Diplomats are taught one big lesson in training academies – learn to respect national sensitivities in countries of posting. No wonder, the US Consul-General in Kolkata, Melinda Pavek, is found pandal-hopping during Durga Puja in a saree and photographed with folded hands before Goddess Durga. Perhaps, this diplomatic grace is something US Ambassador in Dhaka, Peter Haas, could learn. One would expect him to join senior diplomats in paying homage to Bangladesh’s martyrs on December 14 and 16 – at least to overcome the national guilt and make up for the Nixon-Kissinger backing of the 1971 genocide by Yahya Khan’s Pakistani military junta. Read more: US envoy’s visit to Mayer Dak coordinator’s house won’t hurt ties: Info Minister The US never sounded enthusiastic over Bangladesh’s demand for UN recognition of the 1971 genocide, despite unthinkable casualties and brutalities on record. Former Bangladeshi minister and a renowned cultural personality, Tarana Halim, has recently said that the US and western reluctance over UN recognition of the 1971 genocide, perhaps, stems from considering Pakistan as a “strategic asset” and not intending to upset its military. Be that as it may, many US voices like former Consul General in Dhaka Archer Blood came out strongly to condemn the 1971 genocide and also pull up the Nixon-Kissinger duo for being on “the wrong side of history”. Bangladesh’s friends include renowned Democrat senator Edward Kennedy as well. If Peter Haas was out to win hearts and minds in Bangladesh, the least he could do would be to pay his respects to the martyrs at the memorial. But ironically, not even a single post honouring the martyrs from US embassy’s Facebook page appeared on December 14.   Read more: Human rights are at the center of US foreign policy: US Embassy For a country like US that respects and values merit and talent, the assassination of the brightest minds of Bangladesh should be particularly abhorrent. Just two days before the public surrender on December 16, 1971, the Pakistan army – with active assistance from Jamaat-e-Islami and other local collaborators – abducted and killed more than 1,000 top Bengali academics, writers, cultural personalities, and celebrated professionals to leave the new nation with a brain deficit.  Peter Haas apparently had no time for national mourning on December 14 or Victory Day celebrations on December 16. He, however, found time to visit the house of a BNP activist who had reportedly disappeared. Then, he set out to stir a diplomatic storm by alleging his security had been compromised due to a crowd of justice-seekers whose near and dear ones were executed under BNP founder General Ziaur Rahman’s administration. After Gen Zia’s rise to power – months after the assassination of Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, over 1000 armed forces officials, many of whom were freedom fights, were victims of extrajudicial killings during Zia’s violent purges within the military. Broad hints were dropped that Haas’ plan to visit the BNP activist’s home was leaked and that the government had “organized the heckling”.  Read more: US Ambassador visits residence of the coordinator of ‘Mayer Dak’ in city An explanation from the victim families cleared the air about their hurried gathering outside the house the US ambassador was visiting on that morning. Turning out after hearing of the presence of the US ambassador, these victim families – under the platform of ‘Mayer Kanna’ (tears of mothers) – attempted to draw attention to their long pending calls for justice before Haas. They were not terrorists, and ignoring their call was a display of bias. Its role in favour of the Pakistani army that carried out the 1971 genocide and sheltering killers of the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, have done little to improve the US public image in Bangladesh.  The presence of someone as important as the US ambassador is likely to attract attention whenever his convoy moves into a densely populated Dhaka area. Families of victims of disappearance may seek intervention since the US embassy announced that human rights are “at the center” of US foreign policy. Read more: Families of armed forces officers executed during Zia regime seek US ambassador’s intervention for justice If one knows Bangladesh and Bengalis, some cross-shouting is entirely expected. It could also be an effort to pass the blame onto Awami League. Can Haas win hearts and minds in Bangladesh by demonstrating a bias towards a coalition whose last government (2001-06) was seen as responsible for the huge spurt in terrorism? Sukharanjan Dasgupta is a Kolkata-based commentator and author of “Midnight Massacre” on the 15 August 1975 coup.

