Despite recent meeting, Bangladesh seen as unlikely junta ally along increasingly battle-plagued border 

By DMG 03 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
3 November 2022, Maungdaw 

Recent meetings between Myanmar and Bangladeshi border guard and police force officials will not result in substantive cooperation between the two sides, and will do little to quell Arakan Army (AA) attacks on Myanmar military positions along the border, observers say. 

Border guard force battalion commanders from Myanmar and Bangladesh met to discuss border security in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on October 30, reported the junta-controlled Myanma Alin newspaper. 

A six-member Myanmar delegation led by Police Lieutenant Colonel Ye Wai Soe from the No. 1 Border Guard Police Force and an eight-member Bangladeshi delegation led by Commander of Border Guard Police Force (Teknaf) Sheikh Khalid Mohammad Iftekhar attended Sunday’s meeting. 

During the discussions, the Myanmar delegation informed their counterparts of the exact location of “insurgent” bases based in Bangladesh, and discussed cooperation in fighting terrorists based along the border, according to the Myanma Alin report, which added that border security and addressing drug trafficking and illegal border crossings were also addressed. 

The meeting was routine, and would not deliver any benefit to the regime, political analyst U Than Soe Naing told DMG. 

“It might just be a meeting as part of diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said. “However, the situation is getting more complicated at the border. Armed conflicts between the regime and the AA are escalating in northern Arakan State. And Bangladeshi authorities have warned the regime a number of times after shells landed on its side of the border. The two sides might have discussed how to prevent it.” 

A 17-year-old boy was killed and five other people were seriously injured when artillery shells fired by Myanmar’s military regime landed in the Bandarban District of Bangladesh, the AA said on September 17. 

The regime denied the fatal shelling, and shifted the blame to the AA and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, saying the shells were fired by the two ethnic armed groups. 

Bangladeshi authorities have repeatedly raised objections to stray shells landing in its territory, which has occurred on multiple occasions. 

The meeting of the two countries’ border forces was the first since the Myanmar military and the AA traded blame over the September shelling. 

The Bangladeshi government is familiar with the Myanmar military and its conduct, and there will not be significant cooperation between the two sides, AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha asserted. 

“The Bangladeshi government is well aware of the mentality and situation of the Myanmar military regime. And it is also well aware of the struggle of the Myanmar people. So, I don’t think there will be any significant cooperation between Bangladesh and the Myanmar military,” said the AA spokesman. 

Arakanese, Daingnet and Muslim people that live near the border are concerned because of frequent fighting and shellings at the border, said Bangladeshi citizen U Maung Kyaw Tun, an ethnically Arakanese man living in Bangladesh. 

“The Bangladeshi government has repeatedly warned about stray shells. But it appears that the Bangladeshis do not want to fight. So, it has filed complaints with the United Nations, and asked the international community to intervene. It wants to address the issue through the hands of the international community,” he said. 

Arakan State has seen near-daily clashes since fighting between Myanmar military and the AA began anew in August, with hostilities particularly frequent in Maungdaw Township, which borders Bangladesh. 

There was an exchange of fire on Wednesday in Maungdaw after the AA carried out a mine attack on a junta vehicle near Kyetawpyin Village in the north of the Township.