Bangladesh continues to enjoy the confidence of the United Nations, which considers the country a role model, particularly for its contribution in global peacekeeping and achievements towards millennium development goals (MDG), Dr AKA Momen, the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations has said.
While talking to journalists at the circuit house in Sylhet on Friday morning, Dr Momen spoke on various issues including the peacekeeping missions, election observations, war crimes trial and Quader Molla’s execution, and spelled out any negative impression of the UN about the country as “misleading” and “baseless” propaganda.
He said Bangladesh chairs 42 committees in the UN, which was unprecedented even five years ago. He added that Bangladesh’s performance in achieving the MDGs has been widely commended, eventually making Bangladesh a role model to the world and earning the UN’s confidence on the country.
About the recent visit of the UN Special Envoy Oscar Fernandez Taranco to Bangladesh, Dr Momen said although a consensus could not be reached during his short visit, Taranco was happy with the visit as he came with the agenda to bring people from all the parties to dialogue and was able to meet with all of them.
He added that Taranco had been visiting more than a hundred countries, so he had been on a rush.
Regarding the role of the UN in the election, Dr Momen said it all depended on whether the member states would seek cooperation from the UN in the election. Citing the importance to hold a “good” election in Bangladesh in order to uphold the image of a role model, he said observers were not there in the election of many countries in Europe and America other than some of the neighbor states to Bangladesh.
“The UN does not send observers; however, the UNDP provides only technical support,” he said, adding that the days of election manipulation was over.
Regarding the UN position about the war crimes trial, he said it was absolutely “for” the war crimes trial.
Clarifying any “misleading” information about the UN chief’s call to the prime minister; Dr Momen said the UN chief only asked the prime minister whether the execution of Molla could be delayed because of ongoing dialogues among the major parties over election. “But the UN chief didn’t express concern over the execution of Quader Molla,” he added.
Terming different news reports that claimed that the UN ceased to take people from Bangladesh for the peacekeeping missions – as utterly baseless and fabricated, Dr Momen said Bangladesh had sent 1,200 more peacekeepers just before these stories were spread. And even after that, the UN chief himself called Sheikh Hasina for 250 more military personnel to be sent to UN missions, to which the prime minister agreed.
He said more than eight thousand people from Bangladesh worked in the peacekeeping missions to earn a good reputation in the last seven years. Particularly our women peacekeepers earned positive reputations, Dr Momen added.
