Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has suggested seven points for inclusion in a proposed deal on security dialogue with Myanmar.
“We have proposed seven points to the foreign ministry and the home ministry,” BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
“Which points would be taken into account, I do not know,” Aziz added.
Bangladesh and Myanmar plan to sign a memorandum of understanding to hold regular dialogues on non-traditional security threats. The idea of a security dialogue was floated during a foreign secretary-level meeting between the two countries in June last year.
Home ministry sources said the BGB sent a seven-point proposal last month for inclusion in the MoU on security dialogue.
According to the proposal, the Myanmar army conducts operations within five miles of the international border. Without prior information to Bangladesh, the deployment of army along the international border is a gross violation of the 1980 Bangladesh-Myanmar Agreement as well as international law and the issue may be included in the MoU, it said.
The BGB proposal also said the influx of Myanmar Rohingyas into Bangladesh may be included under the topic “addressing irregular flow of population”.
Recent communal clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhain state resulted in a large number of Rohingyas trying to enter Bangladesh illegally, causing great concerns for the authorities.
Expressing concerns over the planting of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at different locations along the border, which can lead to serious injuries and deaths of innocent people in both countries, the BGB proposed discussing the issue under “border security and management”.
It remarked that illicit drugs, such as “yaba”, were entering Bangladesh from Myanmar through different routes and the problem should be included in “‘drugs and arms smuggling” of the MoU.
The border force proposed exchanging prisoners, who would serve the remainder of their sentences in their home countries.
It also suggested conducting a joint hydrographic survey of the frontier Naaf River to determine whether any diversion of its original flow had taken place. An agreement on fixing the boundary along the Naaf was signed in 1966 between the then Pakistan government and the erstwhile Union of Burma.
The BGB further said the commander of its Myanmar counterpart does not respond in time to calls for flag meetings to resolve urgent border issues, and the issue should be discussed.
