[🇧🇩] Insurgencies in Myanmar. Implications for Bangladesh

[Saif]

Border guards who fled Myanmar tell of losing contact with commanders

Over 300 who crossed into Bangladesh have asked for assistance in returning to their homes.

www.rfa.org

Border guards who fled Myanmar tell of losing contact with commanders​

Over 300 who crossed into Bangladesh have asked for assistance in returning to their homes.

Sharif Khiam and Abdur Rahman
Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Bangladeshis deliver an injured Rohingya who tried to cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh to members of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb. 6, 2024.

Myanmar border guards and soldiers fled into Bangladesh earlier this week after losing contact with their commanders during fierce fighting in Rakhine state, an interpreter present during their conversation with Bangladesh officials told BenarNews on Friday.

Many of these Burmese members of the junta-affiliated border police and army who have been sheltering with the Border Guard Bangladesh said they wished to return to their homes, according to an interpreter who spoke to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news outlet, near the BGB outpost in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar.

As many as 330 members of the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) and soldiers crossed the border after abandoning their posts in Rakhine, next door in Myanmar, amid fierce fighting with Arakan Army rebels, who have been making advances in gaining control of territory in battles with junta forces.

The BGP members told the interpreter, Mohammad Saiful Islam, that they were attacked around 4 a.m. on Feb. 4. They fought back before fleeing on Feb. 6.

“They said the Arakan Army encircled from three sides and launched attacks on them. Before the attack, the Arakan Army severed all means of communication with their senior officials,” Saiful Alam told BenarNews. “But they continued their resistance for two days. Ten of their members died while the Arakan Army lost at least 20 of their members.

“They had no way to contact their commanding officers to get instructions.”

As the fighting crept closer to the border this week, at least three civilians on the Bangladesh side were reported killed by artillery and gunfire from the fighting.

Saiful Islam said he talked to 17 army officers linked to Myanmar’s border guard along with 147 BGP members who fled from the Rakhine state. They told him they crossed into Bangladesh to survive.

“‘If we proceeded in other directions, they would apprehend and kill us,’” he quoted an unnamed soldier as saying.

Saiful Islam said BGB leaders gave him questions to ask the Myanmar forces, adding most were reluctant to provide any details. They were more interested in asking about how they would be returned to Myanmar.

“The common answer I get from them is ‘we came under attack and we fled,’” he said.

Border Guard Bangladesh members gather in the Ukhia sub-district where they are unable to rescue victims because of ongoing shelling across the border in Myanmar, Feb. 9, 2024. [Minhaj Uddin/BenarNews]

Earlier this week, officials reported that 330 Myanmar troops crossed into Bangladesh and surrendered their weapons to the BGB.

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, BGB’s new chief, said Bangladesh had followed international norms by allowing the Myanmar border guards and soldiers to cross into Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds.

Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar Md. Monowar Hossain said he spoke to a Myanmar deputy foreign minister who expressed his government’s desire for the BGP to be returned. Bangladesh agreed to repatriate them by sea.

Fight for control

Myanmar’s security forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA), founded in 2009, have been fighting for control of Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban districts.

In recent months, the AA has intensified attacks on the Myanmar military and the BGP.

On Friday, the AA claimed it captured the final major junta territory in Mrauk U, effectively taking control of the town in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, according to Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews.

Previously, the AA captured two key military units in western Rakhine state, seizing control of Minbya. This came after AA rebels captured a BGP camp in Maungdaw township last weekend.

As fighting intensified between the junta forces and the Arakan Army, the civilian population of Rakhine state – including Buddhist Chakma and minority Rohingya Muslims – has been displaced. Hundreds of people have been trying to cross into Bangladesh, but the BGB was put on alert to stop any influx of Myanmar residents.

In Dhaka, Obaidul Quader, a senior minister and spokesman for and general secretary of the ruling Awami League party, said the government would not allow people from Myanmar to take shelter in Bangladesh.

Lt. Col. Mohiuddin Ahmed, BGB Teknaf battalion commander, said many people were trying to enter Bangladesh at different spots along the border.

“As of today, we have apprehended 137 people who attempted to enter,” he told BenarNews on Friday.

Two days earlier, Quader told journalists that Rohingya would not be allowed to cross over from Rakhine.

“The Rohingya people have become a big burden for Bangladesh … the international assistance has fallen. How long can we support them,” he asked.

About 1 million Rohingya live in refugee camps in and around Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar – most have fled Myanmar since a military crackdown against their stateless minority group in August 2017.

On Friday, residents of Tombru, Gundam, Teknaf and Ukhia in Bangladesh told BenarNews correspondents that the intensity of fighting near the border has been reduced.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news outlet.

