[🇧🇩] Insurgencies in Myanmar. Implications for Bangladesh

[Saif]

Meeting with UNHCR: Foreign Secy highlights negative impacts, reiterates Rohingya repatriation only solution

Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin on Thursday highlighted the negative impacts on the host community caused by the prolonged stay of the displaced Rohingya community in Cox's Bazar, including the rise of crimes like drug smuggling and human trafficking. During his meeting with the outgoing Represe

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Meeting with UNHCR: Foreign Secy highlights negative impacts, reiterates Rohingya repatriation only solution
UNB
Published :
Apr 10, 2025 23:43
Updated :
Apr 10, 2025 23:43

Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin on Thursday highlighted the negative impacts on the host community caused by the prolonged stay of the displaced Rohingya community in Cox's Bazar, including the rise of crimes like drug smuggling and human trafficking.

During his meeting with the outgoing Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangladesh, Sumbul Rizvi, the Foreign Secretary reiterated that repatriation of the Rohingyas is the only viable solution to the crisis.

He recalled the recent visits of the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to the Rohingya Camps in Cox's Bazar.

Sumbul Rizvi had the farewell meeting with the Foreign Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The foreign secretary congratulated the UNHCR Representative on her successful tenure in Bangladesh and appreciated her efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya population sheltered in Bangladesh.

Citing their longstanding partnership with Bangladesh, the Country Representative assured the foreign secretary of continued support from UNHCR.

Both sides also exchanged their views on the current situation in the Rakhine State, and the upcoming High-level Conference on the Rohingya Crisis.

The UNHCR Representative expressed her gratitude to the Foreign Secretary for the cordial cooperation throughout her tenure.

The Foreign Secretary wished her good health and continued success in the next phase of her life.​

 

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Accountability key to resolving Rohingya crisis: Dhaka

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain, now visiting Turkey, on Friday emphasised that accountability for the crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya community is a crucial factor in ensuring justice and the ultimate resolution of the crisis. He reassured that Bangladesh would

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Accountability key to resolving Rohingya crisis: Dhaka
UNB
Published :
Apr 11, 2025 18:27
Updated :
Apr 11, 2025 18:27

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain, now visiting Turkey, on Friday emphasised that accountability for the crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya community is a crucial factor in ensuring justice and the ultimate resolution of the crisis.

He reassured that Bangladesh would continue to lend its unwavering support for the just cause of establishing an independent Palestinian state following multiple UN resolutions.

On the sidelines of the 'Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2025', Hossain had a meeting with Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim A.A. Khan KC and discussed the issue.

Information and Broadcasting Adviser Md Mahfuj Alam, Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkiye and other senior officials from both sides attended the meeting.

Hossain expressed the deepest sympathy over the suffering of the people of Palestine in the recent aggression.

The meeting discussed all aspects of engagements between Bangladesh and ICC. The prosecutor of ICC lauded Bangladesh's unwavering stance for the cause of the international justice system, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The foreign adviser expressed Bangladesh's continued support to the Rome Statute and to the ICC.

He said Bangladesh's interest in exploring tangible cooperation with ICC in training and skilling experts, academics, jurists. He appreciated ICC for its stance vis-a-vis on the situation in the Rohingya crisis and Gaza.

Both sides agreed to further enhance the level of existing engagements in the coming days.​

 

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Peace won't return to Myanmar keeping Rohingya issue unresolved: Dhaka tells Washington

Acknowledging the difficult situation, Bangladesh has strongly conveyed to the United States that peace will not return to Myanmar even if the war ends there unless the Rohingya problem is resolved. "If the Rohingya problem is not resolved, peace will not come to Myanmar even after the war ends. I

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Peace won't return to Myanmar keeping Rohingya issue unresolved: Dhaka tells Washington
UNB
Published :
Apr 18, 2025 22:54
Updated :
Apr 18, 2025 22:54

Acknowledging the difficult situation, Bangladesh has strongly conveyed to the United States that peace will not return to Myanmar even if the war ends there unless the Rohingya problem is resolved.

