Within a week’s duration it happened three times. First, on August 28, two mortar shells landed in Bangladeshi territory from Myanmar creating panic among the locals in the Tumbru Uttar Para border area at Naikhyangchari in Bandarban. Then, again on August 30, reportedly a Russia-made Mi 35 helicopter belonging to Myanmar air forces entered Bangladesh airspace in the morning hours. Lastly, on September 3, four Myanmar helicopters reportedly crossed into Bangladesh’s airspace at Ghumdhum, Bandarban and two shells from the aircraft landed on Bangladesh’s soil.
If the Bangladesh government does not see the landing of mortal shells, trespass of army helicopters into Bangladesh’s air and bullet firings from these at the targets inside Bangladesh one after another as a threat to its sovereignty and does not lodge strong protest and stop Myanmar, it will obviously reflect weakness of Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh has already shown this weakness to Myanmar.
On the first occasion, the Bangladesh government indeed summoned the Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh and asked to explain about the two mortar shells. However, we did not hear about the proceedings of the meeting. Reportedly, there is a battle going on between Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, but it does not mean that Myanmar military will continue to violate Bangladesh’s airspace.
This apparent disregard for Bangladesh’s sovereignty by Myanmar in no way bodes well for Bangladesh’s strained relations with the country over the Rohingya issue. Such action is also not congenial to maintaining peace in the region. As Bangladesh authorities have not given Myanmar permission to use its air space-and there is absolutely no reason to give such permission-Myanmar has been acting in obvious breach of international law.
After Myanmar military’s brutal repression of its Rohingya citizens in the State of Rakhine in what is considered to be genocide and crimes against humanity and Rohingya repatriation remaining still pending due to Myanmar’s dillydally, the military’s disrespect for Bangladesh’s sovereignty is totally unacceptable. The Myanmar military in recent days also brutally suppressed its own democracy loving citizens. Clearly, these actions are sufficient proof that there is a rogue regime in Myanmar and Bangladesh has no reason to hold an olive branch to this regime.
Ideally, after the first warning, as Myanmar did not stop violating its airspace, Bangladesh should have applied force and chased away its helicopters out of the country’s territory. We do not understand what prevented authorities in Bangladesh from taking such action. Myanmar military has caused no little harm to Bangladesh by forcibly displacing its Rohingya citizens totaling now more than one million. Still, the military is reportedly known to have encouraged smuggling of Yaba pills and crystal meth into Bangladesh which is destroying a part of our youth population.
Considering all these, Bangladesh must strongly react either by force or other ways, against Myanmar military so that it corrects its rogue behaviour. The primitive military cannot be stopped by merely calling its ambassador and asking for an explanation.
