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A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 18 January 2020
Bangladesh says once-submerged island ready for Rohingya

By JULHAS ALAM include onsite visits to
Associated Press Bhasan Char," Hossain said.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — The current refugee camps
A Bangladeshi island regu- near the beach town of
larly submerged by mon- Cox's Bazar are overcrowd-
soon rains is ready to house ed and unhygienic. Dis-
100,000 Rohingya refugees, ease and organized crime
but no date has been are rampant. Education is
announced to relocate limited and refugees aren't
people from the crowded allowed to work.
and squalid camps where Still, most Rohingya are un-
they've lived for years, of- willing to return to Myan-
ficials said Thursday. mar due to safety con-
Flood protection embank- cerns. Government officials
ments, houses, hospitals didn't have an estimate of
and mosques have been how many refugees would
built on Bhasan Char, or be willing to be relocated
floating island, in the Bay of to the island.
Bengal, officials said. On Thursday, two Bangla-
"Bhasan Char is ready for deshi contractors involved
habitation. Everything has with development of the
been put in place," Ban- island described construc-
gladesh refugee, relief and tion there. They spoke to
repatriation commissioner In this Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019 photo, a man walks past buildings on Bhasan Char, or floating the AP on condition of ano-
Mahbub Alam Talukder island, in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. nymity because they were
told The Associated Press. Associated Press not authorized to talk to the
The island is built to accom- killings and torching of The Bangladesh navy has for the U.N. High Commis- media.
modate 100,000 people, thousands of homes. been implementing a multi- sioner for Refugees in Ban- "We have built quality in-
just a fraction of the mil- Foreign media have not million-dollar plan to bolster gladesh, said Thursday the frastructure. Bangladeshi
lion Rohingya Muslims who been permitted to visit the the swampy island, which is agency isn't ready to en- villages have never seen
have fled waves of violent island. submerged for months dur- dorse the relocation and is such good work. This is like
persecution in their native "I saw a market with about ing annual monsoon sea- waiting for a chance to visit a modern township proj-
Myanmar. 10 grocery shops and road- son. the island after a Novem- ect," one contractor said.
About 700,000 people side tea stalls. Some were International aid agencies ber trip was canceled. "We have built multifamily
came after August 2017, selling fish and vegetables," and the United Nations "The U.N. has emphasized concrete homes, hospitals,
when the military in Bud- he said. "All is set there with have vehemently opposed the importance of under- mosques, schools, play-
dhist-majority Myanmar a solar power system and the relocation plan since it taking independent and grounds and roads. There
began a harsh crack- water supply lines." was first proposed in 2015, thorough technical and are solar-power facilities,
down against Rohingya in Bangladesh is a low-lying expressing fear that a big protection assessments a water supply system. We
response to an attack by delta nation. The island, 21 storm could overwhelm the that consider safety, sus- constructed raised con-
insurgents. Global rights miles (34 kilometers) from island and endanger thou- tainability, and protection crete buildings that could
groups and the U.N. called the mainland, surfaced sands of lives. issues prior to any reloca- be used as cyclone shel-
the campaign ethnic only 20 years ago and was Mostofa Mohamamd Saz- tion taking into place. The ters. Many trees have been
cleansing involving rapes, never inhabited. zad Hossain, a spokesman assessment process should planted," he said. q

SoftBank to invest $40 billion for new Indonesia capital

By EDNA TARIGAN oversee the construction djaitan said. He said he
Associated Press of the new capital city on will meet Son in Davos and
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Borneo island that would Tokyo later this month to fi-
— Japan’s SoftBank is of- be led by Abu Dhabi’s nalize the plan.
fering to invest $30 billion Crown Prince Sheikh Mo- Widodo announced last
to $40 billion in the devel- hammed bin Zayed Al Na- August that Indonesia’s
opment of a new Indo- hyan. capital will move from
nesian capital, an official Indonesian Coordinat- overcrowded, sinking
said Friday. ing Maritime Affairs and and polluted Jakarta to a
The billionaire founder and Investment Minister Luhut site in sparsely populated
chief executive of Soft- Pandjaitan told a news East Kalimantan province
Bank Group Corp., Masay- briefing that SoftBank was on Borneo island, known
oshi Son, hinted at part- offering around $30 bil- for rainforests and orang-
nering with the Indone- lion to $40 billion, though it utans.
sian government to fund was not immediately clear The capital’s relocation
the project when he met what project the Japa- to a 256,000-hectare
President Joko Widodo nese conglomerate would (632,580-acre) site almost
last week in the capital, invest in specifically. four times the size of Ja-
Jakarta. “We have not yet decid- karta will cost an estimat-
Son and former British In this Nov. 6, 2019, file photo, SoftBank founder and Chief ed how they would invest, ed 466 trillion rupiah ($34
Prime Minister Tony Blair Executive Officer Masayoshi Son speaks during a news it could be for education, billion). The government is
have been included in conference in Tokyo. a research center or hos- set to begin the construc-
the steering committee to Associated Press pital development,” Pan- tion later this year. q