Bangladesh’s failure to resolve Rohingya issue
Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
It is regrettable to note that as of now there appears to be no solution of repatriation of the Rohingya ethnic minority of Myanmar from Bangladesh who were subjected to ruthless expulsions by Myanmar armed forces in 2017.
A bilateral agreement was signed with Myanmar on 30 October 2017 and on 30 October of 2018 without involving UNHCR for repatriation of Rohingya who fled from Rakhine state of Myanmar following ruthlessly driving away from their houses, women being raped and houses being burnt.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh also has spoken about the Rohingya at 76th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations wherein she has spoken about ruthless operations against ethnic Rohingya of Myanmar.
The United Nation sponsored investigation in 2018 recommended the prosecution of Myanmar top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes against humanity for the violence against Rohingyas.
As of now following over five years there seems to be no solution of the repatriation of ethnic Rohingyas of Myanmar while Bangladesh has been maintaining cordial relations with both China and India, apart from Japan.
These countries have been maintaining good relations with the Tatmadaw of Myanmar.
As of now these countries never asserted pressure on Tatmadaw.
It has come to our notice that these countries remained absent when the General assembly of the United Nations issued a warning on 8th June of 2021 to stop the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to show respect to the elected representatives and release all political detainees in Myanmar including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Ki.
119 members of the General Assembly of the United Nations remained absent including India, China and Russia while ASEAN majority members supported the resolution.
It is interesting to note that Myanmar is the recipient of more than 80 percent of arm ammunition from India, China and Russia.
Therefore, a non-binding resolution will have zero effect on Myanmar.
There seems to be urgency that there should be restrictions imposed on suppliers of precious stones since Myanmar is the largest producer of precious stones like jade, rubies.
In fact, Myanmar is producing 90 percent of the largest precious jades and China is the major buyer of precious stones.
According to one report, precious stone sales at the Myanmar gems emporium stands at $ 6.8 million this year alone.
Myanmar in fact is lucky to produce natural resources which include petroleum, gold, copper, limestone, tin and natural gas.
As a matter of fact, Myanmar is rich in natural resources.
Therefore, both the United States of America and the United Kingdom should impose restrictions on the sale of precious stones that no amount of sale will go to members of Tatmadaw.
This writer appears to be perturbed to see the role of India and China in Myanmar while Bangladesh as matter of fact has been maintaining good bilateral relations with both the countries.
It seems to be failure of diplomacy of Bangladesh, to say the least, to convince these two close countries to convince Myanmar to take back Myanmar ethnic Rohingyas.
As a matter of fact Rohingya has been residing in Arakan now known as Rakhine since late seventh century but Myanmar government recognized 135 ethnic groups except Rohingya.
Bangladesh held joint meeting of Organization Islamic cooperation and UNHCR on 12 August in 2023 in Dhaka to expedite resolution of Rohingya of Myanmar to return to Myanmar as a citizen.
It is learnt reliably that sanctioned by United states and European Union have practically left the military junta of Myanmar controlled banks and oil companies are short of money now.
That seems to be frightening for military junta of Myanmar.
It is high time that Tatmadaw should be pressured from all corners of ASEAN plus United States, Japan and China to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh sooner than better.
(The writer is retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of Nova Toastmaster International club of America. He writes from Falls Church, Virginia).
