Reuters
DHAKA (Reuters) -
Bangladesh summoned Myanmar’s ambassador on Thursday over an increased security
presence near their border where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been
sheltering just inside Myanmar, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The United Nations
refugee agency has expressed concern that thousands of people staying on the
strip of land, dubbed “no man’s land” because it is beyond Myanmar’s border
fence but on Myanmar’s side of a creek that marks the international border,
would be forcibly returned without sufficient consideration for their safety.
Nearly 700,000
Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after insurgent attacks on Aug. 25 sparked
a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounted to ethnic
cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape.
About 5,300 people
had been staying in a makeshift camp on the border line since late August, but
roughly half moved to camps inside Bangladesh after the two countries met to
discuss possible repatriation on Feb. 20.
Several hundred of
them have been moved back to the border line, two border guards said.
On Thursday, Myanmar
armed soldiers and police, estimated to number more than 200, came to the
border fence and appeared to be moving heavy weapons including mortars to the
area, said a Bangladesh army official and the two guards, all three of whom
spoke on condition of anonymity.
Dil Mohammed, a
community leader among the roughly 950 Rohingya families staying at the border,
said Myanmar officials used loudspeakers to tell them to move from the area.
PROTEST NOTE
The movement of
troops so close to the border violated international norms, an official of
Bangladesh’s border guard,
Brigadier General
Mujibur Rahman, told Reuters.
“We are sending them
a protest note. We have already asked for a flag meeting,” said Rahman, the
force’s additional director general in charge of operations, referring to a
meeting of border guards of both countries.
“They have removed
heavy weapons, such as machineguns and mortars, from the area after our verbal
protests.”
The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Dhaka said Acting Foreign Secretary Khurshed Alam asked
envoy Lwin Oo for Myanmar’s security forces to pull back from the border,
warning “such military buildup will create confusion within Bangladesh and
escalate tensions on the border”.
The action could
also hamper the agreed repatriation of refugees, the ministry said in a
statement, adding a diplomatic note was handed to the ambassador.
Myanmar military
spokesman Myat Min Oo said he could not confirm there was any troop activity
and declined to comment further, citing a public holiday in Myanmar.
A spokesman for the
country’s Home Affairs Ministry, Myo Thu Soe, said he was unaware of the troop
movements.
Myanmar’s main government
spokesman, Zaw Htay, declined to comment on Thursday’s activity.
On Wednesday, he
told Reuters that “terrorists” with links to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army, which had attacked 30 Myanmar police posts and an army base in August,
were sheltering in the border area.
Zaw Htay said he
believed people were staying there to put political pressure on Myanmar’s
government and “create a situation where Myanmar security forces and government
officials will remove them”.
Also read: Myanmar
forces amass at Tambru border http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2018/03/01/bgb-high-alert-myanmar-military-tambru/
Additional director
says BGB on high alert in response to Myanmar force https://youtu.be/n-dmWPzXxrg
Myanmar forces amass
along ZERO Line, blind gun fired to the Rohingya Refugees https://youtu.be/-xLd2zBFess
witness video