The Rohingya Repatriation to Myanmar: The Relevance of the Trilateral Diplomacy

TGP
The Geopolitics
Kawsar Uddin Mahmud
October 8, 2023

The protracted and deeply troubling Rohingya refugee crisis has engendered a significant strain on Bangladesh, as it grapples with the influx of over one million Rohingya displaced people who have sought sanctuary from persecution in Myanmar. The crisis at hand has undoubtedly posed a multifaceted challenge for both Bangladesh and the whole region, encompassing a wide range of pressing issues such as human rights abuses, mass displacement, security threats, regional instability, and intricate dynamics within the realm of regional politics. In such a milieu, the notion of repatriation has surfaced as a plausible solution to this enduring predicament.

Confident in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

The New York Times
By Richard C. Paddock and Rick Gladstone
June 24, 2021

The generals who seized power five months ago have shown no inclination to heed international pleas to reverse themselves, even as Myanmar slides into a failed state.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, during a parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, the capital, in March.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock

Western powers have imposed sanctions. Neighboring countries have implored the military to restore democracy. More than 200 human rights groups have called for an arms embargo. And last week, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a blunt rebuke aimed at isolating the generals.

The diplomatic pressure has done little to change the situation in Myanmar.

‘Track Two Diplomacy’ needed for sustainable solution of Rohingya crisis

Financial Express
June 20, 2021

Social cohesion, environmental recovery need to be ensured until repatriation

The ultimate solution to the Rohingya crisis is the sustainable solution, and to ensure that, track two diplomacy is needed for putting pressure on the Myanmar government.

Speakers during a webinar on Sunday organised by Cox’s Bazar CSO NGO Forum (CCNF) said this.

They also urged all stakeholders to ensure the human dignity of the Rohingya community, and social cohesion until the repatriation, says a statement.

The End of Quiet Diplomacy in Myanmar

FP

BY COLUM LYNCH
| APRIL 7, 2021

 
The U.N. dials up the pressure campaign against Myanmar’s putschists.

U.N. Special Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener arrives at Sittwe Airport in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the site of the mass displacement of Rohingya Muslims, on Oct. 15, 2018. PHOTO BY STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

In the weeks following Myanmar’s military coup, United Nations special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener privately delivered a blunt appeal to foreign diplomats: Shun Myanmar’s military regime lest you lend it legitimacy, impose an arms embargo, and hit the coup plotters with targeted financial sanctions. Make it hurt.

The envoy’s outreach marked a stark departure from the U.N.’s traditional nonconfrontational approach to diplomacy, which places a premium on maintaining cordial relations with regimes in power. In the past, U.N. envoys to Myanmar, including Burgener, and other top officials have largely held their tongues in public, even when the country’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, threatened democracy and carried out mass atrocities against the country’s minority Rohingya Muslims.

Alarmed by inaction, lawmakers push Japan to embrace rights diplomacy

the japan times

BY SATOSHI SUGIYAMA
STAFF WRITER
Apr 6, 2021



Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi go to meet Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, and Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense, at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on March 16. | POOL / VIA AFP-JIJI

As Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga gears up for his trip to Washington late next week, one potential discussion topic could throw a wet blanket over his excitement: Japan’s role in advocating for human rights through diplomacy.

As much as Tokyo is elated over having the first foreign leader to meet U.S. President Joe Biden in person since his inauguration and reaffirmation of Washington’s commitment to national security cooperation, there are worries that the meeting could be used by Biden to compel Suga to augment the Japanese government’s contributions to defending human rights in Asia.

Track II diplomacy in solving Asia’s refugee crisis

EASTASIAFORUM
Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
30 May 2020

Authors: Melissa Conley Tyler and Tiffany Liu, Asialink at the University of Melbourne

In February, experts from government, think tanks, civil society and academia met in Bangladesh for the ninth meeting of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADFM) to address the challenge of people movement and displacement in the region. The dialogue has already seen some positive outcomes, and it highlights an important role for non-official actors in diplomacy.