Tension Along Tambru

Good borders make good neighbours.

- Reaz Ahmad

If countries sharing borders can resolve their border irritants whatsoever through negotiations and dialogues at civil and military levels, they serve the duty of good neighbours. But what we’ve been observing over the past one week or so on certain stretches of our southeastern fringes along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border is very disturbing to say the least.

Repeated build-ups of heavy military equipment and Myanmar security forces’ taking positions along Tambru border in Bandarban’s Naikkhongchhari created panic among the persecuted Rohingyas who have long taken shelter in the no man’s land. Such display of force in close vicinity of a neighbouring country’s borderline does not go down well as far as maintaining good neighbourly attitude is concerned. Flexing military muscles does not serve the best interests of good neighbours, deescalating tension does.

Bangladesh being at the receiving end of all the troubles centring around worst mass exodus of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya community can ill-afford any further affront. Bangladesh being Myanmar’s neighbour has long been playing host to many people coming from across the border and since the August last year when Myanmar’s brutal army crackdown forced lakhs of Rohingyas to flee from their land for safety, Bangladesh is giving refuge to over a million persecuted Rohingyas from Myanmar. The least Bangladesh can expect now is a peaceful repatriation of the Rohingyas. Instead, if tension continues to brew in the southeastern front, peace and security will only come under renewed threats.