The United Nations’ Resident Coordinator in Dhaka, Gwyn Lewis, has finally been transferred after a stint of more than three years. And guess where? Yangon in Myanmar.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed Lewis, from Dublin, Ireland, as the UN Resident Coordinator on May 8, 2022. At that time, she had under her belt an experience of more than 20 years in “international development, peacebuilding, and humanitarian affairs”.
Before the Dhaka assignment, Lewis was Director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Affairs in the West Bank and Deputy Director for Programmes for UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon. She also managed the Global Clusters Coordination section in the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Emergency Division in Geneva. She joined UNICEF from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), where she focused on humanitarian policy and supporting FAO country offices.
But Lewis played a more covert hand in Dhaka ahead of the outbreak of the students’ movement, which, along with massive backing by at least two western security agencies, catalysed to push the Sheikh Hasina regime out of power, with the then prime minister escaping to India.
And now her transfer to Yangon, where she will replace Michael Dunford, who has been posted there since November 2024, comes at a time when there are recent reports of cross-border exchange of fire between armed Rohingya insurgents such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Most of the border crossings and the subsequent opening of fire have been by the ARSA and RSO insurgents, even as sources in Bangladesh’s security establishment revealed that a new armed wing, trained in guerrilla warfare, has been carrying out clandestine attacks in the Rakhine State.
Before relinquishing her post in Dhaka, Lewis met Bangladesh Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus on October 7 at Jamuna State Guest House. On October 13, she attended a commemorative event to mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations.
At that time, she said that the UN country team was privileged to stand by the people of Bangladesh through many decades, including this most recent transition”. Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser and High-Level Representative for Rohingya Affairs Khalilur Rahman, who is said to have played a clandestine hand in the ARSA and RSO’s border raids into the Rakhine State, was also present during the occasion.
