By @ascorrespondent
BURMA officials told Bangladesh to cut-off lifesaving aid
to Rohingya Muslims living on the Zero Line at a meeting between border
authorities on Tuesday.
Both Burmese and Bangladeshi officials met to discuss the
repatriation process of Rohingya refugees that have fled to Bangladesh in
recent months. Included in the discussion were the more than 6,500 Rohingya who
are trapped in the undeveloped strip of unclaimed land between the neighbouring
countries, known as the Zero Line.
Deputy Commissioner of the General Administration
Department in Rakhine State, U Ye Htut, said that no people should be staying
in the area as it was “No Man’s Land.” He was quoted by state-run media as
saying the international non-government agencies (INGOs) must stop providing
aid as it was “not in accordance with the law.”
“The matters of INGOs providing aid and entering the
restricted area of Zero Line are not in accordance with the law and thus they
are being informed about it,” he said, as reported by Burmese state newspaper
The Global New Light of Myanmar.
While the aid agencies had not crossed the dividing river
to provide support, they were indirectly supplying relief to people in the
buffer zone, U Ye Htut said, telling Bangladesh’s border guard police that they
must prevent this from happening.
During an interval in the meeting, both the 11-member
Bangladeshi delegation and the 14-member Burmese delegation visited the Zero
Line where they met with Rohingya’s living in the area.
According to state media, Burmese officials have met with
the community repeatedly to discuss their return to Burma, but they were “not
cooperating.” Deputy Commissioner U Ye Htut called their actions “politically
motivated,” accusing them of “spreading fake news” and pushing to be detained
by security forces in order to “create international pressure.”
Rohingya community leader Dil Mohammad disputed this
account, saying Rohingya would like to return home but they need a guarantee of
their safety.
“Our no-man’s land camp demands are that there must be a
safe return, we need security and all basic rights, including citizenship,” he
told Reuters.
Read also Fate of 7,000 Rohingyas on zero line still
uncertain: http://www.thedailystar.net/city/fate-7000-still-uncertain-1537807
According to Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star, Dil
also alleged that Burma’s border guard police often come near the barbed-wire
fences, fire blank shots and even throw bricks and empty liquor bottles at the
Rohingya, instilling in them a greater sense of fear.
A bilateral deal to repatriate the nearly 700,000
Rohingya who have fled into Bangladesh since last August has been agreed, with
Bangladesh handing over a list on Friday of more than 8,000 Rohingya for verification
by Naypyidaw.