Is Myanmar taking advantage of Bangladesh's foreign policy?

 

It has been a long time since the Bangladesh government has been providing shelter to more than one million Rohingya refugees despite its limitations, including internal resource constraints. Until now, both countries have been discussing the issue of repatriating those refugees, and in this discussion, Bangladesh has taken a friendly attitude towards Myanmar. They are not engaging in any conflict with the neighbor. The reason behind this friendly position from Bangladesh is for the sake of regional security and development of its own. Given the current development phase in Bangladesh, it cannot afford to bear any military conflict with any neighboring country.

Bangladesh bestows importance to the foreign policy of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, "friendship to all, malice to none," and the current government lead by his daughter Sheikh Hasina is actively taking steps to implement that policy in every aspect of her government's foreign relation. Her government is also very active in bringing the inter-country relationships to the highest level, keeping the country's foreign policy's main motto. This is why Bangladesh has a heavy reliance on multinational diplomacy, especially at the United Nations and World Trade Organization (WTO).

Since the beginning of the Rohingya refugee crisis in August 2017, Bangladesh has been discussing with Myanmar for peaceful repatriation. However, there have been many discussions took place, and many treaties have been signed between the two countries, but no repatriation of the Rohingya population has taken place. So far, there have been four attempts of repatriation. Still, due to the Rohingya refugees' trust in the Myanmar government and the influence of the local NGOs working in the refugee camps, all attempts are doomed to fail. After the Coronavirus breaks out at the beginning of 2020, everything regarding the Rohingya refugees' repatriation process stopped, and it seems it will take some time now to restart again.

Rohingya refugees have been living in unbearable conditions in the refugee camps in different parts of Cox's Bazar district. The refugee camp area is hilly, and there is the fear of land sliding, attack from the wild elephants, the crisis of subsistence facilities. This is why the Bangladesh government has been relocating these people to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal located 34km (21 miles) from Bhasan Char's mainland under Noakhali district. Since December 2020, around 4,000 refugees have already been sent to the island, and so far, there is a capacity of 100,000 people. This relocation will continue till the capacity is fulfilled.

Many human rights groups call for a halt to the process due to the fear that a big storm could overwhelm the island and endanger thousands of lives. Besides, the isolated island is also flood prone. This island has just emerged from the Bay of Bengal, and the Bangladesh government has developed land and prepared housing for the Rohingya refugees. The activist groups, local NGOs, INGOs have been condemning the Bangladesh government's decision to transfer the Rohingya refugees. The government has rejected the criticism from rights groups that the new camp on Bhasan Char is unsafe.

Now the question arises since it has been more than three years after the Rohingya Muslim Minorities from Myanmar were forced from their homes, why is there still no permanent solution to the crisis? The only answer to this question is the lack of Myanmar's lack of tolerance for the Rohingya population and reasonable attempts to take back those population. However, it is also true that there has been a lack of international community's enough pressure and appropriate attempts to take back the Rohingya population. There is a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) called the Rohingya genocide case, which has been heard by the judges, and the court has issued a ruling for Myanmar to take all measures to protect the Rohingya population within its territory. The Gambia filed the case against Myanmar under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The ruling is clearly a win for the Gambia and so for Bangladesh, but there has been no visible or significant development to put physical pressure on Myanmar.

On the other hand, since Bangladesh has been the sole victim of this Rohingya crisis, its government should have been more careful in its attempts. Since the country's foreign policy is friendship to all and malice to none, and this is why Myanmar probably has understood Bangladesh would never go on the hardlines (armed conflict) towards them. In the meantime, Myanmar has tried to intimidate and provoke Bangladesh for military conflicts and have gathered military along the borderlines with Bangladesh. Furthermore, Myanmar has claimed the rightful island of Bangladesh to its maps; however, Bangladesh didn't engage itself with the provocation somewhat the government has resolved it diplomatically. Bangladesh couldn't put direct pressure towards Myanmar to take back the Rohingya refugees. Still, its government has been trying to put indirect pressure on Myanmar through international agencies like the UN or WTO or third-party governments like India, China, Japan, or the USA. Bangladesh has successfully mobilized those institutions and governments, but we have seen that it didn't work.

Because even after the verbal threats from those governments, all the countries have their investments in Myanmar. Also, there has been some pressure from the USA, but Myanmar has successfully dodged and strategically tackled those threats. Furthermore, India and China have been friends with Bangladesh for decades. Their friendship goes beyond strategic partnerships. However, these friendships didn't work in case of resolving the Rohingya crisis. Japan has been the sole biggest development partner of Bangladesh. Besides Japan Government and Japan's private industrialists are some of the most prominent investors in Bangladesh. Still, Japan couldn't put enough pressure towards Myanmar to take back the Rohingya refugees.

Nevertheless, as we understood that Bangladesh has been following its foreign policy's motto, "friend to all and malice to none;" this is why it has taken a friendly approach towards the Rohingya crisis mediation. And Myanmar has taken advantage of this friendly position of Bangladesh. Now changing the foreign policy of Bangladesh would be more complicated than changing the strategy towards the Rohingya crisis mediation. It is high time for Bangladesh to be more pro-active in the diplomatic process and the international networks. Suppose Bangladesh can diplomatically organize strong allies like the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan, India, and China. In that case, they can put pressure on Myanmar to start the Rohingya refugees' repatriation process since the pressure from Bangladesh is not currently working and Myanmar is taking advantage of Bangladesh's friendly position.
(We acknowledge different sources with gratitude.)


The writer is an Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Comilla University, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]