[🇧🇩] Insurgencies in Myanmar. Implications for Bangladesh

[Saif]

PM calls upon UNDP to raise more funds for Rohingya

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to make an effort to raise larger international funds for the support of the Rohingya people. She made the call at a meeting with visiting UNDP goodwill ambassador and Crown Princess of Sweden Victoria at

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

PM calls upon UNDP to raise more funds for Rohingya​

UNB

Published :​

Mar 18, 2024 22:37

Updated :​

Mar 18, 2024 22:37

— Collected

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to make an effort to raise larger international funds for the support of the Rohingya people.

She made the call at a meeting with visiting UNDP goodwill ambassador and Crown Princess of Sweden Victoria at a hotel in Dhaka.

PM’s speech writer Md Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the meeting.

The prime minister said Bangladesh had given shelter to forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar on humanitarian grounds and arranged improved accommodation for them in Bhashanchar, ensuring many facilities for them. Now some one lakh Rohingya can reside there in Bhashanchar, she added.

She sought assistance from the UNDP to relocate more Rohingyas to Bhashanchar.

Princess Victoria arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a four-day visit to Bangladesh during which she will tour Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhashanchar.

Bilateral and multilateral issues including climate change came up for discussion during the meeting with the PM.

The princes said there is a huge scope to deepen the bilateral relations between Sweden and Bangladesh.

She expressed her optimism for strengthening the bilateral ties between the two countries especially in trade, business and investment.

The Bangladesh prime minister urged the Swedish businesses to make investment in Bangladesh, particularly in special economic zones.

The PM said Bangladesh is one of the worst victims of climate change. Bangladesh’s contribution to carbon emission is negligible but the country is badly affected. Bangladesh faces different natural calamities like floods and cyclones due to climate changes, she said.

About the local climate adaptation and mitigation programmes, she said Bangladesh formed a climate trust fund to protect the local community and their livelihood.

The PM said her government’s main goal is poverty alleviation, as it has already reduced the poverty rate to 18.7 per cent from 41 per cent and the extreme poverty rate to 5.6 per cent from 25.1 per cent.

She said the government has been providing the homeless people with free cyclone-resistant houses throughout the country so that there will be no homeless people in Bangladesh.

She said her government constructed cyclone shelter centres on the coastal areas.

Hasina recalled her first visit to Sweden in 1969 when her husband was there for study.​

 

[Saif]

Myanmar conflict visibly exposes Rohingyas to fresh persecution: Report

The ongoing armed clashes between government troops and rebel forces in Myanmar visibly exposed the remaining Rohingyas in their homeland in Rakhine, close to Bangladesh borders, to persecution afresh with security reports suggesting the ethnic minority Muslim group was now being harassed by Arakan

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Myanmar conflict visibly exposes Rohingyas to fresh persecution: Report​

BSS

Published :​

Mar 20, 2024 20:08

Updated :​

Mar 20, 2024 20:08

The ongoing armed clashes between government troops and rebel forces in Myanmar visibly exposed the remaining Rohingyas in their homeland in Rakhine, close to Bangladesh borders, to persecution afresh with security reports suggesting the ethnic minority Muslim group was now being harassed by Arakan Army insurgents, security sources said on Wednesday.

Security and intelligence officials said a group of nearly 500 Rohingyas rallied at Buthidaung Township in Maungdaw District of Myanmar’s troubled Arakan province to mark their stance, denying to be drafted by either the rebels or the government troops.

The Rohingyas said they wanted peace, not war in Rakhine.

“The government troops earlier wanted to draft Rohingyas to be their fighters against the rebels, while the scenario now suggests the (rebel) Arakan Aramy also wants them to join the rebel force to fight against the junta rule,” one security official familiar with the development told news agency BSS.

He said the army-led brutal crackdown forced over a million Rohingyas to flee their homes in 2017 when Bangladesh extended them makeshift refuge on humanitarian grounds.

The majority Buddhist Rakhine population’s attitude towards the Rohingya’s at that time was visibly no different to that of the government troops, while Arakan Army which comprises the Rakhines, were believed to have taken a softer stance about the Rohingyas after they launched an offensive against the military junta visibly to gain their support.

