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Refugees in limbo as deadline expir
- Subject: Refugees in limbo as deadline expir
- From: ausgeo@xxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 18:39:00
Subject: Refugees in limbo as deadline expires
South China Morning Post
Friday August 15 1997
Bangladesh
Refugees in limbo as deadline expires
ARSHAD MAHMUD in Dhaka
The deadline for repatriation expires today but the fate of nearly 28,000
Burmese refugees languishing in camps in Bangladesh is still uncertain.
A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official dealing with the repatriation said:
"We're already in touch with the Burmese authorities to extend the deadline
further and we hope they would agree to our request."
He said although officials were hopeful of sending back 7,000 refugees already
cleared by Rangoon, the fate of the other 21,000 remained uncertain.
The refugees, locally known as Rohingyas, are part of the 250,000 Burmese who
fled to Bangladesh from the bordering Arakan province in 1992 in the wake of a
bloody crackdown by the Burmese military.
Nearly 220,000 Rohingyas have already returned in the past five years, under
an agreement between Dhaka and Rangoon. But complications arose last June when
Rangoon showed reluctance to accept back nearly 20,000 refugees without any
apparent reason. Some of the refugees have been on hunger strike since July 21
over attempts to forcibly repatriate them. Twenty-five have died.
The refugees say they will not return to Burma until democracy is restored.
The Bangladesh official said: "This is an absurd demand as we don't have any
power to restore democracy there."
The refugees' intransigence has put the authorities in a dilemma as, under an
agreement signed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
repatriation has to be voluntary and nobody can be sent back forcibly.
To demonstrate their resolve, the refugees resorted to violence aimed at
blocking repatriation of 400 Rohingyas from the two camps in Cox's Bazar last
month.
In the face of increasing defiance, the Bangladesh authorities were forced to
postpone the programme indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the UN has proposed to the Government to absorb the refugees into
Bangladesh. But the Government has rejected the proposal, saying it is not
possible to accommodate thousands of refugees in a country already severely
over-populated.