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The Daily New Age (January 9, 2008)

Mitigation of human miseries demanded

Participants in a workshop in Dhaka on Tuesday stressed the need for resolution of international and regional conflicts and mitigation of human miseries. The Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies president Major General ANM Muniruzzaman inaugurated the two-day workshop on international humanitarian law, jointly organised by the BIPSS and International Committee of Red Cross.Referring to international and regional conflicts and human miseries at different parts of the world, he hoped that the workshop would benefit young professionals, both civil and military, in understanding application of the International Humanitarian Law in the resolution of international and regional conflicts and supporting mitigation of human miseries. He detailed different dimensions of the security, both traditional and non-traditional, affecting the people, and said this should be debated and discussed with open mind to come to a consensus as to how to reduce conditions which have tendency to lead to conflict around the world. The ICRC head of mission in Dhaka, Finn Ruda, focused on two mandates, Geneva Convention and Movement Statutes, as the guiding principles of ICRC. He said more than 12,000 employees had been working around the world with ICRC, which was monitoring and playing a catalytic role to alleviate human sufferings. ICRC faces several problems like disappearances of middle ground and the western rejection towards it, he said and hoped that the workshop would involve people from different streams into the world of humanitarian law. Around 40 delegates from government and military organizations, universities and NGOs are participating in the workshop, divided into eight sessions covering the whole gamut of International Humanitarian Law. Senior professors of universities and experts from home and abroad will deliver lectures and take part in open discussions during the sessions, officials said. Attorney general of Bangladesh, Fida M Kamal, will attend the concluding session of the workshop as the chief guest at Hotel Summer Palace and distribute certificate among the participants on the concluding day.