'UN and OIC are not doing enough to stop Rohingya crisis'

Former ambassador and advisor of Awami League (AL) Muhammad Zamir on Saturday claimed that the United Nations (UN) and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have failed to properly handle the Rohingya crisis. “The UN and OIC have failed to properly act to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. These world organisations have not done enough to stop the persecution of this minority group in Myanmar's Rakhine state,” Muhammad, the chairman of the AL International Affairs Subcommittee, said at a shadow parliamentary debate session of the United Commercial Bank Limited (UCB) Public Parliamentary Debate 2017. Debate for Democracy organised the debate, titled “The role of world leaders to solve Rohingya crisis,” at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation in Dhaka on Saturday. State University of Bangladesh participated in the debate as the government and Dhaka International University was the opposition. “Rakhine state has a large amount of natural resources. China, India and Japan need these resources, which is why they have remained silent over the Rohingya crisis,” added Zamir, a member of the OIC's Human Rights Commission. Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said: “Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya is planned, and Bangladesh’s sovereignty is directly affected by it, but the world powers are not doing anything to stop this.” Criticising the safe zones formula proposed by Bangladesh for the Rohingya, Amir added: “The concept of creating safe zones is wrong. It cannot solve the crisis.” Hassan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiron, chairman of Debate for Democracy, said: “World powers should try Myanmar at the International Criminal Tribunal for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. They should impose economic sanctions against the country.”