Minorities continue to be exploited
The recent atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh prove their persistent exploitation for the majority's gains the same way they were discriminated against in the past, academics observed at an international workshop yesterday.
They also criticised the democracy of the majority and recommended its amendments reasoning that minorities are not given due attention in such a system.
"Minorities in Bangladesh become target of pre-electoral violence in a democracy ruled by the majority for political gains as seen in the recent cases in Ramu and Rangamati for instance," said panel speaker Dr Amena Mohsin, professor of international relations at Dhaka University.
The political blame game of one political party accusing another centring the attack on Ramu Buddhists puts in perspective the kind of politics prevailing in Bangladesh, she told the workshop, "Controversial Democratic Spaces: Land, Environment and Human Rights in Bangladesh", at DU Senate Bhaban.
Dhaka University and Germany's Bielefeld University co-hosted the programme.
About destitution of Rohingya refugees in Myanmar, DU history professor Mesbah Kamal said, "Myanmar never recognised Rohingyas because they are Bangalee people but unwanted in Bangladesh. They were displaced by the British from the Chittagong Hill Tracts to Myanmar in the 1827 Burmese war."
On the status of minorities, he said, "There are…92,000 IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) families in the CHT each having five members on an average in Bangladesh. Moreover 92 percent of the indigenous people in the North Bengal are day labourers."
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