Rohingyas on shifting sands as international players appease Myanmar

A good number of the international interlocutors have been engaged in appeasing Myanmar leaving scope for exploiting the Rohingya crisis for their own strategic and business interest.

Some powerful global and regional players have brought substantive changes in their approach to the Rohingya issues and are now asking Bangladesh in informal settings to resolve the protracted crisis on Myanmar’s terms ignoring voluntariness of the prospective returnees, diplomatic sources said.

Some countries are also of the view of keeping the forcibly displaced Rohingya people of Myanmar in Bangladesh for a longer period with assurance of extending relief supports to the camps in Cox’s Bazar.

 

‘Many international interlocutors are found trying to appease Myanmar while heaping all their demands on the doorstep of Bangladesh, the second victim of the Rohingya crisis,’ foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen said on August 24 without mentioning the specific countries and international organisations.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an economic giant, wants to settle the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar’s terms by starting physical repatriation at the earliest ignoring opinion of the prospective returnees, two Bangladesh government officials said.

‘China doesn’t want to antagonise Myanmar,’ a Bangladesh diplomat said with observations that ‘Myanmar is no more fully in Chinese pocket.’

Myanmar has been engaged with Russia, also a member of the UNSC, for garnering additional support at the top UN body in exchange of purchase of heavy weapons from the country instead of relying only on Chinese protection in the UNSC, according to diplomatic notes from Bangladesh embassy in Moscow to the foreign ministry.

Chief of Myanmar military ‘Tatmadaw’ senior general Ming Aung Hlaing, who has allegedly approved the latest spell of atrocities committed against minority Rohingya people in northern Rakhine since August 2017, visited Russia in 2018 and 2019 and sought support of the country on Rohingya issues, according to diplomatic sources.

Russia considers Myanmar as a ‘strategic partner’ in Southeast Asia and ‘defence sphere is a key component of the entire complex of relations’ between the two countries, according to a press release of the Russian defence ministry issued after a visit of the Tatmadaw chief in 2018.

 

On Russian attitude on Rohingya issues, a Bangladesh diplomat said, ‘Russia, which hardly cares about value-based diplomacy, has been toeing fully Myanmar’s line and favours starting transferring Rohingya people from Cox’s Bazar to Rakhine by any means, without keeping the sustainability of repatriation in mind.’

Several ASEAN members have assured in their bilateral meetings with Bangladesh to work on resolving the Rohingya crisis through the regional group. However, in reality, ASEAN, in which Myanmar is also a member, has not taken any meaningful step as there is a high level of unwillingness to discuss the Rohingya crisis in ASEAN mechanisms, former Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said in a virtual discussion on the matter on August 24.

On the stance of the US authorities on Rohingya issues, a Bangladeshi diplomat said, ‘The US sees the matter from the perspectives of its broader Indo-Pacific Strategy and China containment policy.’

On sanctions imposed by the US government on a few Myanmar military officials, he said, ‘the US sanctions are symbolic and negotiable depending on the need of the countries in question.’

The US had imposed restrictions on travels of top Indian politician Narendra Modi indirectly holding him responsible for the communal riots, which claimed over 2000 lives in Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister of the state, said the diplomat with reference to a statement of a US spokesperson published in the Times of India.

Two successive US presidents — Barack Obama and Donald Trump — had received Modi at the White House as state guest on several occasions after he had become the Indian prime minister in 2014.

 

Several rich countries want to temporarily resolve the crisis with keeping the Rohingya people in Bangladesh for a longer period by providing relief support while this strategy would be in keeping with Myanmar’s wish.

Asked about the stance of Japan, an ally of Myanmar with huge investment in the country, another Bangladesh diplomat said Japan too ‘speaks in Myanmar’s tenor.’

In a diplomatic note, Japan had expressed its intent to launch a tripartite mechanism involving Bangladesh and Myanmar to work on the Rohingya crisis soon after China launched a tripartite process on the issue, said the official, adding that they [Japan] finally did not come forward.

Several European Union member countries have been aggressively looking to increase their business engaement in Myanmar and were limiting their support to Rohingyas by extending funds for relief instead of using their political and diplomatic clout to facilitate sustainable repatriation of the members of the community with ensuring a pathway for their Myanmar citizenship, Bangladesh officials observed.

Recently, India, the only country with land and sea borders with both Bangladesh and Myanmar, offered to constitute a tripartite mechanism involving the three countries during foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s last visit to Dhaka on August 19.  

On Indian intent for a structured trilateral mechanism, several Bangladesh officials said it is highly likely for India to keep the matter unresolved for long to get more benefits from Bangladesh exploiting the Rohingya issue.

‘India has a record of dragging feet on issues of Bangladesh’s interests like signing a deal on the River Teesta water sharing and forcing Bangladesh to abandon the construction of the Ganges Barrage on the Padma River,’ said an official.

Incorporating India in the existing mechanism involving China, Bangladesh and Myanmar might be an option, making it a quad for checks and balances in the process of resolving the crisis, said another official.

As it is highly unlikely that a crisis of such magnitude can be resolved bilaterally, it might be better to engage the ASEAN, China, the EU, India, Japan, the UN and the USA in a group for a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis, said a diplomat.  

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net