Dhaka for int'l safe zone in Myanmar.

[bluesky]

বার্মার সাথে শক্ত অবস্থানে বাংলাদেশের বাধা কোথায়?

I think, an overt intervention requires an appropriate timing. A military intervention shoul be the last step when everything else fail. However, Burmese do not appreciate sweet and meek talking. But, being immature in international politics, BD had little opportunity to learn strong diplomacy. I think, a military govt would have acted better than the d*ckless pot-bellied BD politicians.

 

[Bengal Tiger 71]

পা চাটতে চাটতে পায়ে ফোসকা পড়ায়ে ফেলছে.ফোসকা চাটতে গিয়ে এখন জিহ্বায় ঝাল ধরছে.পানি দেয়ার লোক পাওয়া যাচ্ছে না.গরমে পাছায় ঠোসা পড়ার দশা কিন্তু গদি ছাড়া যাবে না.

 

[UKBengali]

I think, an overt intervention requires an appropriate timing. A military intervention shoul be the last step when everything else fail. However, Burmese do not appreciate sweet and meek talking. But, being immature in international politics, BD had little opportunity to learn strong diplomacy. I think, a military govt would have acted better than the d*ckless pot-bellied BD politicians.

This is the perfect time for overt BD intervention.
The current BD military can capture the north of Arakhan at
the least.
Neither US/EU/China or Russian would downgrade relations.
Most important Muslim countries would strongly support BD.
BD lacks a leadership that can understand this.

 

[Bengal Tiger 71]

This is the perfect time for overt BD intervention.
The current BD military can capture the north of Arakhan at
the least.
Neither US/EU/China or Russian would downgrade relations.
Most importang Muslim countries would strongly support BD.
BD lacks a leadership that can understand this.

We don't want to war about Rohigya issue- Obaidul Kader''
they have not the guts to threaten any country. they only busy in village politics. they are disable in international politics. they only know how to hold the chair.how can we expect from them they uphold BD sovereignty.

2019 Election is coming so no hanki panki with others.

 

[Banglar Bir]

Bangladesh wants ‘safe zones’ to ease Rohingya crisis, but seen unlikely
SAM Staff, September 9, 2017

Bangladesh has proposed creating “safe zones” run by aid groups for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to stop hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing into its territory following a military crackdown.

The plan, the latest in a string of ideas floated by Dhaka, is unlikely to get much traction in Myanmar, where many consider the Rohingya community of 1.1 million as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. That will leave Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in the world, with little choice but to open new camps for refugees.

Dhaka sent the proposal to the Myanmar government through the International Committee of the Red Cross to secure three areas in Rakhine, home to the Rohingya community, suggesting that people displaced by the violence be relocated there under the supervision of an international organisation, such as the United Nations.

“The logic of the creation of such zones is that no Rohingya can come inside Bangladesh,” said Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh’s foreign secretary, the top civil servant in the foreign ministry.

The Red Cross confirmed that it had passed on the request to Myanmar but said that it was a political decision for the two countries to make.

A Myanmar government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim nation of 160 million, from Buddhist-majority Myanmar in recent years.

The decades-old conflict in Rakhine flared most recently on Aug 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked several police posts and an army base. Since then, an estimated 270,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, joining more than 400,000 others already living there in cramped makeshift camps since the early 1990s.

There are widespread fears that tens of thousands more could try to cross if the violence doesn’t abate. Recent pictures from the border between the two countries show hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children trying to cross over into Bangladesh on foot and by boat.

The humanitarian crisis next door has left Bangladesh scrambling to deal with people that it does not welcome either.

In recent days, Bangladesh officials have said they plan to go ahead with a controversial plan to develop an isolated, flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal to temporarily house tens of thousands of refugees, drawing fresh criticism from the international community.
SOURCE REUTERS
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...afe-zones-ease-rohingya-crisis-seen-unlikely/

 

[bd_4_ever]

As much as I like BD's long-standing position on being neutral in world affairs, I think it undermine a lot of problems and opportunities. Being neutral is all good but when there is hanki panki in your border with your next-door rouge regime, its quite a must to man up. When the helo crossed our airspace, there should have been at least blank shots fired at it.. if they didnt want to bring down it.

These neutral policies sometimes make us look pu$$ies. What the AL leadership should have done is kill 2 birds in one shot - as the sentiments in BD are at all time high against Burma, they should have pounced on it and warned Myanmar with a 'high possibility of conflict' if they didnt back off. Shooting off a helo would have been a cream on the cake. Our people would have unanimously supported it and that would have boosted Hasina's image as a brave PM, who knows how to protect the country. If a fight does break out later, our people would have easily backed up the government and its military actions. But AL is too dumb to understand this and can only harp "you should ask Myanmar to stop" during international interviews. Idiots.

