Bangladesh is on a mission to gain international recognition for the genocide carried out by the Pakistani army in 1971, says State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Shahriar Alam.
“Our final goal is for United Nation’s recognition for the mass killings,” he told Bangla Tribune on Sunday (Mar 25).
“Many had a misconception that it’s limited to the UN. Because they have already announced Dec 9 as International Genocide Day,” he added.
The government wants majority of the international community to recognise it and express solidarity with its in addition to condemning the heinous actions, said the state minister.
Earlier in the day, Minister for Liberation War Affairs AKM Mozammel Haque blamed diplomats for the ‘failure’ to get Mar 25 recognised by the UN.
State Minister Alam, however, declined to comment on the remarks but said, “Everyone must be aware of the rules. This is a new journey for us.”
He said that the matter was on top of the foreign ministry’s list since it was tabled in the Parliament in 2017.
“In the last two years, the prime minister has brought up the matter in several bilateral and multilateral meetings. We have collected a lot of data and sent it to several places as well.”
On how far things have progressed he said that they hadn’t approached all the 196 states but many have been convinced.
He said that there might come a day when a new proposal in the UN might be tabled.
“There are five permanent member countries in the Security Council,” he said and added that they are gradually trying to bring the states in favour of it instead of springing it on the council and getting rejected. “When we can do that we can think about taking such a step.”
On a lack of a database in attaining recognition for the genocide, he said, “Of course there was and there is enough proof of it.”
He added that some of the databases needed for recognition have already been formed during the International Crime Tribunal formation.
Many powerful states were against the history of 1971 but those states now admit that they had taken the wrong side and that Bangladesh was going the right way, according to the State Minister Alam.