Pressure must be mounted on Myanmar: John Packer

John Packer
John Packer

The first assistant to the UN special rapporteur in Myanmar, John Packer feels that the directives of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the Rohingya genocide are undoubtedly significant. However, there will be no difference in the situation unless pressure is mounted on Myanmar. Bangladesh is in an advantageous position regarding the resolution of the problem from a moral, legal, political and economic aspect. And so Bangladesh must be more active in resolving the problem.

John Packer was speaking during a discussion at the Prothom Alo office on Saturday evening regarding the provisional measures put forward by ICJ. ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the UN, provided a four-point directive on Thursday, including a halt to killing Rohingyas.

Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman greeted John Packer at the start of the discussion, which was attended by former election commissioner Sakhawat Hossain, former professor of international relations at Dhaka University CR Abrar, Bangladesh’s former head of mission at Sitwe, Myanmar, M Emdad and professor of law at Dhaka University Asif Nazrul.

Professor of international conflict resolution at the University of Ottawa in Canada, John Packer said that Gambia was a small and weak country. Such a case takes years and years to settle and he wondered how long Gambia would be able to continue to this end. There was scope for countries which were signatory to the Genocide Convention as well as international organisations and other quarters to stand by Gambia on this issue. Bangladesh could take strong initiative in this regard. He said Bangladesh itself faced a lot of harm in providing shelter to the Rohingyas. He said that it must be kept in mind that no negotiations can be carried out without putting one’s demands forward.

It was pointed out that China remained in favour of Myanmar and India did not back Bangladesh on this issue either. Though as a member of the Security Council China is supporting Myanmar, it cannot block the verdict of the court, said Packer, adding that he felt China would convince Myanmar to abide by the court directives. After all, violating the court orders would amount to challenging the UN convention. China, he said, would not do that.