 

[Banglar Bir]

 

[bluesky]

This is the perfect time for overt BD intervention.

I believe that unless all other options fail, BD leadership, with or without balls, should not cross the international border with MM. In that case, it will lose all the sympathy of and will be castigated by other countries. Very few countries have crossed the border just because of entry of refugees. However, a covert engagement may be OK. But, I think, the present BD govt will not support any organization that has Islamic tag on it. ARSA has it.

However, a quick solution of the issue is needed, because the fanatic elements will destabilize both BD and MM by taking advantage of the situation. But, the meek or no response by the GoB is making things worse. BD is now busy in buying rice from MM. What a fallacy!! It is a wrong signal.

 

[Banglar Bir]

President proposes creation of UN-run “safe zone” for Myanmar refugees
SAM Staff, September 11, 2017

President M Abdul Hamid today proposed creation of a “safe zone” for displaced Myanmar nationals under UN initiatives and supports of organisations like OIC as he met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on OIC summit sidelines here.

“A ‘safe zone’ for displaced Mymanmar nationals to be run-by the United Nations or the OIC and other international organisations can be established to ensure their safe return at Rakhine State,” he said during a bilateral meeting with Erdogan at the Kazakhstan capital.

President Hamid also urged global leaders to put pressure on the Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission recommendation to establish minority Rohingya Muslims rights at their homeland in the country’s northern Rakhine state.

He said surges of refugees fleeing their home to evade persecution exposed the densely populated Bangladesh to a great difficulty causing socioeconomic and environmental problems.

He urged the Turkish leader also to mount pressure on Myanmar along with other world leaders to take back its nationals and ensure their rights to live with dignity in Rakhine State where they lived for generations.

President Hamid thanked Erdogan for the Turkish first lady and foreign minister’s recent Bangladesh visit to see the Rohingyas plight as they continued to take refuge in Cox’s Bazar for the past several years while nearly three lakh of them arrived as the latest spate of violence erupted in Rakhine on August 25.

He also thanked the Turkey President for taking an initiative to arrange a special session on Rohingya issue in the OIC Summit.

President Erdogan said Turkey has already sent 1000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Bangladesh for the Rohingya refugees and assured of sending more 10,000 tonnes immediately and added that Istanbul would take necessary steps so that the other countries also extend their hands in the form of aid for Rohingyas through Bangladesh.

Top government officials from both Bangladesh and Turkey were present at the meeting.
SOURCE BSS, ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...s-creation-un-run-safe-zone-myanmar-refugees/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Bangladesh PM at UNGA: Create safe zones inside Myanmar for the Rohingya
Tribune Desk
Published at 06:49 AM September 22, 2017
Last updated at 07:13 AM September 22, 2017

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses the 72nd Session of the United Nations General assembly at the UN headquarters in New York on September 21, 2017AFP
Hasina on Thursday proposed the creation of UN-supervised 'safe zones' inside Myanmar to protect Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing a military crackdown to seek refuge in her country
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has proposed the creation of a safe zone for the Rohingya people inside Myanmar, under United Nations supervision, while speaking at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

She also urged the UN Secretary General to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar.

Taking the podium right after the speech of Mauritius’ Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, the Prime Minister placed a 5-point proposal to end the Rohingya crisis in front of the General Assembly.

Sheikh Hasina called on “Myanmar to unconditionally stop the violence and the practice of ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine State immediately and forever”.

In her final two points Sheikh Hasina urged for the sustainable return of all Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh and the full implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission report.

The Prime Minister began her speech at 5.29am Bangladesh time. She opened her speech in Bangla, in lieu with the Bangla speech given by father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1974.

She said: “I have come here just after seeing the hungry, distressed and hopeless Rohingyas from Myanmar who took shelter in Cox’s Bazar. This forcibly displaced people of Myanlnar are fleeing an ‘ethnic cleansing’ in their own country where they have been living for centuries.”

“We are currently sheltering over 800,000 forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar. The ongoing atrocities and human rights violations in the Rakhine State of Myanmar has once again aggravated the situation at the Bangladesh-Myanmar Border,” the Bangladesh Prime Minister added.

In her speech the Prime Minister remember the martyrs on the Language Movement in 1952 and the Liberation War in 1971.

“The 1971 genocide included targeted elimination of individuals on the ground of religion, race and political belief. The intellectuals were killed brutally.”

