Government Fingerprints on the ARNC Launch in Bangladesh
Rohingya Unity or State Strategy?
Yesterday’s Dhaka Tribune feature traced the Rohingya movement’s cycle of rebrands, fragmentation and rival claims to speak for the people. One new element now demands attention: growing signs that the Bangladeshi state is quietly midwifing the freshly unveiled Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC).
Over the past few days a diaspora delegation led by Tun Khin and Nay San Lwin toured the camps, bringing supporters from Australasia, Europe and North America. They are also believed to have held meetings with officials in Dhaka.
The telling moment came in Camp 16, where senior figures from the Forcibily Displaced Myanmar National-Representative Committee (FDMN-RC) - an outfit widely viewed as an offspring of the RRRC and military intelligence (DGFI) - took the microphone. Let’s be clear: the FDMN-RC is not a grassroots body. I repeat, at the risk of irritating you, that FDMN-RC was created by the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner’s office in coordination with intelligence officials, and it exists to amplify Dhaka’s messaging. Past FDMN-RC gatherings have even been graced by RRRC Commissioner Mizanur Rahman himself.
Among those who spoke at the ARNC event were MV Sawyedullah (once a key Humanitarian Dialogue contact within ARSPH) and Kamal Hussein, both senior in FDMN‑RC.
ARNC’s press kit lists six media contacts; two have Bangladeshi numbers. The names - Kamal Hussein and Mohammed Furkan - match those of prominent FDMN‑RC figures present in Camp 16, with Hussein addressing the audience. If they are indeed the same individuals, two senior operatives from a Dhaka‑backed body, i.e. FDMN-RC, now front a platform billed as an independent Rohingya initiative!
Sources say Dhaka’s line is hardening. Officials have already instructed junta-aligned fixer Dil Mohammed to cooperate with overseas Rohingya organisations, despite resistance from some of his armed-group allies. Compared with that order, embedding ARNC within the FDMN-RC network may simply be the softer, more manageable route.
With this cooperation, ARNC inherits an instant infrastructure - youth mobilisers and a state-sanctioned loudspeaker. The price of course is independence. That’s the bargain! Given ARNC’s slogan is ‘One Policy, One Vision, One Future’ — it’s fair to ask: whose policy, whose vision, and whose future?
And where does it end? Dhaka has hedged its bets across the board - supplying the Myanmar junta with Rohingya cannon fodder via Rohingya Solidary Organisation (RSO) proxies, while keeping open lines with the Arakan Army. Against this backdrop, the ARNC could be more than just another diaspora logo.
Indeed, a question looms large: where and how will this new council be deployed in Bangladesh's broader geopolitical strategy?