KOCHI: The South Asian Regional Conference of Communist and Left parties has expressed its serious concern over the grave humanitarian crisis arising out of Rohingya’s persecution in Rakhine state of Myanmar and the ensuing exodus.The conclave, which concluded on Sunday, also passed a resolution in this regard. “The seminar feels this is a humanitarian issue of international dimensions and the UN agencies and the International Red Cross must actively intervene to ensure that human beings are allowed to lead a decent and dignified life,” said CPM Politburo member M A Baby.
“Various suggestions and proposals have put forth to resolve this humanitarian crisis, including the recommendations of the commission headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier and the suggestions made by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the ongoing UN General Assembly session. The governments of South Asia, particularly Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and other countries, along with the international community must immediately adopt a road map to resolve this crisis and ensure the harassed and beleaguered Rohingya population live a dignified life,” he said. To a query regarding the challenges being faced by the South Asian countries from extreme left forces, especially Maoists, Baby said all the parties which attended the seminar are against left terrorism.
“In India, it is being pointed out that both the CPI and CPM have failed to address the people’s issues and hence, the the Maoists intervened. Some even term them as the real Left. However, the CPM is against any kind of terrorism. All the left parties attending the seminar also echoed this view. The delegates of Communist parties from Nepal have declared their stand on this issue,” he told reporters here on Sunday.
The Rohingya population is forced to leave their homes and move to neighbouring countries in order to survive. Bangladesh has borne the brunt of such an exodus of refugees.
Nearly 4.5 lakhs of Rohingyas are reported to be living in very miserable conditions as Bangladesh was naturally not prepared to receive such a huge refugee influx. The Bangladesh government and civil society have been rendering assistance for the survival of this population, but clearly an international effort is required, the resolution stated.
The participants of the South Asian meet unequivocally declared their steadfast opposition to terrorism of all hues and varieties. Action must be taken against investigated and confirmed acts of terrorism by certain groups and involvement of the individuals concerned, but the whole community can never be targeted on the basis of the activities of individuals or some groups. Non-resolution of this issue can be used by various fundamentalist and imperialist backed extremist forces, the seminar stated.