"If the Rohingya problem is not resolved, peace will not come to Myanmar even after the war ends. I strongly said this," Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain told reporters on Friday, referring to his discussion with the US delegation held on Thursday.

Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.2 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char Island.

Talking to reporters at the Foreign Service Academy, Adviser Hossain said they also conveyed to the US side that they are now in a new reality, and in fact in new reality, they are now facing new neighbours who are non-state actors.

"So we cannot deal with them directly, nor we can ignore them. This is a difficult situation," he said.

The adviser said maybe at some point the problem will settle down and move towards a solution.

"Then those who are our friends and powerful states will have to create pressure there," he said, adding that the Rohingys need to be seen humanely and their rights need to restored in Myanmar.

The US delegation comprising of US Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) Nicole Ann Chulick and Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Andrew R Herrup met Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain, National Security Adviser and High Representative to Chief Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman and Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin separately and discussed the issues of mutual interest.

Adviser Hossain said Nicole Chulick highlighted bilateral issues while Andrew Herrup's focus was on Myanmar issues.

Bangladesh sought greater political and humanitarian support from the United States to help address the Rohingya crisis.

"We broadly discussed the Rohingya issue," Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin said on Thursday.

Both sides expressed a "strong commitment" to further advancing the Bangladesh-US partnership to a "newer height" in the days to come.​

 

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Myanmar rebels prepare to hand key city back to junta: China

A Myanmar ethnic minority armed group is preparing to hand a captured city back to the military in a Beijing-brokered deal, China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, as residents reported junta troops already returning.

www.newagebd.net

Myanmar rebels prepare to hand key city back to junta: China
Agence France-Presse . Yangon 23 April, 2025, 03:20

A Myanmar ethnic minority armed group is preparing to hand a captured city back to the military in a Beijing-brokered deal, China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, as residents reported junta troops already returning.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army ousted Myanmar’s military from the city of Lashio in August 2024, capturing their northeastern command and a key trade route to China.

Analysts say it was the worst strategic loss the military suffered since seizing power in a 2021 coup that sparked a civil war pitting the generals against anti-coup fighters and long-active ethnic armed groups.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters the MNDAA is set to relinquish the city to the military without firing a shot.

‘At the joint invitation of both sides, China recently dispatched a ceasefire monitoring team to Lashio, Myanmar, to oversee the ceasefire between the Myanmar military and the MNDAA and to witness the smooth and orderly handover of Lashio’s urban area,’ he said.

China is a major ally and arms supplier of the junta but also maintains ties with ethnic rebel groups that hold territory near its border like the MNDAA, which can muster around 8,000 fighters.

Monitors have said the fall of Lashio — around 100 kilometres from Chinese territory — was a step too far for Beijing, which balked at the prospect of instability on its borders.

The MNDAA has not commented on the handover and a spokesman for Myanmar’s military could not be reached by AFP for comment.

But a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ‘Some military officers have been transferred to Lashio in recent days. Some are on their way to Lashio already.’

One Lashio resident this week said they had been turned away by an MNDAA checkpoint outside a hotel, after being told members of the group were meeting Myanmar military officials inside.

And a spokesman for the Lashio office of another ethnic armed organisation, allied with the MNDAA, said they were ‘seeing military vehicles in town’.

In late 2023, the MNDAA and two other ethnic rebel groups began a combined offensive which seized swathes of Myanmar’s northern Shan state, including lucrative ruby mines and trade links.

Beijing has long been eyeing the territory for infrastructure investment under its trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

After Lashio’s fall China cut power, water and internet to the MNDAA’s homeland region of Kokang, a source close to the group said.

In December it said it would cease fire and was ready for China-mediated ‘peace talks with the Myanmar army on issues such as Lashio’.​