“To pay homage to the victims of the genocide, our parliament has recently declared 25th March ‘Genocide Day’,” Hasina said.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...nga-create-safe-zone-inside-myanmar-rohingya/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Bangladesh proposes a safe zone for Rohingya people
Special Correspondent

Bangladesh has proposed creation of a ‘safe zone’ inside its Rakhine state for the Rohingya people who are facing brutal persecution, and the at the same time involvement of the international community in compelling Myanmar take back the Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh government has already sent letters to several agencies of the United Nations (UN), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in this regard.

According to official sources, the government in the letters has urged the international community to create a ‘safe zone’ inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state so that the Rohingya people are not repressed.
The government has also urged them to take steps to take back the Rohingya people who have taken shelter in Bangladesh.

The government says the Rohingya people are the citizens of Myanmar and they have to go back to their country and there is no other alternative.

According to latest estimates of UN agencies, is around 175,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed into Bangladesh 25 August this year, and the number is increasing every day, most of whom are women and children.

The Rohingya people who have made it to Bangladesh, speak of killings, rape, arson, and planned ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar army.

A total of 84,000 Rohingya people took shelter in Bangladesh last year, adding to the existing 400,000.
Foreign secretary Shahidul Haque told Prothom Alo, “We want Rohingya refugees to go back to their own country and also the implementation of Kofi Annan report’s proposals.”

“The Annan Commission report clearly stated that the identity of the Rohingya refugees have to be confirmed and they must be repatriated,” he added.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=3&date=0#Tid=14755

 

[Banglar Bir]

What is a safe zone?
Niloy Alam
Published at 04:52 PM September 22, 2017

In this photograph taken on September 7, 2017, a house burns in Gawdu Tharya village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar. The wooden structure on fire was seen by journalists during a Myanmar government sponsored trip for media to the region AFP
Most recently, safe zones were a key part of the conflict discussions by the pro-Assad and Syrian rebel forces in the Syrian civil war
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for the creation of a “safe zone” in the Rakhine state of Myanmar for the Rohingya refugees in her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
But what is a “safe zone” supposed to be?
Its origins lie within Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The article stated that during a time of conflict, countries could declare areas “safe zones” for people who are not involved in the fighting. It usually means hospitals and other localities to protect the wounded, women, the elderly and children from war.

However, in modern usage, a safe zone, as declared by the United Nations, is a vague concept that is thrown about regularly for its sound theoretical stance. They have the provision of including no-fly zones.

An area designated by the UN as a safe zone in a conflict zone is conceived to protect civilians from military attack. However, there is no written definition of a safe zone by the UN, only precedents to refer to.

In any case, safe zones have never yielded any good for the people they were set up to protect. Back in 1995, the UN declared Srebrenica a safe zone among six others in what used to be Bosnia-Herzegovina. The UN had even posted 300-400 peacekeepers to protect the Bosnian Muslims, in case the Serb forces defied the UN resolution.

Srebrenica, a small mining town in the mountains, fell to the overwhelming Serb forces who proceeded to annihilate 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. It is by admission, considered to be the UN’s greatest failure till date.

In 1994, the Hutu-Tutsi ethnic conflict in Rwanda led to the genocide of at least one million Tutsi people. Although there were safe zones throughout the country, the Hutu forces operated with impunity inside the areas.

Most recently, safe zones were a key part of the conflict discussions by the pro-Assad and Syrian rebel forces in the Syrian civil war. The safe zones were planned to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees.

As of September 21, a total of 422,000 Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. There are allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Myanmar armed forces. Given the precedence of safe zones and the condition prevailing in Rakhine, the Rohingya will be repatriated with the ashes of their houses, with more threats to their lives waiting for them. Without a strong UN peacekeeping force present, a “safe zone” is safe in name only.

The UN would have to establish clear grounds in regards to the safe zone and the international community will have to ensure Myanmar abides by the terms of the resolution.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/09/22/216876/

 

[Banglar Bir]

12:00 AM, September 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:04 AM, September 23, 2017
Rohingya crisis and the norm of R2P

With the Rohingya crisis spiralling into a disaster of magnanimous proportions, this maybe an appropriate time to invoke R2P against Myanmar. PHOTO: STAR
Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed
Overeignty is sometimes an overused yet largely exploited concept in the world of international relations. In its truest sense, sovereignty is a fundamental term designating supreme authority over a certain polity. Sovereignty has been used by some as a tool to continue the activities of authoritarian regimes, whilst others have sought to celebrate it through the practice of democracy. Realising the practical implications of misusing sovereignty as an international norm, the global powers initiated a 21st-century political commitment called the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). With the Rohingya crisis spiralling into a disaster of magnanimous proportions, this maybe an appropriate time to invoke R2P against Myanmar.

