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Over 100 Injured in Clashes at Myan



Subject: Over 100 Injured in Clashes at Myanmar Refugee Camp

 COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Oct 21 (Reuters) - More than 100 people were
injured in  
clashes between rival groups at a Myanmar refugee camp in southeastern
Bangladesh on Wednesday, police  said. 

 They said the injured included 11 government officials and several
policemen. 

 "The clash erupted at the Nayapara camp as the rival factions of the
refugees  
tried to establish (control over the camps)," one police officer said. 

 Authorities rushed in police reinforcements to try to quell the fighting
inmates, who used  
spears, axes, knives and stones. 

 Police fired blank rounds to bring the situation under control and
arrested some 25  
refugees. 

 The refugees have kept officials, police and even respresentatives of the
U.N. High Commissioner  
for Refugees (UNHCR) virtually out of the camp for over a year, police said. 

 Refugees collect food and medicine at camp gates and distribute them
themselves. 

 Police said some 21,000 Myanmar Moslem refugees, known as Rohingyas, have
refused to return  
home for fear of military persecution in west Myanmar's Arakan province,
which they fled in  
early 1992. 

 These refugees live at Nayapara and nearby Kutupalong camps along the
border and have  
resisted moves to send them back, although over 225,000 other Rohingyas had
been repatriated under  UNHCR supervision since September 1992. 

 Bangladesh said it had hoped to complete the repatriation by mid-1997 but
failed as  
the remaining 21,000 refugees became restive.