World didn’t recognize March 25 genocide for diplomatic mistakes: Minister
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque has said that Bangladesh has failed to get international acknowledgement of the genocide on March 25, 1971 as Bangladeshi diplomats made ‘mistakes’ while portraying it at the United Nations.
“The Bangladeshi diplomats at the UN ‘failed to provide the proper context’ of the March 25 genocide when the UN decided to observe International Genocide Day in 2015,” the minister said on Sunday while expressing frustration over the current status of one of the darkest days of the Bangladesh’s history.
He made the remark during a seminar titled “Genocide on March 25, 1971 and Our Thoughts,” at the National Press Club.
Back in September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly established December 9 as the ‘International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.’
Bangladesh has long demanded the international acknowledgement of the March 25 genocide by the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.
“There is no specific incident related to December 9, unlike International Mother Language Day. We had a huge opportunity in 2015. The diplomats did not present their reports properly to the UN to rectify the mistake,” said the minister on liberation war affairs.
The government is working to create global awareness on the March 25 genocide through the foreign ministry, said the minister.
Other than that, the minister said that those who want to create ‘controversy’ against an established truth by raising question on the number of martyrs in the Liberation War must face state trial.
“They have pushed the history and the Liberation War backward by remaining in power for 30 years. Now they want to create controversy by raising questions on the number of martyrs,” he added.
The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs is working to design a question paper on the history of the Liberation War for the BCS exam and compulsory lessons on the history of the Liberation War at the school level, he said.
Nuzhat Chowdhury, the daughter of a martyr, presented the keynote paper at the seminar.
“It won’t be easy to gain international acknowledgement for the March 25 genocide as it will reveal the inhumane faces of the US, China and the Islamic countries who helped and supported Pakistan in 1971,” she said.
Bir Protik Wakar Hasan, Jagannath Hall Provost Ashim Sarkar, former Information and Cultural Secretary Nasir Uddin Ahmed, poet Asad Mannan and former Chhatra League leader Faisal Ahsan Ullah also spoke at the seminar organised by Sampriti Bangladesh.