As the humanitarian crisis involving the Rohingyas continues to unfold in Myanmar, more than 400,000 refugees have crossed into Bangladesh. Ali Riaz of the Department of Politics and Government has been consulted by the international media to offer his perspective and to place the crisis into political and historical context. The two latest articles are discussed below.
In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune, published September 15, Riaz argues that despite the failure of China and India to adequately support the interests of Bangladesh as it struggles with hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring over its borders, “Dhaka cannot wait until either of these countries change their stance. It must engage in a robust diplomatic effort to sway global public opinion in favour of immediate steps to ameliorate the plight of the refugees.”
Riaz also criticizes the luke-warm response to the crisis by the UN Security Council. In his Op-Ed titled “International community has two things on their hands,” which appeared in the Daily Star of Bangladesh on September 17, he writes: “the mildly worded, unofficial response of “unanimously adopted press statement of the UN Security Council (UNSC) condemning violence in Myanmar at the closed-door meeting on Wednesday is encouraging but unlikely to deter the Myanmar government from continuing its heinous acts of ethnic cleansing.”
