Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has termed the US sanctions on Russia-Ukraine war as “a violation of human rights”.
She was speaking at the inauguration of the newly constructed 6-storey office building of the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (July 7) and the awarding of the Bangabandhu Diplomatic Excellence Medal.
She joined the Prime Minister’s official residence Ganobhaban via video conference.
Sheikh Hasina said, “It is our misfortune today that at a time when the whole world is at great risk economically due to coronavirus infection, Ukraine and Russia have plunged the world into war.” The situation of people all over the world is getting worse. People are being harmed. The United States has imposed sanctions on him. As a result of this ban, there are huge obstacles in getting our products or the ones we import. Not only the barriers, the cost of transportation has gone up and the field where we can get the goods we need has also shrunk. This effect is not only in Bangladesh, I think it is affecting America, Europe and the whole world.
“People are suffering,” she said. It should in fact be considered by everyone, especially the developed countries in particular. America should consider that the people of their country are also suffering from the sanctions that they are imposing. I think they should pay attention to that as well. You want to harm those against whom you are imposing sanctions. But how much are they being damaged? Ordinary people are suffering more than that. That developed country, developing country – people of all countries are suffering. But all the low-income countries are suffering.
The Prime Minister said that we were only getting a little rescue from the Corona epidemic. That’s when the war and the ban. This is really a huge challenge for us. This challenge must be tackled. I don’t think any country or nation can be controlled by sanctions. You must see that now. It also affects his own country. So, lifting the ban and transporting goods … those who continue to fight. But it is easy to transport goods or import-export … and ordinary people should not be harmed. Because food is the biggest need of human beings. And there are many developed countries in trouble.
“From what we hear from different countries, many of us also live there,” she said. Everyone’s life is becoming miserable. We don’t know exactly what it means to hurt people in this way. Here I will say, on the one hand, it is a violation of human rights. It is not right to deprive people of the rights they have. We hope that punishing the people of the world by going to punish a country – perhaps moving away from here. I think that’s what everyone wants.
