Brig Gen (Retd) Sakhawat Hussain on Wednesday said that using a liberal interpretation of the non-lethal assistance clause may allow the United States to provide military support to the various ethnic armed organizations (EAO) in Myanmar which “may undermine” Bangladesh’s security as these groups have some ties to the same separatist factions operating in the country.
He made the remarks while addressing a colloquium on the Impacts of “The BURMA Act” on the Bangladesh-Myanmar bordering region.
Minister of Health and Education, National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar Professor Zaw Wai Soe today expressed gratitude for the passing of the BURMA Act and for US support.
He, however, reiterated that it does not rely on any one single superpower, but rather believes in a multilateral response to be the ideal way to address the current conflict.
NUG officially recognizes the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Myanmar and favours peaceful and full repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
It has been two years since the military coup in Myanmar, and there is no peace in sight.
Late last December, the United States passed the BURMA Act, a comprehensive law designed to simultaneously sanction Myanmar’s military junta while providing support to the country’s numerous democratic forces.
In view of these changes, the Center for Peace Studies (CPS) of the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North South University hosted the colloquium.
Moderated by Dr Sk Tawfique Haque, Director of SIPG, the seminar was addressed by SIPG Senior Fellow and former Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Dr Sakhawat Hussain; Sufiur Rahman, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Switzerland and the permanent representative to the UN; former Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque; and Dr Raymond Kwun-Sun Lau, Assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Sociology of NSU.
Mohammad Sufiur Rahman highlighted the emergence of the Arakan Army as a key player in the conflict and emphasized how reaching a resolution on the Rohingya issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar cannot be achieved without taking the Arakan Army’s interests into account.
Shahidul Haque discussed ASEAN’s role in the conflict and pointed to its repeated shortcomings in addressing the conflict in Myanmar, drawing particular attention to its negligence in understanding the plight of the numerous ethnic minorities in the country.
Dr Raymond Kwun-Sun Lau underscored the geopolitical and strategic importance of the Rakhine State to regional powers such as India and China, both for its vast reserves of hydrocarbons as well as its location as a key area for connectivity projects that links India to its northeast region and reinforces China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) respectively.
The event was also attended by experts and practitioners of geopolitics, representatives from international agencies, government officials, researchers, journalists, faculty members and students of NSU.slamic State group fighter on Wednesday lost her legal battle to reverse the decision.
The ruling from Judge Robert Jay means that Shamima Begum, 23, cannot return to the UK from her current home in a refugee camp in northern Syria.
While the court determined that it was for the minister to make the decision, it also said that some of Begum's arguments had merit.
Begum was aged 15 when she left her east London home for Syria with two school friends in 2015. While there, she married an IS fighter and had three children, none of whom survived.
In February 2019, she said she was left stateless when Britain's then-interior minister Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds after she was found in the Syrian camp.
A UK tribunal ruled in 2020 that she was not stateless because she was "a citizen of Bangladesh by descent" at the time the decision was made under her Bangladeshi mother.
No protection
The UK Supreme Court last year refused Begum’s permission to enter the UK to fight her citizenship case. She subsequently took her case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which ruled on Wednesday.
In rejecting her appeal, Jay said "under our constitutional settlement these sensitive issues are for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the commission".
There was, however, "considerable force" in Begum's arguments and Javid's conclusion that she had travelled voluntarily to Syria "is as stark as it is unsympathetic", he added.
"Further, there is some merit in the argument that those advising the secretary of state see this as a black-and-white issue when many would say that there are shades of grey," he added.
Gareth Peirce and Daniel Furner, lawyers representing Begum, said the ruling meant "there is now no protection for a British child trafficked out of the UK".
They added that "every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be urgently pursued".
The interior ministry said it was "pleased that the court has found in favour of the government's position".
Begum could now appeal the decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in the Court of Appeal.
Trafficking claims
The 23-year-old is one of the hundreds of Europeans whose fate has challenged governments following the 2019 collapse of the Islamist extremists' self-styled caliphate.
Lawyer Samantha Knights, representing Begum, told the five-day SIAC hearing last November that her client had been "influenced" along with her friends by a "determined and effective" IS group "propaganda machine".
There was "overwhelming" evidence she had been "recruited, transported, transferred, harboured and received in Syria for 'sexual exploitation' and 'marriage' to an adult male", she added in written submissions.
James Eadie, representing the government, said Javid had "properly considered" all the factors before making his decision. The case was about "national security", not trafficking, he argued.
Amnesty International called the ruling "very disappointing".
"The power to banish a citizen like this simply shouldn't exist in the modern world," said Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds.
"Shamima Begum had lived all her life in the UK right up to the point she was lured to Syria as an impressionable 15-year-old," he added.
The UK government successfully argued that under Bangladeshi law, a UK national born to a Bangladeshi parent is automatically a Bangladeshi citizen, but Dhaka said that was not the case for Begum.
Under the Bangladeshi "bloodline" law, nationality and citizenship lapse when a person reaches the age of 21 unless they make efforts to retain it, which Begum has not done. She was aged 19 when the decision was made.
Begum's apparent lack of remorse in initial interviews drew outrage, but she has since expressed regret for her actions and sympathy for IS victims.
In a documentary last year, she said that on arrival in Syria, she quickly realised that IS was "trapping people" to boost the caliphate's numbers and "look good".
Some 900 people are estimated to have travelled from Britain to Syria and Iraq to join IS. Of those, around 150 are believed to have been stripped of their citizenship, according to government figures.