In 2005, member-states of the United Nations endorsed R2P to prevent four types of humanitarian crisis: genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The Rohingya crisis has been recognised by the Bangladesh government and many global institutions as being under the category of ethnic cleansing. So, what does R2P entail? As a norm, it demands that national governments essentially do not take sovereignty for granted. R2P is based on the principle that sovereignty requires a responsibility to protect all populations from mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations. Myanmar government's failure to protect a large proportion of the Rakhine-based Rohingyas makes a strong case for an intervention by the international community, either through taking measures stated in the R2P framework or by involving regional powers such as China or India to achieve a solution to an ever-growing problem.

Consider the case of Libya in which R2P was invoked to make a military intervention. However, one may be prompted to think that R2P automatically means direct military intervention on the part of the global powers. That is not the case. The basic tenets of R2P also involve measures such as mediation, diplomatic cooperation and economic sanctions as part of a mechanism to ensure that sovereignty is respected within a certain nation. According to the R2P doctrine, “The primary purpose of the intervention, whatever other motives intervening states may have, must be to halt or avert human suffering. Right intention is better assured with multilateral operations, clearly supported by regional opinion and the victims concerned.”

But “there must be a reasonable chance of success in halting or averting the suffering which has justified the intervention,” it states, “with the consequences of action not likely to be worse than the consequences of inaction.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already made it clear that her government has taken in Rohingya people purely on humanitarian grounds, nothing else. The Rohingya crisis ensued after the Myanmar government failed to exercise its responsibility to protect its own people from the horrors of ethnic cleansing. Considering that, many nations have initiated diplomatic efforts to pressure Aung San Suu Kyi into recognising the severe failures of her government with regard to Rakhine and the outflow of migrants towards Bangladesh.

R2P also covers an interesting point that makes it even more applicable for the Rohingya crisis. Its coverage is extensive in the sense that R2P recognises the fundamental rights of all people, whether one is a citizen or not—aliens or stateless. The fact that the Rohingyas are now stateless and being subjected to mass atrocity crimes means the R2P-bound international community has no option but to intervene to address Myanmar government's lack of accountability and action. It also means that the international community has a moral and legal obligation, as per international law, to pressure Myanmar into taking action to prevent ethnic cleansing and simultaneously support Bangladesh in its effort to ensure the survival of the refugees.

Interestingly, it was a Bangladeshi—Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury—who helped shape many tenets of the R2P. Chowdhury, who served as the Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Caretaker Government of 2007-08, had worked as a diplomat to negotiate several paragraphs of the R2P norm. It is now up to Bangladesh to persuade the global community to act immediately based on those tenets.

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has suggested that Bangladesh is pushing for placing the Rohingya agenda at the UN Security Council, although it is unlikely that it will result in quick action thanks to the council's history of bureaucratic red tape and veto politics. However, the European powers have supported Bangladesh's stance on the crisis, with UN-based organisations asking nations to provide concrete support to the Hasina government. While it is disappointing to observe India's lack of condemnation towards Aung San Suu Kyi, one hopes that both India and China will eventually overcome the practical impediments holding back a formal condemnation, and intervene to pressure the Myanmar government into ending what surely qualifies as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar is a proud, sovereign nation with a rich history. The same nation is now ignoring the plight of its people, and pushing the country to the brink of unrest by facilitating the massacre of one of its own ethnic groups. Identity politics and the politics of power cannot, and should not, be used as a basis for perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Myanmar cannot hide behind its sovereignty status to cover up state-supported crimes. The international community should seriously consider going for soft R2P interventions such as mediations and sanctions, and this seems to be the only way to convince a Nobel Peace icon that the path she and her government have taken is morally, legally, and constitutionally wrong.

Aung San Suu Kyi's chapter in history began with her bold, courageous and symbolic effort to institute democracy in her country. That she was able to do to some extent. But the world is getting increasingly disillusioned to see one of its greatest champions of democracy tread a dangerous and morally unacceptable path. She cannot hide behind the curtains of sovereignty and democracy any more, as the R2P demands that she take action to resolve the crisis that her government and the military have undoubtedly aggravated.

Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed is a student of economics and international relations at the University of Toronto.
http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/mayanmar-refugee-rohingya-crisis-and-the-norm-r2p-1466200

 

[ashok321]

https://twitter.com/x/status/911402007843373057

 

[Rollno21]

https://twitter.com/x/status/911402007843373057

Then he should have no problem to accommodate 20 of them in his house.