Bangladesh: Our greater mistake in dealing with Rohingya issue

Rohingya repatriation and the position of China and India


by Swadesh Roy writing from Dhaka

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar wrote a letter to the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh regarding Rohingya repatriation. In this letter, he mentioned that India wants a peaceful and fair Rohingya repatriation. In this resolution, India is always by the side of Bangladesh. He also added that Rohingya refugees are not only the problem of Bangladesh but also the problem of all the neighboring countries around Bangladesh.


On the other hand, in the Non-Alliance Summit, held recently in Baku, in a sideline meeting the Chinese Foreign Minister assured the Prime Minister of Bangladesh that China would organize a tri-party committee: China, Bangladesh and Myanmar. They would sit for the solution of Rohingya problem for Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

The initiatives from China and India are indicating very positive sign for Rohingya refugee repatriation. It is obvious that the whole world has to work for resolving this problem but China and India are two big neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. So, these two countries can play more vital roles than others. From the beginning of this Rohingya refugee problem, these two countries were little bit reluctant about this problem. India was very much kind on the humanitarian ground. But to some extent, they were reluctant about resolving the problem or the repatriation of Rohingya refugee. On contrary, China’s position was little bit mysterious. Rather they also showed some attitudes. They were much interested toward the project of ‘Sittwe Port’ instead of Rohingya repatriation or resolute the problem.

Given this context, Bangladesh was bound to make a bilateral treaty with Myanmar for resolving the Rohingya refugee problem. Following this situation, Bangladesh tried to draw more attention from the international forum. In 2017, Prime Minister of Bangladesh expressed five points in the United Nations General Assembly. Beside that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh tried to present the problem of Rohingya people in many summits and every bilateral meeting with other countries.

In the primary stage of the Rohingya refugee problem, Bangladesh made a mistake. They tried to draw attention to Muslim countries. It was totally a wrong step as a country like Bangladesh. Firstly, Bangladesh is a modern country and it was never a Muslim country. All over the world, refugees are never recognized by their religion. They are always recognized as human being and people help them on the basis of humanitarian ground. The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) helps the refugees all over the world on the humanitarian ground. Basically, Bangladesh put their feet in the trap of Myanmar.

Myanmar presented it in such a way that it looks like they were forcing to evacuate the Muslim people not the Burmese. But Rohingya people are citizen of Myanmar and they are Burmese by birth. Myanmar’s military authorities played that role so successfully that not only Bangladesh but also many other countries marked these evacuated Myanmar’s citizen as Muslim refugees. Why Myanmar’s military did that is not clear. It might be said that they wanted to portrait that they were evacuated as Muslim militants from their country. They know very much that West and many other countries people are annoyed regarding Islamist militant or Muslim militant. However, it was really a joke, because, some people may be militant in any religion or any group of citizen. One million common people cannot be militant. Thanks to the world community, they did not portrait all the Rohingya refugees as militant. With this object, it may be said that all over the world in the refugee camp, some of the vulnerable people are being used by many notorious groups: they may be militant, smuggler, human trafficker and others. 

In Bangladesh, the position of Rohingya refugee camp is in the border side of the three countries: Bangladesh, Myanmar and India. Once, this position was called ‘Golden Triangle’. This triangle was the fertile ground for the smugglers. Cocaine, Opium, Heroine, Smuggling and Human Trafficking were the regular feature of this area. India and Bangladesh are trying highly to stop it. But Myanmar military authority still supports to run this notorious business. Now, Yaba is the main drug for the smugglers of this area. The owner of the above all production factories are the military authority of Myanmar. Bangladesh heavily went on the Yaba smugglers within the country; even the government of Bangladesh seized the land and the other wealth of the Yaba smugglers. Under the circumstances, the Myanmar’s military authority has made an unholy rapport with some Rohingya refugees and they are using them for this Yaba smuggling. Now, in Bangladesh, Yaba smuggling is controlled through the Rohingya refugee camp. When smugglers become strengthen; some militant groups automatically join with them. It is also happening in the Rohingya camp. Some sources confirmed that many of the Pakistani militant groups are working as the donor agency. At the same time, some Middle East money is being invested here for the military operation. It has an old history. After the liberation of Bangladesh, Soudi Arabia funded the NGO Rabeta-al-alam-al-Islami, for helping the stranded Pakistani in Bangladesh. Truly, most of the workers of Rabeta-al-alam-al-Islami were the members of Jamat-E-Islami Bangladesh. They also were the collaborators of Pakistani soldiers in 1971 and fought against Bangladesh. They used this money to build up their militant organization in Bangladesh and now, they are working in the refugee camp for building up some militant people.

To sum it up, the reality is, there are some militants, drug smugglers even human trafficker breeding in the Rohingya camp of Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh is going to take steps against them. That’s why; they have taken a decision about setting up some law enforcement post inside the camp. But it would be very tough jobs to prevent these types of crimes. It is true that these types of crimes never been compounded within the boundary. It always crosses the border or beyond.

For this instance, The Prime Minister of Bangladesh said in the Non Alliance Summit that the Rohingya refugee is not only the problem of Bangladesh’s law and order situation but also it will hamper the harmony or peace of neighboring countries and the world.

In course of time, it is a very good sign that China and India are taking some decisions. Their business with Myanmar is important but law and order situation comes more significantly in this matter of fact. In this context, these two countries have turned over their attitude regarding Rohingya.

Moreover, China and India need to understand Myanmar’s authority through new perspectives because they are not the same people in the field of business and ethnic problem solving. They are very snippy people in this area of interest. They tell lie, escape from their commitment and sometimes very rigid to solve a simple problem. They always try to make a simple matter more complex. For example, Rohingya’s are their citizens and they have evacuated them. They are taking shelter in Bangladesh. Now, they want their list for checking citizenship. Basically, it is a cunning manner for making a simple problem into complex.

In conclusion, China and India need to work jointly and sharply with Myanmar for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

Swadesh Roy, Senior Journalist, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a highest state award winning journalist and can be reached at swadeshroy@gmail.com