National security adviser and chief adviser’s high representative for the Rohingya issue Khalilur Rahman said on Wednesday that the interim government was considering the United Nations’ proposal for channelling humanitarian aid to the Rakhine state of Myanmar through Bangladesh so that more people did not rush to Bangladesh amid food crisis there.
He said that the Myanmar government lost control of the 90 per cent area of Rakhine to the ethnic rebel group Arakan Army and Bangladesh would allow the humanitarian passage to Rakhine for stability when both the parties in Myanmar agreed on it and the ongoing conflict stopped.Â
‘Humanitarian aids—only food and medicine—will be sent to Rakhine under the UN control if both the parties agree…The aids would not be channelled through Bangladesh unless the conflicts in Rakhine state stops,’ Khalilur, also a former diplomat, told a press conference at the Foreign Service Academy.
He said that they did not discuss about allowing ‘corridor’ with anyone since it signified to allowing movement of people from the affected areas. ‘The corridor discourse initially surfaced in a media of a neighbouring country,’ he added.
The national security adviser, however, said that the government would consult all stakeholders before taking any decisions regarding the humanitarian channel.
Asked about the fear that Bangladesh could become a party to the Myanmar’s internal conflict while the Arakan Army could take control of the aids to be supplied to Rakhine, he rejected outright any such apprehensions, saying that the UN would ensure its control over the ‘noon-discriminatory distributions of aids’.
He said that nothing was decided about the route of the humanitarian passage as there was no deal with any parties as yet and the UN would move forward only after the parties reach a deal among them on the issue of sending humanitarian aid to Rakhine.
On April 27, foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain disclosed Bangladesh’s position on the UN proposal for providing a humanitarian channel to the Rakhine state struggling amid a civil war since 2021, drawing criticisms from various quarters, including politicians
Experts have, meanwhile, suggested that the government should consult political parties in the absence of a parliament and assess risk factors before allowing a ‘humanitarian passage’ to the conflict-ridden Rakhine since it is a matter of national security.
They observe that Bangladesh should take into consideration its international legal consequences and security aspects as well before giving such a passage to the conflict zone, considered to be highly sensitive from a geopolitical point of view, as global powers like China, Russia and India have their own interests there.Â
Asked whether there was any external pressure, Khalilur asserted that Bangladesh was not under any external pressure to provide such a corridor. ‘We are not under pressure from any country, not even from the United States,’ he said.
The government would take every step before allowing the passage so that it was not used for smuggling arms and drugs or any other purposes, he responded to a query.
‘We are in discussions with the Arakan Army under the mediation of the UN for return of the Rohingya from Bangladesh. We have kept the UN as a mediator since the Arakan Army is a non-state actor having no accountability,’ Khalilur said.
The principled position of Arakan Army, he said, was to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh.
‘We have sheltered more than 12 lakh Rohingya people in camps. It’s already a big burden for us and we cannot afford anymore,’ he said, adding that the Myanmar authorities had already verified identifies of 2.5 lakh out of a list of eight lakh Rohingyas provided by Bangladesh.
It’s a progress that they had agreed to take back 1.8 lakh of them initially since none could be sent back in last eight years following the 2017 exodus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh, he said.
He said that the process, however, could not begin as the situation in the Rakhine state was not yet stable due to the ongoing battle between the Myanmar forces and rebel groups fighting for autonomy.
Moreover, Bangladesh had remained engaged with the international community to press for the return of Rohingyas to their homeland as all including the United Nations believed that repatriation to Rakhine was the only solution to the crisis, Khalilur Rahman said, adding that the UN would hold a high-level conference on the Rohingya crisis on September 30 at its headquarters in New York.