There has been a tremendous amount of concern from around the world against ethnic cleansing of Rohingya minority in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. This trend has been reflected while world leaders have spoken in the on-going 72nd sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The UN General Assembly session has begun on September 19 following the maiden speech by President Donald Trump of the United States. He, unfortunately, did not touch on the great humanitarian problem of Rohingya that the World body is confronted with. President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari compared the situation in Myanmar with that of massacres in Bosnia in 1995 and Rwanda in 1994 and said the international community cannot remain silent. President of Turkey and Iranian President have also spoken on the crisis of Rohingya in Myanmar. French President Emmanuel Macron has observed, attacks on Rohingya amounted to genocide which is unfolding in Myanmar but Government of Myanmar has rejected allegation of "ethnic cleansing" in the Rakhine state.
Robert D. Watkins, resident coordinator of the United Nations in Bangladesh, has pointed out that the exodus of the Rohingya since August, 2017 was much bigger than the flows sparked by ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia in 1990's.
Secretary -General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty has spoken of "abject failure of world leaders" to deliver solution to the man-made humanitarian crisis. He is of the view that the horrific situation in Myanmar is exactly "why we need more than just a sticking-plaster approach to helping those fleeing war and persecution. After being subjected to horrific violence, including killings and having their villages burned to the ground, these Rohingya refugees are now facing a humanitarian crisis as Bangladesh struggles to support them."
Speaking at the General Assembly session of the United Nations, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has made a seven-point peace proposal to resolve the crisis. She proposed establishing UN-supervised safe zones inside Myanmar to protect Rohingya Muslims. These people must be able to return to their homeland in safety, security and dignity, she said. Incidentally, establishing safe zones for the Rohingyas in Myanmar needs a unanimous resolution by the Security Council of the United Nations. Therefore, Bangladesh needs to pursue the issue doggedly with China and Russia, both wielding veto power in the Security Council, to convince them, in the first place, about the need of safe zones in Myanmar for the Rohingyas.
The recent exodus has swelled the number of Rohingya refugees to over 800,000. Credit goes to the government of Bangladesh for accepting fleeing Rohingya from Myanmar because Bangladesh government has acceded to neither the 1951 United Nations convention relating to the status of Refugees (CRSR) nor the protocol relating to status of Refugees of 1967. [This writer has had experience to witness difficulties being faced by government in Bangladesh when he conducted a tour of a group of Foreign Service officers from 1991 batch from BSC and Foreign Service Academy to Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.]
The world body should vigorously pursue the implementation of the report of the Independent Commission headed by Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, set up by Myanmar government to resolve the crisis in the Rakhine state.
The writer is a retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of Nova chapter of prestigious Toastmaster International club of America.
