Like previous years, China yet again took stance in favour of Myanmar while India abstained from voting when a proposal regarding the Rohingya issue and other human rights violations in Myanmar was placed before the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations on Thursday, December 31, the last working day of 2020. The 25-point proposal regarding allegations of alarming extent of human rights violations by the Myanmar military and security forces in Rakhine state was discussed at the Thursday’s meeting.
According to a media report on Sunday, a total of 130 countries voted against Myanmar, including nine, which previously voted in favour of Myanmar. On the other hand, China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam and Zimbabwe voted in favour of Myanmar, while 26 countries, including India, Bhutan, Japan, Sri Lanka and Singapore abstained from voting.
Although an overwhelming majority passed the proposal, Bangladesh utterly failed to convince any of its neighbours to support this crucial issue. Apparently, there is no such evidence that the diplomatic initiatives of Bangladesh among Asian countries are bringing about any positive result regarding repatriation of Rohingyas to their ancestral homes in the Rakhine state.
The role of the two Asian powers – India and China – could not be disregarded. But the question is, don’t we have anything to do about their bias towards Myanmar? Can we depend on their mediation when they refuse to even condemn violation of human rights and seek justice for the mass killings?
It is to be noted that at least 7,50,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh crossing over the Naff River to keep away them from military persecution in Myanmar in August 2017. But Bangladesh is hardly in a position to keep on bearing the burden of over a million Rohingya refugees, including the previous ones.
Critics say both India and China are giving strong backing to the Myanmar leadership, in contrast to the Western and Islamic countries demanding answers from Myanmar. The two countries are allegedly supporting Myanmar only because of their heavy investment in the Rakhine state.
China and India backed up Myanmar despite genocide committed on Rohingya Muslims and a humanitarian crisis created for Bangladesh. Despite our reasonable demand to take back its people, it is a delusion to treat China and India as our friends. Our reasonable demand is that Myanmar should take back its own people. China and India refused to be on our side does not give a damn to our friendship.