 

[Saif]

340 Myanmar troops flee into Bangladesh during fighting with armed ethnic group

Bangladesh's foreign minister says 340 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police and soldiers have fled into Bangladesh during fighting with an ethnic minority army

abcnews.go.com

340 Myanmar troops flee into Bangladesh during fighting with armed ethnic group
Bangladesh's foreign minister says 340 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police and soldiers have fled into Bangladesh during fighting with an ethnic minority army

By The Associated Press
February 8, 2024, 9:02 PM

NEW DELHI -- About 340 members of Myanmar's Border Guard Police and soldiers have fled into Bangladesh during fighting with an ethnic minority army, Bangladesh's foreign minister said Thursday.

Hasan Mahmud said 340 security personnel had entered Bangladesh by Wednesday. He said Bangladesh is having discussions with Myanmar's government about the issue and that it is willing to take them back.

Mahmud made the comments while on a visit to India, his first since becoming foreign minister last month.

Earlier this week, Bangladesh's border agency said some Myanmar troops had entered in recent days during fighting with the Arakan Army in Myanmar's Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh. It was the first time that Myanmar forces have been known to flee into Bangladesh since an alliance of ethnic minority armies in Myanmar launched an offensive against the military government late last year.

Officials said the troops that entered had been disarmed and taken to safe places.

Mahmud said he had also raised the issue with India, which shares a 1,643-kilometer (1,020-mile) border with Myanmar and is home to thousands of refugees from Myanmar in different states. Indian officials in November estimated that thousands had entered northeastern states in India to flee heavy fighting in Myanmar's western Chin state.

Separately on Thursday, India's Home Ministry announced that it would end visa-free movement between India and Myanmar “to ensure the internal security of the country.” The Free Movement Regime, as it is known, is an agreement between the two countries that allows people living along the border to travel up to 16 kilometers (10 miles) inside the other country without a visa.

The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority that seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It has been attacking army outposts in the western state since November.

It is part of an alliance of ethnic minority armies called the Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched an offensive in October and gained strategic territory in Myanmar’s northeast bordering China. Its success was seen as a major defeat for the military government, which seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and is now embroiled in a wide-ranging civil war.

Bangladesh shares a 271-kilometer (168-mile) border with Buddhist-dominated Myanmar and hosts more than 1 million Muslim Rohingya refugees, many of whom fled from Myanmar starting in August 2017 when its military launched a brutal “clearance operation” against them following attacks by an insurgent group.

 

[Saif]

Myanmar violence spills over into Bangladesh.

 

[Saif]

Bangladesh needs to make sure that the security officials of Tatmadaw are not here for espionage.

 

[Saif]

Tumbru-Ghumdhum border areas not safe for civilians: BGB DG

Director General of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddique has said the Ghumdhum and Tumbru border areas of Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban are not safe for the common people

www.thedailystar.net

Tumbru-Ghumdhum border areas not safe for civilians: BGB DG

Director General of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddique has said the Ghumdhum and Tumbru border areas of Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban are not safe for the common people.

He said this while talking to reporters after visiting the Tumbru border area on Wednesday.

 

[Saif]

Won't allow Rohingya to enter Bangladesh anymore: BGB chief​

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui today said they would no longer allow Rohingya refugees to enter Bangladesh territory.

The newly appointed BGB chief also said a boat carrying 65 Rohingya people tried to enter the country, but they were resisted by the border troops and the process of sending them back is underway.

The BGB men remain vigilant so that no Rohingya can enter, he added.

The newly appointed DG was speaking to reporters after paying his respects at the grave of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Tungipara in Gopalganj around noon today.

Earlier in the day, BGB said a total of 264 members of Myanmar's border and security forces have come to Bangladesh to escape the fighting between the Myanmar army and the rebel Arakan Army at the border between the two countries.

Asked, the BGB chief said, "We gave them shelter, provided them food. Fifteen of them were injured."

He added that eight of them with critical injures are being given treatment at different hospitals.

"We are trying to face the situation with patience, considering human aspects," he added.

 

[Saif]

264 Myanmar border, security force members now in Bangladesh: BGB



A total of 264 members of Myanmar's border and security forces have come to Bangladesh to escape the fighting between the Myanmar army and the rebel Arakan Army at the border between the two countries, according to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

Newly appointed BGB Director General Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui said a total of 115 crossed the border till last night.

"In the morning, 114 more came," he said in the capital this afternoon. "By the afternoon, 35 more joined them and the total now stands at 264.

The shelter seekers include members of immigration, Myanmar police and other agencies, said Shariful Islam, public relations officer (PRO) of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), adding that the BGB members disarmed them and took them to a safe shelter.

As heavy fighting continued in Myanmar, a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man were killed yesterday when a mortar shell fired from Myanmar exploded in Bandarban's Ghumdhum union.

Several thousand Bangladeshis in the border areas feel insecure as bullets and mortar shells fired from Myanmar landed in Bangladesh over the last two days.

 

[Saif]

Quader seeks China's role in Myanmar situation​

Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said that the situation on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border is worrisome.

He held a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in this regard.