China, India’s Rohingya relief an attempt to make amends for crime with petty gift: BNP
Staff Correspondent | Update: 00:55, Sep 30, 2017
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has likened India and China's relief materials for Rohingyas to the ridiculous idea of making amends for committing a heinous crime with a petty gift.
The BNP secretary general made the remarks while speaking at the 25th anniversary of Zia Sangskritik Sangshta (ZSS) at the Diploma Engineers Institution in the capital on Friday.
Referring to the brutal persecution and genocide against the Rohingyas, Mirza Fakhrul Islam said, “What sort of world are we living in today? Humanity has no value. Are power and economic interests all that matter?”
The BNP secretary general asked, “Why is a country like China today supporting Myanmar? Why is Russia supporting it?
Why is India, supposedly revered for their democracy and human rights, standing in favour of Myanmar? They claim that they are sending relief. That is a farce. On the one hand they stand and watch the killing and persecution, and on the other hand they send relief. Stop this genocide.”
Describing the inhuman lives of the Rohingyas, Mirza Fakhrul Islam said, “They are living in unbelievable inhuman conditions. There is no shelter over their heads. A woman huddles under a piece of plastic, trying to survive with her 10-day-old infant. I appeal to the conscience of the world, come forward and force Myanmar to stop this genocide and take back their citizens.”
Pointing to the inconclusive end to the discussion on the Rohingya crisis in the UN Security Council meet, he said, “From the very outset we have said no one will come on their own accord to help out. If necessary, the prime minister should go to China, Russia and India to convince them, to explain the enormity of the problem. The Myanmar government is wiping out an entire race and we are sitting silent. The government has not uttered a word to the Myanmar government.”
Criticising the government’s stand on the Rohingya issue, BNP’s secretary general said, “The government had not said anything firmly to Myanmar. It has not held Myanmar responsible for the genocide, has not condemned it. They do not even want to term the Rohingyas as refugees. They see them as infiltrators. I do not know what sort of diplomacy is lurking behind this.”
The BNP leader said, “There are two challenges in front of us. There is an internal challenge. We do not have democracy. We do not know if the people will be able to vote. The future of our democracy is uncertain. The other thing is that we are now affected from the outside. It is not possible to tackle both these challenges without national consensus. To tackle this, people of all classes and professions must unite as in 1971.”
The BNP secretary general said the government people act as if they have be doling out multitudes of relief. However, he said, Awami League has no relief at all. It is the general people who are providing the relief. “Huge amounts of relief are coming from abroad, but we haven’t seen it being given to the refugees.”
Five abducted
BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam pointed out that five eminent persons had been abducted in a matter of five days. One person was ‘kindly’ released in Maulvibazar. “What sort of country are we living in,” he asked the government, “where an eminent person like Farhad Mazhar is abducted and then send back in a mentally unstable state? Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was alleged to be a war criminal and hanged, but what was his son’s fault? He was released after seven months and still hasn’t left his home. There is still no trace of Ghulam Azam’s son Ajmeer. Mir Quasem Ali’s son, a barrister, is still missing. What is their fault? That they are the sons of their fathers? You have tried them and hanged them, rightly or wrongly, the future will tell. But what crime did their sons commit? You cannot even accuse them of any crime. This culture of disappearance and killing is the only culture that exists in the country now.”
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/161325/China-India’s-Rohingya-relief-attempt-to-make