Diplomacy will sort out Myanmar-Bangladesh border conflict

 

Director Zaw Htay from the President's Office said in a message posted in his Facebook page, saying "Our border guard force has never committed a mistake in the incident. They're assumed that insurgents from the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation were trying to intrude into our country”.

The two countries have reinforced their respective border forces as tensions escalated following an allegation that a soldier from Border Guard Bangladesh was shot dead during a clash on May 28.

After the incident, Bangladesh Foreign Ministry summoned the Myanmar ambassador to protest the gunfire, demanding an immediate investigation.

The Bangladesh embassy in Yangon presented a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protesting the incident and demanding the release of the BGB troop and a thorough investigation.

Reacting to the protest, the Myanmar ambassador has already explained about the clash and submitted evidence to the Bangladesh government.

ZawHtay said the diplomats of the two countries would work to resolve the incident so as not to cause further misunderstanding. He added that public anxiety was unwarranted.

The 45-minute gunfire broke out on Friday, one day after both sides were trying to discuss about the clash.

On Saturday, Bangladesh lodged a protest with Myanmar over what it called an unprovoked attack against its border guards by Myanmar security forces on Friday, following an earlier exchange of fire in which one Bangladeshi guard was killed.

Myanmar has given a different version of events and has warned Bangladesh it will not tolerate any violation of its sovereignty or territory.

Major General Aziz Ahmed, head of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), told reporters on Saturday that a body handed over by the Myanmar side was that of guard Mizanur Rahman, 43, who had gone missing on May 28.

In a statement on Saturday, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry said it had called in Myanmar's ambassador to protest at an "unprovoked eruption of gunfire from the Myanmar border force" on May 30.

"The Myanmar Ambassador was told that a BGB team was waiting near border pillar no. 52 for identification of the dead body which was proposed by the Myanmar side. However, to the complete surprise of the BGB, Myanmar border forces suddenly started firing on the waiting BGB team without any provocation," it said.

Myanmar's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the first incident on May 28 involved Myanmar troops and "two suspected armed Bengalis in yellow camouflage uniform who entered into Myanmar territory" in Maungdaw Township. One was killed and the other fled into Bangladesh, it said.

Many in Myanmar, including government officials, use the term "Bengali" to refer to Rohingya people, hundreds of thousands of whom live in the northwestern state of Rakhine.

"There was no BGB team patrolling along the border ... on that day, as claimed by the Bangladesh side," Myanmar's Foreign Ministry said. It denied that Myanmar troops opened fire on any BGB members and said the clothing worn by the man who was killed did not match the BGB uniform.

On the May 30 incident, it said Myanmar had asked the BGB to "fetch the dead body at the Boundary Pillar 52 where the exchange of fire had occurred". The allegation that the Myanmar side started to fire was "far from the reality", it added.

Bangladesh's statement noted a reported deployment of Myanmar forces along the border and said that violated a 1980 agreement, so the forces should be withdrawn.

It added that Myanmar should not "allow any action that may affect the friendly bilateral relations" between the two.

For its part, Myanmar said it would "resort to diplomatic means to solve problems peacefully in view of existing bilateral friendly relations and good neighbourliness".

A Myanmar border official said on the condition of anonymity “Clash happened because they intruded and attacked on our border area. We did in accordance with the border security measures. The arrested man was wearing yellow camouflage without badge. He approached the border defence line, so we open fire. Later, he was identified as the BGB officer. Bangladesh asks us to return him. We will meet in early June. But the date is not confirmed yet.”

The residents of Maungdaw Township, which runs 80 miles from North to South along the border, now live in fear.

“We are very afraid of living (near border). We heard gun shots. Everybody is now frightened,” a resident of Tamanthar village in Maungdaw said. 

Residents pointed that the patrol team members serving the border gates were trained for only six months. They were not ready when they were ambushed.

Tension seems to have escalated due to suspicious movements from border troops of both countries after the Wednesday’s clash. The brigade of Nykhangchhari Township in Bangladesh strengthened its deployment, including armoured vehicles. Some 500 troops were dispatched to BGB camps located from the border posts 37 to 65.