DHAKA: Bangladesh will continue to support both its huge Rohingya refugee population and its vital textile trade, Nobel laureate and new leader Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday in his first major political speech.
Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this month after a student-led revolution to take on the monumental task of leading democratic reforms in a country riven by institutional decay.
Her predecessor, Sheikh Hasina, 76, had suddenly fled the country days earlier by helicopter after 15 years in power.
Outlining his priorities to diplomats and UN officials, Yunus pledged continuity on two of the biggest political challenges of his interim administration.
“Our government will continue to support the more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” Yunus said.
“We need sustained efforts from the international community for humanitarian operations for the Rohingya and their eventual repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar, in safety, dignity and full rights,” he added.
Bangladesh is home to around one million Rohingya refugees.
Most of them fled neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 following a military crackdown that is now the subject of a genocide investigation by a United Nations (UN) tribunal.
The weeks of unrest and mass protests that ousted Hasina also caused widespread disruption in the country's key textile industry, with suppliers shifting orders out of the country.
“We will not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the global apparel supply chain, in which we are a key player,” Yunus said.
Bangladesh's 3,500 garment factories account for about 85% of its $55 billion in annual exports.
Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, which is credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis escape extreme poverty.
He took office as “chief adviser” to an interim administration — made up entirely of civilians except for two retired generals — and has said he wants to hold elections “within a few months.”
Prior to her ouster, Hasina's government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.
She fled the country on August 5 to neighbouring India, her government's biggest political backer and benefactor, as protesters swarmed the capital Dhaka to force her from office.
'Hundreds of people were killed'
“Hundreds of thousands of our brave students and citizens rose up against the brutal dictatorship of Sheikh Hasina,” Yunus said during his speech, visibly emotional at times.
“He fled the country, but only after security forces and the student wing of his party committed the worst massacre of civilians since the country's independence,” he added.
“Hundreds of people died and thousands were injured.”
More than 450 people died between the start of the police crackdown on student protests and their overthrow three weeks later.
'Dictatorship'
A United Nations fact-finding mission is expected to arrive in Bangladesh soon to investigate the “atrocities” committed during that period.
“We want an impartial and internationally credible investigation into the massacre,” Yunus said Sunday.
“We will provide all the support that UN investigators need.”
Yunus again pledged to hold free and fair elections “as soon as we can complete our mandate to carry out vital reforms in our electoral commission, judiciary, civil administration, security forces and media.”
“Sheikh Hasina’s dictatorship destroyed all the institutions of the country,” he said.
He added that his administration “will make sincere efforts to promote national reconciliation.”
