I wish to commend The Daily Star for its moral courage in exposing the truth behind the recent communal violence on the Buddhist community and desecration of the historic temple of Ramu and other places of worship instead of unqualified acceptance of the version doled out by the establishment. This is what we expect from the media.

Since all the essential facts and analysis are before the readers, I will confine myself to the larger implications of the tragedy of last September and possible way forward from the perspective of a student of political science and diplomacy.

It is said that foreign policy and diplomacy of a country are, in the ultimate analysis, extensions of its domestic policy and structure. By all accounts there has been a palpable failure of governance involving crucially the rule of law without which democracy cannot survive. This has also negatively affected the realisation of the objectives of our foreign policy. The violence on the Buddhist community and their places of worship can be largely attributed to the failure of domestic governance.

It is now clear that tension was brewing since June 2012 when Myanmar military Junta started the religious cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims and fresh influx of the Rohingya refugees started pouring into Bangladesh. What provided the immediate spark and ignited the violence was the reported tagging of a photo of desecration of the Quran on the Facebook of a Buddhist person. This gave the pretext to the yet unidentified organisers to hold a public rally, whip up religious frenzy and mobilise people from far away places to attack Ramu and other Buddhist areas. The failure of the police, the local administration and the intelligence to take timely action to prevent the outbreak of communal violence is indeed disturbing; now the authorities have started the familiar blame game.

Although the Buddhist community constitute roughly around 1% of the

population the communal violence has led to fear, insecurity and lack of trust in the government and sadly on the Muslim majority community in general with whom they lived in peaceful coexistence for so many years.

The probe body set up by the government is essentially a bureaucratic one. It is no surprise that it is seen as a palliative by many who doubt if it will allay the fear and restore confidence of the Buddhist community. I will therefore, call for the formation of a broad based enquiry committee

consisting of a cross-section of eminent citizens, jurists, retired judges, media personalities and others known for their integrity and objectivity. We can then expect a neutral and fair probe.

The findings of the committee should be made public and action taken against the identified culprits on the basis of the findings without delay. At the same time, all political parties and members of the civil society, instead of indulging in blame game for narrow partisan gains, should collectively work to heal the wound and infuse renewed confidence into the Buddhist and minority communities for the larger

national interest.

While beefing up the physical security through deployment of army, strengthening of the police force and improved intelligence are also needed; though such measures alone would not bring about a durable peace based on my personal involvement with peace and conflict resolution in Kosovo. This has to do with winning the hearts and minds of the people.

Aristotle said that relatively small incidents can be the beginning of a larger conflict. A stitch in time saves

nine; we have to act now.

The government needs to take a much more pro-active role for the resolution of the issue of the Rohingya Muslim minorities in Myanmar. Religious cleansing of the Rohingyas and denial of their citizenship are the root cause of influx for the Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh and elsewhere; our diplomacy has failed to address this by not calling upon the Myanmar government to stop the religious cleansing of the Rohingyas, restore their citizenship and create conditions for them to go back to Myanmar and live in peaceful coexistence with the majority of the

Buddhist community. The unresolved Rohingya issue is having its obvious negative fallout in Bangladesh and giving fodder to those with hidden agenda to destabilise Bangladesh.

1 call upon the government to take up the Rohingya issue through vigorous diplomacy at the UN, QIC, Asean, EG and bilaterally with Myanmar and seek support of the US, China, India, Japan and other countries. Already, the US and Western countries have been sympathetic to the plight of the stateless Rohingyas. US Secretary of

State Hillary Clinton personally took up the issue with the Asean leaders during the last Asean summit.

The resolution of twin unresolved CHT conflict and the Rohingya issue would have a positive impact in achieving peace and stability and infusing new confidence into the Buddhist community and other minorities. This would raise the image of Bangladesh in the comity of nations and create conditions for attracting significant foreign investment and spur our Development and progress.

The writer is a former UN Regional Administrator in Kosovo. E-mail: rashed_ahmed2001@yahoo.com