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3/8/97_AFP:ROHINGYA EXILES CLAIMED



Subject: 3/8/97_AFP:ROHINGYA EXILES CLAIMED OF LARGE EXODUS

	ASIA: UP TO 14,000 NEW BURMESE MUSLIM REFUGEES IN BANGLADESH
BANGLADESH BURMA
   CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Aug 3 AFP - A group representing Burmese 
Muslims who fled alleged persecution in Burma claimed today that 
more refugees would flow into Bangladesh unless their security 
could be guaranteed.
	   The Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) claimed that up to 
14,000 new Burmese Muslims had already crossed the border into 
Bangladesh since June because of persecution from Burmese security 
forces and for "economic" reasons.
	   The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) put 
the number of Burmese Muslims, known as Rohingyas, at 7,000, while 
the Bangladesh government officially puts their numbers at "several 
thousand."
	   The UNHCR described the new Rohingya arrivals as both "economic 
and political" migrants.
	   The "Rohingya Sangbad" newsletter's May issue received by AFP 
today said "between 12,000 and 14,000 entered Bangladesh during the 
past two months."
	   "These people fled to Bangladesh after facing a famine forcing 
them to live in virtual hunger," it said, adding in recent days 
prices of essential and food commodities have sky-rocketed.
	   The newsletter said Rohingyas were again fleeing into Bangladesh 
because of their economic condition and "unlimited torture and 
repression" by Burma's security forces.
	   The RSO warned that refugees would continue to flow into 
Bangladesh unless security of the minority group was ensured in 
Burma's Arakan state which borders Bangladesh.
	   "We want Bangladesh to give effective support to the armed 
struggle of the Rohingyas," the organisation said.
	   Meanwhile, a frontier official today said that refugees at 
Noapara, one of the two camps holding some 21,000 refugees who were 
among the first batch to arrive here in 1991, began to accept food 
rations ending a two-week protest against alleged government 
attempts to forcibly repatriate the refugees.
	   Last week in Geneva the UNHCR indicated that militant elements 
in the camps were intimidating others into foregoing food, 
mentioning several cases where refugees who had queued up for 
rations were brutally punished.
	   The inmates of the nearby Kutupalang camp earlier ended a 
similar boycott of government food, causing strained relations 
between the refugees and Bangladeshi officials.
	   Bangladesh's efforts last month to repatriate some 7,500 of the 
refugees was met with violent protests from refugee leaders. The 
UNHCR also called for a halt to repatriations which have been 
stalled since the protests.
	   According to the UN refugee agency's estimates, more than 
280,000 Rohingyas have fled Burma since 1991 with many of them 
already returned.
	   Burma has agreed to take back some 7,500, rejecting the 
remainder as "non-citizens" but have agreed to review their papers.
	   The UNHCR is pressing to allow this batch of 'stateless' people 
to remain in Bangladesh but Dhaka has rejected permanent 
resettlement here, saying they would burden the economy.
	   Muslims from Burma's Arakan state fled to Bangladesh in 1991 to 
escape repression and human rights violations, a charge denied by 
the military junta in Rangoon. Most of them were repatriated after 
a 1991 agreement between Dhaka and Rangoon, followed by a second 
one in 1993 between the UNHCR and Burmese authorities.
	   AFP shb