From: tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU ((Coban Tun))
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Subject: Bangladesh: Burmesse refugee camps
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:36:21 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

/* Written 12:18 am  Oct 16, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "BANGLADESH: BURMESE REFUGEE CAMPS P" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Population; Asia, eastern
Title: BANGLADESH: BURMESE REFUGEE CAMPS PEACEFUL AFTER MORE GO HOME

Dhaka, oct 13 (IPS) -- Tense burmese refugee camps in
southeastern Bangladesh are quiet Tuesday a day after a second
batch of inmates were sent home in the presence of the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials.

Agencies report from Cox's Bazar that the repatriation
operation went off smoothly unlike the first time in September
when three muslim refugees were killed after police fired to
control a mob protesting the repatriation in a nearby camp.

The UNHCR's sharp protests that it had not been consulted
had also embarrassed the government. Officials now say that the
operation was kept secret because burma did not want the UNHCR to
be involved.

The authorities insist the repatriation both times was
voluntary, but refugee leaders in the camp say the majority of
the estimated 260,000 burmese will not return until human rights
conditions improve in Burma.

They are demanding that Rangoon must recognise them as an
ethnic minority. The muslims fled homes in Burma's northern
Arakan province last year to escape a ruthless military crackdown
on the minority community known as 'rohingyas'.

Tens of thousands of refugees are crowded into some 17 camps
run by the government with help from the UNHCR and other relief
organisations in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar and bandarban districts
that border Burma.

While the military regime in Burma had initially refused to
discuss the issue with Bangladesh claiming that the muslims were
illegal settlers from across the border, under international
pressure Rangoon agreed in April to take back the refugees.

But so far only 112 people have made the journey back across
the border. in Dhaka, the government said a third batch of 81
will be repatriated shortly.

Bangladeshi officials who went to Burma for the ninth round of
bilateral talks to resolve the problem late last month told
reporters here that they had visited the first batch of 49
refugees who returned to arakan province, and were satisfied.

The returnees told officials that the burmese authorities had
handed back confiscated property and houses, and provided each
one with an identity card which was a proof of their burmese
citizenship. (more/ips)



Bangladesh: burmese (2)

The government is under tremendous pressure from local
residents in the southeastern districts where the camps are
located to accelerate the repatriation process.

Public sympathy for the refugees has all but vanished, and
anti-refugee groups are fanning hostility by floating rumours
that the refugees are here for good.

Skirmishes between camp inmates and the local people are
daily occurrences. worried officials have fenced egal
foreign woh    [ <-- I don't know what happened here]
a pointless attempt to scale down tensions.

In a country where 40 percent of the 110 million people do not
get enough to eat, reports that the refugees receive 500 grams of
rice, 60 grams of lentils and a share of cooking oil and sugar
every day has fuelled public resentment. (end/ips/pr/ti/an/92)
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