Violence receded Friday in the capital of the Solomon Islands, but the government showed no signs of addressing the underlying grievances that sparked two days of riots, including concerns about the country's increasing links with China. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare sought to deflect attention from domestic issues by blaming outside interference for stirring up the protesters, with a thinly veiled reference to Taiwan and the United States. External pressures were a “very big ... influence. I don’t want to name names. We’ll leave it there,” Sogavare said. Honiara’s Chinatown and its downtown precinct were focuses of rioters, looters and protesters who demanded the resignation of Sogavare, who has intermittently been prime minister since 2000. Sogavare has been widely criticized by leaders of the country's most populous island of Malaita for a 2019 decision to drop diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of mainland China. His government, meanwhile, has been upset over millions in U.S. aid promised directly to Malaita, rather than through the central government. Those issues are just the latest in decades of rivalry between Malaita and Guadalcanal, where the capital, Honiara, is located, said Jonathan Pryke, director of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank's Pacific Islands program. Read:Australia to welcome vaccinated foreign students, workers "Most of the drivers of the tension have been in the country for many decades and generations, and a lot of it is born out of the abject poverty of the country, the limited economic development opportunities and the inter-ethnic and inter-island rivalry between the two most populous islands," he said. “So everyone's pointing fingers, but some fingers also need to be pointed at the political leaders of the Solomon Islands.” The Solomon Islands, with a population of about 700,000, are located about 1,500 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Australia. Internationally they are probably still best known for the bloody fighting that took place there during World War II between the United States and Japan. Riots and looting erupted Wednesday out of a peaceful protest in Honiara, primarily of people from Malaita demonstrating over a number of grievances. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators, who set fire to the National Parliament, a police station and many other buildings. Protesters defied a lockdown declared by Sogavare on Wednesday to take to the streets again on Thursday. Critics also blamed the unrest on complaints of a lack of government services and accountability, corruption and Chinese businesses giving jobs to foreigners instead of locals. Since the 2019 shift in allegiance from Taiwan to China there has been an expectation of massive infrastructure investment from Beijing — locally rumored to be in the range of $500 million — but with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after the shift, none of that has yet materialized. Malaita threatened to hold a referendum on independence over the issue, but that was quashed by Sogavare's government. Sogavare said Friday that he stood by his government’s decision to embrace Beijing, which he described as the “only issue” in the violence, which was “unfortunately influenced and encouraged by other powers.” “I’m not going to bow down to anyone. We are intact, the government’s intact and we’re going to defend democracy,” he said. More than broad geopolitical concerns, however, Pryke said the demonstrations really boiled down to frustration over the lack of opportunities for a largely young population, and the concentration of much of the country's wealth in the capital. “I guarantee you the vast majority of the people involved in the rioting and looting couldn't point China or Taiwan out on a map,” he said. “They were there as opportunists because they have had very limited economic opportunity. It's a very poor country with high youth unemployment, and this just shows how quickly these things can spiral out of control in a country that's volatile.” A plane carrying Australian police and diplomats arrived late Thursday in Honiara to help local police restore order. Up to 50 more Australian police as well 43 defense force personnel with a navy patrol boat were scheduled to arrive on Friday. Read:Australia wants Facebook to seek parental consent for kids They were requested by Sogavare under a bilateral treaty with Australia, and the presence of an independent force, though small, seemed to help quell some of the violence. Australia has a history of assisting the Solomon Islands, stepping in after years of bloody ethnic violence known as “the tensions” in 2003. The Australian-led international police and military force called the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands helped restore the peace and left in 2017. The Australian personnel are expected to be on hand for “a matter of weeks," according Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Payne told reporters on Friday that she had no indication that other countries had stirred up the unrest. “We have not indicated that at all,” Payne said. Australia is not assisting in the protection of the National Parliament and the executive buildings, in a sign that it was not taking political sides. “We’ve been very clear. Our view is we don’t want to see violence," Payne said. “We would very much hope for a return to stability." Local journalist Gina Kekea said the foreign policy switch to Beijing with little public consultation was one of a mix of issues that led to the protests. There were also complaints that foreign companies were not providing local jobs. “Chinese businesses and (other) Asian businesses ... seem to have most of the work, especially when it comes to extracting resources, which people feel strongly about,” Kekea said. Protesters were replaced by looters and scavengers on Friday in Chinatown, Kekea said. “It’s been two days, two whole days of looting and protesting and rioting and Honiara is just a small city,” Kekea said. The capital has 85,000 residents. “So I think that there’s nothing much left for them to loot and spoil now,” she said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison questioned whether Chinese citizens and businesses were being targeted. He described the unrest as “a bit of a mixed story” and noted Chinatown was the scene of rioting before Australia’s 2003 intervention. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Friday condemned the violence and stressed Beijing's support for the Solomon Islands government. He said China was taking measures to safeguard the safety and rights of Chinese people and institutions in the country. “We believe that under the leadership of Prime Minister Sogavare, the Solomon government can restore order and stabilize the internal situation as soon as possible,” he said. The establishment of diplomatic ties with Beijing “has won sincere support of the people," and "any attempts to undermine the normal development of China-Solomon relations are futile,” Zhao said.