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NEWS - There would be no refugees i
- Subject: NEWS - There would be no refugees i
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 19:54:00
Subject: NEWS - There would be no refugees if the Burmese Regime quit
There would be no refugees if the Burmese Regime quit
Thousands of people on the eastern and western borders escaped
persecusion, rape, murder, torture, forced labor, forced relocation and
now death squads when they entered Thailand and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Says Refugees Straining Economy
Reuters
05-MAR-99
DHAKA, March 5 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of
refugees from
Pakistan, Myanmar and India are putting unbearable
strains on the
Bangladesh economy, a senior official involved in
repatriation efforts said on
Friday.
"It has been an enormous burden on us and it is becoming
unbearable.
There is no sign they will go home soon," the official
said.
Around 450,000 refugees are living in poverty-stricken
Bangladesh, whose
economy has been strained by last year's catastrophic
floods and repeated
opposition-led strikes.
Relief and repatriation officials said the majority have
been waiting for
repatriation for decades while others want a permanent
home in the country.
"The Bangladesh government has been involved in intensive
talks with the
respective foreign governments trying to send the
refugees back but with no
luck," the official told Reuters.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged her Pakistani
counterpart Nawaz Sharif
on Wednesday to repatriate some 400,000 Urdu-speaking
"Bihari" Moslems
who have been living in squalid refugee camps, some of
them since
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, became independent in
1971.
The stranded Pakistanis are better known as Biharis
because they migrated
to Pakistan from India's Bihar state following the 1947
partition of India.
Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad earlier asked Yangon
authorities to
take back some 21,000 "Rohingya" refugees who fled to
Bangladesh in 1992
from west Myanmar's Arakan province to escape alleged
military
persecution.
Repatriation of Rohingyas stopped in April 1998 and the
U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees later asked Bangladesh to give
them permanent
refuge. Dhaka turned down the request.
"Pakistan's unwillingness to take back the Biharis has
left a huge burden on
impoverished Bangladesh on account of feeding and looking
after them," the
official said.
He could not immediately quantify the cost of feeding the
refugees.
Officials said thousands of Indian tribespeople had been
living in deep
jungles of Bangladesh's southeastern Chittagong Hill
Tracts. India says none
of its nationals has trespassed into Bangladesh.