Bangladesh Makes Its Way Into International Arena

Bangladeshi Minister for Foreign Affairs Dipu Moni contributed the following article to The Korea Times on the occasion of Bangladesh's Independence Day.

Thirty nine years ago, on this day, the father of our nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, declared Bangladesh to be an independent and sovereign state.

In the wake of Declaration of Independence, the provisional government of Bangladesh, formed from among her elected representatives, led an armed struggle to defeat the Pakistani occupation forces, and claimed our rightful place in the international comity of states.

However, as any historian would remind us, the Declaration of Independence was itself the culmination of a historic struggle for national liberation through the expression of our people's will to affirm the national, secular, socialist, democratic and republican character of our State.

I take great pride and joy in joining my fellow countrymen in Bangladesh and around the world in celebrating the 39th anniversary of independence and National Day of Bangladesh.

On this historic day, I pay the highest tributes to the great four national leaders who, in the absence of Bangabandhu, led our country to freedom, our valiant freedom fighters, countless martyrs and the entire population, who enabled us to win our freedom.

I pay homage to the valor and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of Bangalee women and men who were tortured and violated during the war.

I take this opportunity to inform our people that the war criminals of 1971 will be brought to justice through due process of law.

And, that, in this regard, over the past year we have obtained significant support from the international community to hold trials of such war criminals through our relentless diplomacy.

Our objective to end the culture of impunity has already achieved significant success in that we have concluded the trial of Bangabandhu's killers and obtained assurances for the return of fugitive convicted killers from the countries where they are resident.

We have, in the past year, also won the confidence of the world by reiterating our position and taking effective steps to free Bangladesh soil of terrorists.

The government of Sheikh Hasina is determined to vindicate the values and aspirations of our sovereignty.

While the central focus of our foreign policy has been to maintain friendly relations with all nations of the world, we have, as an elected government, reiterated that we are a country, which has chosen to live under the rule of law and the constitution, strengthen democracy and human rights, promote good governance and public accountability, practice inclusion, pluralism, secularism and avail every opportunity to be an equal partner with 21st century democratic states.

Our commitment to initiate action to support every vulnerable section of our society including ethnic minorities, women and children and those without access to resources and opportunities has been the hallmark of our journey to our high ideals and aspirations.

Our people and the international community have vested confidence in our efforts to enable an environment conducive to the functioning of an independent judiciary.

We take pride that Bangladesh has emerged as a major actor in global peace-keeping and peace-building at the U.N. Human Rights Council, as president of the Conference on Disarmament and a key policymaker in major U.N. social and economic bodies including the ECOSOC, UNICEF and the very challenging global climate change negotiations.

We also wish to share that Bangladesh has made substantive progress in the quality of its relations with its neighbors big and small, bilaterally, regionally and globally. We believe that this will be a continuing process befitting our national interests.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has outlined 21st century objectives in our development paradigm and committed ourselves to achieve a ``digital'' and a ``middle income'' country by 2021, the 50th anniversary of our independence.

It is not insignificant that we are on the threshold of an e-administration already and harbor every conviction that the people of Bangladesh will have access to its administration in geometric progression.

Today, I thank all at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our 59 Bangladesh missions abroad, who have in the past year dedicated themselves to secure so many of our foreign policy objectives, contributed to our nation-building process and enhanced Bangladesh's standing internationally.

I now ask you to realize all our undertakings, bilateral and multilateral, for ``real peace and real development.''

On this day, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Bangalee expatriates, who are our goodwill and "people's" ambassadors for their extraordinary commitment and contribution to every sphere of our national life.

Without their sweat, toil, love and the material and emotional support they have given for our country including the remittances they make, our national hopes for realizing ``Vision 2021'' would remain unfulfilled.

On our Independence and National Day, let us felicitate each other, at home and abroad and renew our commitment to achieve freedom from want, hunger and prejudice, and strive to attain a land of ``peace and harmony'' as envisaged by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu in his Sonar Bangla.