In the first instalment of a two-part essay, Shah Mohammed Saifuddin highlights issues that strain the relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar

Maritime border demarcation

Being surrounded by India and Myanmar, Bangladesh can hardly overemphasise the need to demarcate its maritime boundary on just and equitable basis to assert her sovereignty over its resource rich exclusive economic zone and beyond through which almost 90 per cent of its external trade is conducted. Failure in delineating maritime border may cause Bangladesh to be reduced to a mere land-locked country and to lose its strategic significance and relevance in South Asian context. The recent intrusion of the Myanmarese navy inside Bangladesh’s sea territories is uncalled for and contrary to the spirit of amicable coexistence (‘Bangladesh asks China for help in Myanmar sea row’, Reuters, November 5, 2008). It is very unfortunate that the Myanmarese government sent naval ships inside Bangladesh’s maritime boundary ignoring the fact that they are yet to demarcate the maritime borders with Bangladesh and that they should not venture into exploring oil and gas in disputed water territories until a just and equitable solution is found in light of international maritime laws. But further attempts by Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh’s maritime border may cause both the nations to get involved into expensive conflicts to have deleterious impact on their economies, people, and bilateral relations.
  
Rohingya refugee issue

Myanmar has poor human rights record for suppressing and depriving its minority communities of basic rights and privileges and, as a result of this, thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees cross into Bangladesh territory to escape the military junta’s atrocities against them. The New York Times reported this year that ‘More than a quarter-million Rohingya – an ethnic Muslim minority from western Myanmar – have come here to southern Bangladesh to escape the hunger, humiliation and official brutalities in their homeland. Many have landed in a place called the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp... Every day more Rohingya arrive at the Bangladeshi camps, stateless, sun-blasted refugees carrying their meagre bundles. The newcomers, largely from Rakhine State in Myanmar, are often so traumatised that they’re unable to tell aid workers what they have fled’ (‘Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh’, the New York Times, February 15). Bangladesh with the help of the international community is making relentless efforts to resolve this issue through diplomatic channels but due to the Myanmarese military junta’s stubbornness, the lingering refugee problem is creating strain on local economy and is having debilitating effect on security and social harmony. The military junta’s refusal to recognise Rohyngias as citizens and its continuous attempt to push them inside Bangladesh territory may lead to a conflict if the situation is not properly handled.  

Illegal small arms trade

Illegal small arms trade is a flourishing business along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border despite all the efforts by the Bangladesh Rifles to curb such activities in the border areas. If Myanmar fails to cooperate in stopping illegal arms trade in the border areas, criminals and terrorist groups may create threats to internal law and order situation of Bangladesh.  

Illegal drug trade

Because of long military rule, self-imposed isolation, and economic embargo by the international community, the military junta relies heavily on poppy cultivation and illegal drug trading for revenues. Myanmar has been the second largest opium producer in the world (‘Opium Cultivation Blossoms in Burma’, www.voanews.com, October 12, 2007) and being situated near the notorious ‘golden triangle (ibid) – a heaven for illegal drug trading – Bangladesh faces an imminent danger and this cannot be tackled without full cooperation, which is unlikely to be forthcoming, from Myanmar.
  
Unfriendly NASAKA

The Myanmarese border security force known as NASAKA is a matter of concern for Bangladesh. This particular organisation is involved in all sorts of human rights violation, illegal trading, killing, and whatnot. Abducting Bangladeshi woodcutters and fishermen and demanding money as ransom for their release has become a habit of NASAKA. According to union parishad chairman Firoz Ahmed, ‘They have been attacking us frequently, firing at fishermen and beating them, and also looting their valuables. In many cases, they kidnap our fishermen and release them after taking ransoms’ (‘11 fishermen hurt in Nasaka firing in Bay’, The Daily Star, June 6). Unless NASAKA is turned into a professional force guided by a set of code of conduct, a border conflict may break out between Myanmar and Bangladesh because of irrational behaviour of NASAKA to destroy cross-border peace, stability, and tranquillity.
  
Bangla-US defence relations

Bangladesh is the seventh most populous country in the world with an economy larger than the combined economies of Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri-Lanka, and Maldives, and she is also a land bridge between SAARC and ASEAN. Her solid commitments to work with the international community to fight against terrorism, to improve socioeconomic condition through trade liberalisation, to empower women to end gender discrimination, and to play leading role to foster regional cooperation through SAARC have profusely been appreciated by the US administration and its allies. Consequently, there has been increased cooperation between the armed forces of Bangladesh and the US. But this has been construed as a threat to Myanmar’s national security by top Myanmarese generals who have identified Bangladesh, along with Thailand, as their primary security threat (‘Watch out for Bangladesh and Thailand: Military commander’, www.mizzima.com, January 30).
  
Nuclear factor

Isolated, sanctioned, and pressured by the western powers to improve human rights record and to restore democracy, Myanmar has established links with North Korea and Russia for nuclear cooperation. It is alleged that the military junta is receiving help from North Korea to develop nuclear weapons to strengthen its own position vis-à-vis the western powers and to negotiate on the issues of human rights and democracy from position of strength. A nuclear Myanmar, however, could have a harmful effect on regional security and stability. US secretary of state Hilary Clinton warned the world about Myanmar’s suspected nuclear programme. ‘It would be destabilising for the region,’ she said. ‘It would pose a direct threat to Burma’s neighbours’ (‘Burma suspected of forming nuclear link with North Korea’, The Guardian, UK, July 21). If Myanmar succeeds to surreptitiously acquire nuclear technology, it will change the regional balance of power situation and Bangladesh being the closest and a non-nuclear neighbour will be the worst victim of this change.
 
Shah Mohammed Saifuddin is founder of the Bangladesh Strategic and Development Forum

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