But the security reports gathered from the other side of the border suggested that the more the Arakan Army established their position in Rakhine, the Rohingyas were exposed to their repression afresh.

The security report came as a second group of 177 Myanmar’s paramilitary Border Guard Police (BGP) has taken refuge in Bangladesh and currently, they are under Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) custody in Naikkhanchhari area of bordering Bandarban district, awaiting repatriation process.

Until a year ago, Bangladesh exterminated over a million Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh to evade persecution while the figure has now been assumed to reach 13 million.

The reports suggest some 3 million Rohingyas still live in Rakhine, while they are assumedly sandwiched between government troops and Arakan Army.

The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday expressed “alarm” at reports that the Myanmar military is bombing civilian areas.

Guterres called for calm following reports that continuing air attacks on villages in the restive country’s Rakhine state have killed dozens.

Clashes have rocked the western state since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked the government forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the army’s 2021 coup.

“The expansion of conflict in Rakhine State is driving displacement and exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities and discrimination,” a spokesman for the UN chief said.

He added: “The secretary general calls on all parties to prevent further incitement of communal tensions.”

According to international media outlets, Minbya township lies east of the state capital of Sittwe, which has been all but cut off by AA fighters in recent weeks.

The air raid hit the village of Thar Dar, a predominantly Rohingya village about 5km (3 miles) north of Minbya, early on Monday, killing 10 men, four women and 10 children, one resident said.

“There was no fighting in our village and they bombed us,” he said, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

Another resident, also asking for anonymity, said 23 people had been killed in the blast and 18 wounded.

With most mobile networks down, communication with the riverine region is extremely difficult.

Myanmar’s military rulers view the Rohingya as foreign interlopers and have denied them citizenship.

Government troops hold Sittwe, but in recent weeks, AA fighters have made gains in surrounding districts.

Fighting has also spilt over into neighbouring India and Bangladesh.

Last month, at least two people were killed in Bangladesh after mortar shells fired from Myanmar during clashes landed across the border.

The AA is one of several armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar’s border regions, many of whom have battled the military over autonomy and control of lucrative resources since independence from Britain in 1948.​

 

[Saif]

Blasts, gunshots heard along Teknaf border

Following a week of calm, gunshots and mortar shell explosions were heard from across the Naf river, suggesting the resumption of fighting between the Myanmar junta and rebel Arakan Army in Rakhine state

www.thedailystar.net

Conflict in Myanmar​

Blasts, gunshots heard along Teknaf border​

The Bangladesh Army inspect an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade, launched from Myanmar, on the Tumbru border in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari. File photo:Naimur Rahman/Star

Following a week of calm, gunshots and mortar shell explosions were heard from across the Naf river, suggesting the resumption of fighting between the Myanmar junta and rebel Arakan Army in Rakhine state.

Locals in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar said gunfighting near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border lasted five hours until 3:00am today and could be heard in Kharankhali, Naya Bazar, Mina Bazar, Kanjor Para, Jimmkhali, Unchiprang, and Lambabil areas of Whykong union, reports our Cox's Bazar staff correspondent.

Kabir Ahmed, a member of Ward 6 under Whykong Union Parishad, said, "The gunshots could be heard from my house, which is far from the border.

"This ongoing clash is disrupting the day-to-day activities of the people living along the border. Farmers and fishermen have to go to their fields or enclosures every day to work fearing for their lives because of the recurring explosions."

Earlier, BGB Teknaf-2 Battalion Commander Lt Col Md Mohiuddin Ahmed said, given the circumstances, the border guard members were ready to deal with any sort of security threat that may arise, including border infiltration.

The conflict escalated in early February when Myanmar government forces clashed with the Arakan Army at the Tumbru border in Ghumdhum union under Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban.

Subsequently, a significant number of Myanmar government troops, predominantly comprising Myanmar's Border Guard Police, sought asylum in Bangladesh in successive waves before being repatriated on February 15.

With the conflict spreading from the Naikhongchhari to the Teknaf border, where many Rohingya populations live in villages bordering Rakhine State, the situation remains volatile.

The ongoing clashes between the Myanmar junta and the Arakan Army have caused tragic incidents on this side of the border as well.

A Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man were killed and a child was injured as a mortar shell from across the border in Myanmar exploded in Ghumdhum union of Bandarban's Naikhongchhari on February 5.​

 

[Saif]

Myanmar polls may not be held nationwide: junta

Myanmar may not be able to hold its next election nationwide, the country’s junta chief admitted in comments published Monday, as the...

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Myanmar polls may not be held nationwide: junta
Agence France-Presse . Yangon | Published: 23:24, Mar 25,2024

Myanmar may not be able to hold its next election nationwide, the country’s junta chief admitted in comments published Monday, as the military struggles to contain escalating violence against its rule.

The military has made numerous pledges to hold elections since it seized power in February 2021, but has repeatedly extended a state of emergency as it battles opponents across swathes of the country.

Junta supremo Min Aung Hlaing said officials were currently focusing on verifying voter lists, reiterating that polls could only come once peace was restored.

‘If the state is peaceful and stable, we have a plan to hold the election in relevant sections as much as we can, even if the election is not held nationwide under the law,’ he said in an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency, reprinted in English in the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The generals justified their coup with unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud during elections in 2020 won resoundingly by the National League for Democracy party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta-stacked election commission last year scrapped the first-past-the-post electoral system under which the NLD had won resounding victories.

Instead, a proportional representation system will be used.

Three years after seizing power the junta is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule, battling pro-democracy armed groups and older ethnic minority armed groups across large parts of the country.​

 

[Saif]

Myanmar to return 200 Bangladeshis, take back 179 border troops

Dhaka is finalising the repatriation of 179 Myanmar troops who fled conflict in Rakhine and sought refuge in bordering Bandarban...

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Myanmar to return 200 Bangladeshis, take back 179 border troops
Muktadir Rashid | Published: 00:01, Mar 28,2024

Dhaka is finalising the repatriation of 179 Myanmar troops who fled conflict in Rakhine and sought refuge in bordering Bandarban, Bangladesh on March 11, while Naypyidaw wishes to give back over 200 Bangladeshis languishing in Myanmar prisons.

At least four officials in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar confirmed that the swap would be held by the first week of April.

No formal comment from the BGB headquarters was available when they were approached on Sunday and Monday. One BGB commander only said that they were waiting to execute the order.

‘We are not given any date,’ said the senior BGB official.

Separate meetings were held in Dhaka recently over the repatriation and evacuation process, officials said.

Bandarban deputy commissioner Shah Mujahid Uddin only confirmed that discussion was going on about repatriating all of the Myanmar soldiers.

Another official in Dhaka said that it was difficult for Naypyidaw to maintain prisons in Rakhine and other war-ravaged areas and so they are willing to return Bangladeshi prisoners on the ship that would reach Cox’s Bazar to evacuate the BGP members.

‘It’s not technically a prisoner swap as the BGP members escaped and sought shelter. All of them are willing to return home. If any of them seek refuge we will communicate with the UNHCR,’ said the official.

Officials in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar said that most of the 200 Bangladeshis were held on charges of trespassing during fishing.

Several hundred Myanmar border guards recently fled to Bangladesh from the clashes with the Arakan Army, an ethnic resistance organisation in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

Earlier between February 4 and 10, a total of 330 troops and civilians fled fighting in Rakhine and entered Bangladesh, while the Border Guard Bangladesh refused entry to 75 Rohingyas who wanted shelter about the same time.

A ship from Myanmar took back Myanmar troops and civilian officials on February 15.

After sending them back, BGB director general Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui told the media that no more troops would be allowed to cross the border.

Later on March 11, at least 179 personnel from Myanmar security forces crossed the border near Naikhyangchari in Bandarban and sought shelter in Bangladesh amid their ongoing conflict with the ethnic rebel group Arakan Army.

More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas fled the Myanmar military’s ‘crimes against humanity and acts of genocide’ in 2017. They joined thousands of Rohingya people already living in Bangladesh, taking the number of Rohingyas here to over a million.

Two attempts to repatriate the Rohingyas failed, as they refused to return without a guarantee of safety and citizenship.

An estimated 6,00,000 Rohingyas are still believed to remain in the Rakhine State, confined to squalid camps and villages under a system of apartheid.

On March 12, foreign minister Hasan Mahmud said that the government was in touch with the Myanmar authorities to send back the troops.​