Nizam Ahmed: Bangladesh celebrated its 49th Victory Day on Monday with series of colourful programmes across the country. However, the ongoing political and communal commotions in its two immediate neighbouring countries perhaps dampened the mood of the people in Bangladesh, as fresh events being unfolded in India and Myanmar.
Bangladesh which has been facing serious financial, environmental, ecological and social strains after more than a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in RakhineState of Myanmar took refuge in bordering districts of Cox`s Bazar and Bandarban since 2017, now is worried of new problems of infiltration of unwanted people from India.
Meanwhile a recent political development in India on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) have caused additional worries for Bangladesh where the relevant authorities are trying to hide the worries by terming the development as internal issue of India. Being squeezed by the government sponsored events in India and Myanmar, tranquillity in Bangladesh has greatly been disturbed.
Rohingyas started fleeing Myanmar after the army launched a crackdown on the Muslim minority in Rakhine formerly Arakan after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) conducted a deadly attack on a security post on Bangladesh Myanmar border. The crackdown has been described as genocide by a UN fact-finding commission.
As various socio-economic and law and order problems emanating from Rohingya refugees have become acute in Bangladesh, the African state The Gambia sued Myanmar in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in the Hague in November this year. Earlier the international community including the United Nations, European Union, the United States, Organisation of Islamic Countries condemned Myanmar for persecution of Rohingyas and commended Bangladesh for sheltering hundreds and Thousands of Rohingyas.
However, the international community could not persuade Myanmar to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh and return their citizenship snatched in 1982, as Myanmar`s big allies like China, Russia, Japan and India were indifferent over the issue, lest their business interests in that country would be hampered.
Meanwhile a new citizenship law enacted in India to give citizenship to Hindus who came into the country fleeing Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan at least five years ago, has also become an issue of displeasure for Bangladesh. Two days after enactment of the citizenship law the United Nations human rights office on December 13 termed the new citizenship law as "fundamentally discriminatory in nature" by excluding Muslims and called for it to be reviewed.
Months ago India in its one of the north-eastern states Assam prepared the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on August 31 last excluding more than19 lakh out of 3.3 crore people of the state who have been there for generations.
Following the NRC, Bangladesh apprehended that many people mostly Muslims who have been left out of the list might be forced to move to Bangladesh. Meanwhile several groups of such people were stealthily pushed in to Bangladesh through remotest border points by Indian Border Security Forces (BSF). However, Border Guard Bangladesh also blocked some attempts of push in of such Indian people by BSF and also detained several groups of such people over past month.
The Indian new citizenship law might entice a section of minorities mainly Hindus in Bangladesh to migrate to India. Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad expressing concern over the Indian citizenship act said it would "encourage minority people to leave Bangladesh."
Earlier India said the citizenship law and development in Assam would not affect Bangladesh which also branded the issues as India`s internal matters and said the friendly India would not anything that may hamper Bangladesh.
As the events unfolded in the two contiguous neighbouring countries, Bangladesh has been squeezed in almost all sides when both the neighbours surround it in all the three sides leaving the other side to the Bay of Bengal. Relations between Myanmar have been greatly shaken since the start of fresh Rohingya exodus since 2012 following Buddhist Muslims communal riots.
The citizenship law has erupted deadly widespread protests in India. The protests also compelled Bangladesh Foreign Minister and Home Minister to cancel their scheduled official visit to India on December 13 last. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also postponed his India trip amid ongoing violent protest in India over the issue. An annual summit between Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to be held in Guwahati, the biggest city of Assam, on December 15.
On the same day on Friday violent clashes erupted in Delhi between police and thousands of university students protesting the enactment of the contentious new citizenship law. The violence was being flared up in different states of India on Monday when this article was bring worked out.
It is too early to say whether ICJ will deliver justice to world`s most persecuted Rohingya community in the RakhineState of Myanmar. ICJ President Justice Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf Elected at one stage of the hearing said he would try reaching a decision as quick as possible. The three-day hearing at the ICJ concluded on December 12 last, enabling the world to hear once again that Myanmar authorities including State Counsellor Aung Saan Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle for democracy against Myanmar`s junta, systematically denied the persecution of Rohingyas that forced them to flee the country.
On December 10 last in his argument, Gambia`s Attorney General and Justice Minister Abubacarr Marie Tambadou urged the ICJ to take emergency measures to stop genocide against the Rohingyas. Blaming Myanmar`s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi for her link with the bloody persecution, the Gambia`s other lawyers said the appearance of huge billboards across Myanmar in featuring pictures of Suu Kyi with three generals showed she was "in it together" with the army that once held her captive. The brutal military crackdown in late August in 2017 forced as many as 740,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh. They joined some 300,000 others who fled violence in previous phases and took shelter in camps in Cox`s Bazar. A 15-member panel of judges of ICJ heard the case, the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over alleged mass killings of the Rohingya minorities in 2017. Just days after the ICJ complaint was lodged, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it will be investigating crimes committed against the Rohingya.
Rohingyas have been persecuted since the independence of Myanmar from Britain in 1948. Amid persecution and human rights abuse Rohingyas lost their citizenship in 1982. Subsequently tens and thousands of Rohingyas were forced to level their ancestral homes time to time mostly in late 1970s and early 1990s. Most of these poor Rohingyas crossed over to Bangladesh following their exodus from their homes. Those who could afford also flee to Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and many other Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia.
When Suu Kyi was defending her country on December 11, seven Nobel Peace laureates have asked Aung San Suu Kyi to publicly acknowledge crimes including genocide committed against Rohingya people in Myanmar. The laureates are Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Rigoberta Mench Tum og Guatemala, Jody Williams of US, Kailash Satyarthi of India. As the events being unfolded in the neighbouring countries and at the ICJ in The Hague, Bangladesh should behave with utmost pragmatic diplomacy so that it can uphold its national interest and continue to retain people`s interests in it.
