Interviewed by: Sofian Al Mahmood Khan
Former Secretary and Ambassador for Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wali ur Rahman recently talked with Our Time on Rohingya crisis. According to him, Rohinga is an issue of today but, it’s not something that started today or yesterday. This problem has been haunting us, even before Bangladesh was established when Pakistan was there from 1960. So it’s to remember that, from 1960 this problem came to surface. After independence during Bangabandhu’s time, there was some communications from Myanmar’s side with the Father of the Nation. Earlier, The father of Aung San Suu Kyi; General Aung San was murdered and then the army basically U Nu continued to rule for some time who was Preceded by Ne Win. Ne Win pursued a policy that was totally Anti-Rohingya. In Bangabandhu’s time, it was not pretty much of a problem. Bangabandhu was a great statesman and there were communications between us.During our independence war whichever side the Burmese Government took is not very important for us, but the Rohingyas, they took a side of Pakistan. Importantly, they were not in favor of Bangladesh’s success in the war. Similarly, when the British and the Burmese were fighting, the Rohingyas even took the side of the British instead of their government. So it is seen that the Rohingyas have been a very interesting phenomenon in the history of Burma.
Edited by: Rubya Tripty
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