Myanmar should respond to Bangladesh's territorial claim

CNI News

1 May 2025

The SAC should respond to Bangladesh's call for a separate and independent state for Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine State, Thein Tun Oo, director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNI News.

The Bangladeshi side raised the issue during a meeting on April 27 between a high-level delegation from the Communist Party of China, which was in Bangladesh, and the main opposition party, Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Myanmar authorities have officially stated that there is no Rohingya people in Myanmar, only Bengalis, and that even the name of the people will require much negotiation, U Thein Htun Oo, director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNI News.

' In any case, I think a responsible government should make a statement on this. Will the Myanmar government object to some of the Bengalis who have started to express their attitude towards this? What is Myanmar's position on this? I think Myanmar should make its position on this matter public through diplomatic channels. The use of the term "Rohingya" is something that officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs need to consider. "I think we need to express our position that we will not accept any form of interference in Myanmar's internal affairs." said U Thein Tun Oo.

While seeing Yunus and Bangladeshi refugees

Bangladesh has hosted over 1 million Muslim refugees, and that providing them with shelter and food alone will not solve the Muslim refugee problem, and that resettling them in Rakhine State as a separate territory is the right solution, said Mohammad Taher, a leader of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party. 

U Tun Aung Kyaw, a member of the policy steering committee of the Arakan National Party (ANP), told CNI News that Myanmar citizens would not be willing to give up even an inch of their homeland to another country.

UN Secretary-General arrived at a Bangladesh refugee camp

“This has happened many times in Myanmar. During the Bangladeshi civil war, Lots of Bangladeshi people also entered Myanmar to escape the war. During the Naga Min (King Dragon) operation, the people who did not comply with the law often fled to Bangladesh, fearing that they would be prosecuted. Later, the two countries negotiated through political means and reached the best solution. Many times. When Myanmar can only accept after verification in accordance with its precisely stipulated citizenship law,this problem will be solved if we accept the people we should accept, I think." said U Tun Aung Kyaw.

Currently, fierce battles are taking place between the Myanmar Tatmadaw and the AA in Rakhine State and the AA has controlled the Muslim-majority townships of Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung.

Therefore, UN Secretary-General Guterres has also said that there is a need to negotiate with the AA on the repatriation of Muslim refugees.