[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

" Bangladesh to repatriate all Burm



Reply-To: south@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (SAFHR KATHMANDU)
Subject: " Bangladesh to repatriate all Burmese Muslim refugees"

"Bangladesh to repatriate all Burmese Muslim refugees"
The Kathmandu Post
Tuesday, July 29, 1997

Dhaka, July 28(AFP)- The Bangladesh government was standing firm on its
policy of repatriating 20,000 Burmese Muslim refugees and will refuse
permanent resettlement in this impoverished countrry, officials said
Monday.

"Not a single Rohingya refugee will allowed to stay in Bangladesh
permanently and they will be sent back home with the cooperation of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR)," said state Minister
for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury.

He said Dhaka had asked the UNHCR and would also urge Rangoon through
diplomatic channels to extend the August 15 deadline for repatriating the
Burmese refugees, called Rohingya, cleared by the Burmese authorities.

Burma have agreed to take back 7,000 of the state-estimated 20,000 Burmese
refugees in two camps leaving behind 13,000 who Rangoon says are not
citizens. The UNHCR says the figure at 21,000 following anumber of births
in the past years.

More than 250,000 Muslims from Burma's Arakan state fled to Bangladesh in
1991 to escape repression and human rights violation, a charge denied by
the military junta in Rangoon.

Most were repartriated following a 1993 accord between the UNHCR and
Burmese authorities.

Chowdhury defended the government's repatriation policy, saying" if more
than 250,000 have returned home voluntarily, I don't think we need to
coerce the remaining to go back."

The minister, who held talks with UNHCR officials Sunday, explained that
permanent resettlement of the refugees was "impossible" considering
Bangladesh's economic condition.

He also rejected the UN organization's charge that the Dhaka government
was not cooperating with it.

THe UNHCR had demanded that the remaining Rohingya be resettled in
Bangladesh amid new influx of the Muslim minority from Burma's Arakan
state, bodering Banglades's Teknaf fishing town.

Arun Sanglaram, the head of UNHCR in Bangladesh, said Monday in a
telephone interview that there was still tensions in the camps, but after
talks with the government he was confident the3 situation would improve.

" Repatriation can resume immediately if the situation calm down and we
will be giving pre-departure counselling to the refugees, keep family unity
in repatriation and will also carry out medical checks," he said.

He refused to comment "at this stage" on UNHCR's resettlement proposal of
some refugees.

Dhaka maintains the new entrants are economic migrants who are not
eligible for UNHCR assistance, but the aid agency says they were both
"economic and political refugees."

Local Bangladeshis also want the refugees out blaming them for increasing
crime and taking up theirs jobs.

The UNHCR said some7,000 Burmese refugees have fled again into Bangladesh
in recent weeks.

Security officials said some of the refugees were pushed back or
detained, while others were hidding with theirs relatives or jungles.

Canh Nguyen-Tang, Coordinator for the Bangladesh-Burma Refugee
Repatriation based in Rangoon, also joined the talks with Chodhury.

He told the Independent newspaper the situaiton in the camps was still
"tense," but he would try to convince the refugees that there would be no
forced repatriaion.

Bangladesh's acting foreign secretary aminul Islam told the Independent:
"There has been no coercive repatriation and Bangladesh is fully
committed to follow the memorandum of the understanding singed with the
UNHCR".

Meanwhile, the Daily Star newspaper reported senior officials from the
foreign, home and relief minister were scheduled to visit the Kutupaling
and Noapara camps Monday.

Repatriation was put off last week after noisy demonstrations and
violence at Kutupalong camp.