Bangladesh: Yunus regime backtracks on providing 'Humanitarian Corridor' to Myanmar

Dhaka, May 21 (IANS) Bangladesh's National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of allowing a corridor through Bangladesh for Myanmar, saying the government led by Muhammad Yunus has neither discussed nor intends to discuss such a proposal with any party.

"There has been no discussion with anyone regarding giving a corridor to Myanmar through Bangladesh and we will not even discuss it," Rahman said during a media briefing organised at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Rahman underscored the importance of protecting Bangladesh's national interests and clarified that current discussions with the United Nations (UN) are solely focused on facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, such as food and medicine, through some channels to Myanmar's Rakhine State, which is facing a serious humanitarian crisis.

He emphasised that any future decisions in this regard will be made in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.

Rahman stated that Bangladesh will only consider allowing aid to Rakhine State through its land, if the Arakan Army shows that it does not favour of ethnic cleansing.

In response to another question, the National Security Advisor firmly stated that Bangladesh is not under "any external pressure" to provide such a corridor.

"We are not under pressure from any country, not even from the United States," he said.

On security risks in the provision of humanitarian aid, Rahman said giving aid in a conflicting situation might pose safety and security risks for the aid providers and recipients with presence of land mines and IEDs adding threat to safety and security.

Meanwhile, Yunus also took to social media through the Chief Advisor's handle, emphasising that there has been no provision of aid to Rakhine yet, as it would require consent of all relevant parties and satisfaction of "a number of prerequisites" for aid provision which are common in other cases of humanitarian support around the world.

Yunus stated that Bangladesh has been shouldering the burden of sheltering over 1.2 million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar and cannot simply afford another wave of refugees.

"Given the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Rakhine State, the UN and Bangladesh began consideration of providing humanitarian support. Since all other avenues are unviable due to conflict, Bangladesh turned out to be the only feasible option. It was thought that the UN will organise distribution of aid through its channels within Rakhine State and Bangladesh would provide logistics support to transfer aid across Bangladesh-Myanmar border," read one of the several explanations on the matter posted on

He remarked that Bangladesh considered that aid to Rakhine State would help stabilise the State and pave the way for creating enabling conditions for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

Yunus also noted that the Bangladesh government realised the need for keeping contact with the Arakan Army when they took control of the Myanmar side of the border. For this reason, Bangladesh decided to "informally contact" the Arakan Army to protect its border and keep it peaceful.

--IANS

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