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

Clash at Bangladesh Refugees Camp (r)



COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Sept 18 (Reuter) - About 15 people were injured in
clashes between police and armed Burmese refugees in southeastern Bangladesh
on Thursday, government officials said. 

``Fighting erupted at Nayapara camp after some refugees barred others from
taking food rations provided by the government,'' one official said. 

``The rival refugees battled with spears and catapults. When police
intervened hours later, they attacked them. Police fired at least 20 teargas
shells and used clubs,'' he said. 

Officials told reporters the injured comprised about a dozen refugees and
three policemen. 

They said the situation at the camp, home to more than 12,000 of about 21,000
Burmese Moslem refugees known as Rohingyas, was still tense. 

``There may be further violence. We have deployed extra forces,'' said one
police officer at Cox's Bazar, near Nayapara. 

Some 8,000 Rohingyas live at Kutupalong camp, also in Cox's Bazar district. 

The Rohingyas have been refusing to accept food and medicine since July 20 in
an attempt to avoid repatriation to their homes in Burma's western Arakan
province. Officials said on Thursday the camps' inmates were divided on the
food issue. 

The Rohingyas say they want to stay in Bangladesh because of continuing
military persecution in Burma, especially in Moslem-majority Arakan, and will
not return until democracy is restored in their country. 

Bangladesh says the Rohingyas are mostly economic refugees and must go back
under supervision of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. 

Dhaka has assured the refugees, the remainder of some 250,000 Rohingyas who
fled to Bangladesh in early 1992, that no one will be forced to return.  

14:25 09-18-97