The five-point proposal placed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) Friday last to help stop persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar and ensure their safe return to homeland has indeed echoed the aspirations of the peace-loving people across the world. It does not require any elaboration that, barring one or two exceptions, the world is deeply concerned by the ongoing developments centring the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
The world mood is evident from the statements made by the heads of states, eminent citizens and Nobel Laureates on the issue. They unequivocally condemned the atrocities being committed particularly by the Myanmar army against the Rohingyas. To make the situation worse for Myanmar, the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal at Kuala Lumpur has also found it guilty of genocide. The world is deeply shocked to see an ethnic cleansing taking place in a country where Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is the de facto head of the government.
The world cannot remain a mute spectator when a particular section of the population of a country is deliberately targeted and persecuted endlessly. Nor can it remain silent in a situation when cleansing of a particular minority group takes place with open and tacit support from the government. What Bangladesh is now doing about the Rohingya issue is exemplary. This country has been taking the full brunt of the pressure of Rohingya refugees for decades. As the level of persecution and atrocities reached a new height in the Rakhine state following an alleged attack on check posts of Myanmar security forces and police on August 25 last, nearly 450,000 Rohingyas have fled their homes to Bangladesh.
The proposals placed by the Bangladesh Prime Minister include, among others, sending of a UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar, creating 'safe zones' inside Myanmar for the Rohingyas under UN supervision, ensuring safe return of Rohingyas to Myanmar and implementing Kofi Annan report. Execution of some of the proposals would take time, but the international community in general and the UN in particular should start work on these without any further delay. The sending of a UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar should not be a problem since Aung San Suu Kyi in her recent address to nation had made it clear that Myanmar was not afraid of any international scrutiny over the Rohingya issue.
The world must not lose its sight of the Rohingya crisis after some time not only for the sake of a persecuted ethno-religious minority but also for protecting the interest of a poor nation like Bangladesh which has been fighting all odds and trying hard to emerge as a middle-income country as early as possible. The world did not do much for the Rohingyas, numbering nearly another half a million, who had taken refuge in Bangladesh on earlier occasions. Following the current influx, the burden has swelled to an unbearable proportion for an over-populated and resource-scarce country like Bangladesh. Thus, it is expected that the international community would do its best to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis at the earliest.
