Public trial begins against Myanmar on Rohingya issue: Shahidul Haque
Outgoing Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said public trials against Myanmar had begun. He said, “The public trial has begun. Now this problem will suffer them (Myanmar) for a long time. In the International Judicial Court (IJC) the word 'genocide' was heard by Myanmar more than two hundred times and people have heard it."
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said this while addressing a program on Rohingya issues and accountability on Sunday (Dec.29). He noted that for the first time since the Second World War, cases are going on at the same time in the International Judicial Court and the International Criminal Court, as well as in Argentina, cases are underway, which will strengthen the overall judicial process.
At the initiative of UN an Independent Investigation Mechanism has started with support of 134 countries where it agreed to provide funding to implement it. Politically many say - I am with you, but when it comes to money, the commitment becomes strong.
Referring to the Rohingya crisis, he said it was not a dispute between Bangladesh and Myanmar, rather the problem between Myanmar and its citizens. This problem should have been solved a long time ago but they didn't do it.
Preparations for Bangladesh: Meanwhile, Cabinet approval has been obtained to work on Rohingya issue in 2013, the Foreign Secretary said. He said, in the 2013, we went to the cabinet with the Rohingya issue. We wanted three proposals to the cabinet.
The first is a census of how many Rohingya are there in Bangladesh at that time, the second is the formation of a coordinating committee on Rohingya activities, which later became known as the National Task Force and the third is to increase diplomatic efforts so that the international community can know what is happening.
"We are fortunate that Sufiur Rahman, our ambassador to Myanmar at that time, was able to understand the motive of Myanmar and sent us report," he said. I always keep one copy of his report sent in 2014 where he said - Myanmar is going to do something big in Rakhine and the Rohingya problem is going to be global issue. To be surprised, he said at that time - perhaps bilateral communication would not be enough and the matter should be taken to the international forum.