 10th class and imparting skills training before they are repatriated.
- Boosting trade between Myanmar and Bangladesh and enhancing border security.
- Improving relations among ethnic groups within the Arakan.
Nurul Islam was thankful for the invitation to participate on behalf of ARNA at the meeting. He highlighted the long history of the Rohingya in the Arakan and the intolerance they bear by others in Arakan because of their ethnicity. He recounted the horrors which took place in the years up to and including 2017, including the devastation witnessed by children. He expressed his gratitude to Bangladesh for saving the Rohingya given the events and further stated that this is something that the Rohingya will never forget. Mr. Islam emphasized that the Rohingya be given the right to self-determination. He stated that the Arakan Army and the military junta have no political will to resolve this issue and asked Bangladesh to continue to help the Rohingya.
ARNA was founded to achieve the “right of self-determination”, “right of return” and all other goals of the Rohingya people within the Federal Democratic Union of Burma/Myanmar. ARNA is an umbrella organisation of Rohingya organisations who are united together under this banner to achieve common objectives for the Rohingya community. To learn more about ARNA, visit: https://thearna.org/