Rohingya crisis
UN for addressing root causes
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng commended the commitment demonstrated by the Government of Bangladesh in supporting hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas and highlighted that the root causes of the crisis in Myanmar must be addressed.
Speaking on the concluding day of a two-day event styled Fostering Peaceful and Inclusive Communities in Bangladesh: The Role of Religious Leaders and Actors, he stressed the importance of ensuring that the persecuted people from Rakhine are given opportunities to uplift themselves educationally and have access to livelihood opportunities in Bangladesh until they can return to Myanmar.
Religious leaders can play a very important role by promoting messages of peace and tolerance and by fostering dialogue between the Rohingya refugees and host communities. The Bangladeshi people demonstrated very early on its solidarity towards the Rohingya people, providing them with shelter and support when they arrived, Dieng said. I hope the religious leaders and actors, as well as policymakers and civil society representatives present here today will continue to show this same humanity, he said United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Mia Seppo, emphasised in her remarks that the government and the people of Bangladesh are the biggest donors to the Rohingya response.
The United Nations is committed to assisting Bangladesh, but it was host communities in Coxs Bazar who were the true first responders. She praised Bangladeshi host communities for their compassion, stating that Bangladeshs traumatic experience in 1971, with millions of Bangladeshis forced to flee as refugees, had made the country particularly noble and generous towards refugees from other nations.
Seppo also underlined that the biggest challenge in the region is to ensure a sense of hope for a better future, and that interventions need to address the urgent needs of Bangladeshi host communities affected by the crisis, just as they also aim to improve conditions for the refugees themselves.
In the event, a broad range of Bangladeshi religious leaders and actors, government policymakers, academics, civil society and United Nations representatives discussed ways to promote dialogue and social cohesion in Coxs Bazar following the influx of Rohingyas. Speaking at the programme, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Md. Nojibur Rahman conveyed Sheikh Hasinas message of support for interfaith initiatives that promote social cohesion and respond to pressing development challenges in Coxs Bazar resulting from the influx of Rohingya refugees.
Stressing that the Government of Bangladesh was fully committed to working with the United Nations and civil society to address the Rohingya crisis, the Principal Secretary encouraged religious leaders to also support this cause.
The event was organised jointly by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Save and Serve Foundation.
The meeting also focused on how a plan of action for religious leaders and actors to prevent incitement to violence that could lead to atrocities developed by the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2017, could be implemented in the areas in Coxs Bazar affected by the Rohingya crisis.
