Prof Yunus honoured by rights body

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus yesterday said the ultimate goal of the Liberation War was to establish peace in the country and it was yet to be achieved.
“If we can bring peace to our country, we will be able to move ahead of the countries that are more advanced than us,” he said when a delegation of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Gonoparishad called on him at the Yunus Centre, Dhaka.
Different socio-political and rights organisations have expressed support for the microfinance guru since the government on June moved to take over Grameen Bank, the institution he founded in 1983.
Apart from the Muktijoddha Gonoparishad, a team from the Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) visited the Nobel laureate at the Yunus Centre yesterday.
The rights body gave Yunus the title of Best Citizen of Bangladesh while handing over to him the National Human Rights Award-2013.
While sharing his thoughts with the Muktijoddha Gonoparishad leaders, Dr Yunus said the freedom fighters' mission had not ended.
“Our immediate aim of the Liberation War was to have a country of our own by ousting the Pakistanis and we have achieved this. But our main objective to establish peace and to live with honour in our own country is yet to be achieved,” Prof Yunus said.
“Forty-two years have passed since liberation. But we still have not been able to build a Bangladesh of our dream. And we will be defeated if we cannot reach our final target,” he said, adding the process of peace starts through holding a peaceful election.
He said it was urgent to find out as early as possible in which way a peaceful election could be held. “Through a peaceful election we want to elect those who we think will be able to establish peace in the country.”
Dr Yunus asked all to work for building a country where everyone will be able to express his or her opinion without fear.
During his 20-minute speech, he recalled how he along with others in the US worked relentlessly in favour of Bangladesh in 1971.
At one stage of his speech, the Nobel laureate said the people of Bangladesh elsewhere in the world do not understand why the government is so mad at Grameen Bank, which earned glory and honour for the country by winning the Nobel Prize for peace.
Sharing his thoughts with the rights body BHRC, Dr Yunus said its support for Grameen Bank has made him brave.