Getting world to recognise 1971 genocide in Bangladesh not easy: Foreign secretary

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque has said they are trying to get international recognition of the genocide 1971 in Bangladesh, but “it’s not easy”.

“We are working on that. We have instructed all our missions to work on the issue and raise awareness. It’s not easy, but we are working,” he said after a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday.

The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar in the presence of UN Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng on ‘1971 Genocide in Bangladesh’ ahead of Mar 25 black night.

Bangladesh nationally observes Mar 25 as Genocide Day commemorating those killed by the Pakistani occupation forces on that night in 1971.

The systematic genocide of the innocent and unarmed people of Bangladesh by the then Pakistani military regime left over three million dead, a quarter of a million women and young girls raped.

Bangladesh is also lobbying for international recognition of the day.

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq on Sunday at a separate programme accused Bangladesh diplomats of failing to get the international acknowledgement of the genocide.

He said they have ‘failed to provide the proper context’ of the Mar 25 genocide when the UN decided to observe Dec 9 as the International Genocide Day in 2015. There is no specific incident related to Dec 9, he said at the National Press Club.

The foreign secretary was not pressed to comment on the minister's scathing remarks. But he said as part of the government’s efforts, they have invited the UN special adviser on prevention of genocide to acquaint him about the genocide of 1971.

“It’s part of our international opinion-building process,” Shahidul said, adding that the process had been delayed as the evidence was not properly collected and stored after the war of independence.

He said Armenia is still trying to get the recognition of their genocide. “It’s a long drawn process, but we have not stopped.”

“Even during any joint statements after any bilateral meeting you will see there's one paragraph on the genocide. So we did not stop,” he said.

The Bangladesh permanent mission at the UN in New York will observe the day on Mar 25 in a big way, bringing together all the relevant stakeholders and diplomats of different countries to build opinion in favour of the recognition of the 1971 genocide.

Chaired by the BIISS Chairman Mushi Faiz Ahmad, Director of the Center for Genocide Studies and Justice Mofidul Haque and Director General of BIISS Maj Gen AKM Abdur Rahman spoke at the seminar.