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Fresh Rohingya Muslim Influx into Bangladesh
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A Rohingya Muslim refugee in Bangladesh
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
New
Delhi, November 29 (IslamOnline) —
Nearly 5,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have crossed over into
Bangladesh this week from neighboring Myanmar (Burma).
At
one point the number of Rohingya Muslim refugees in the country rose
to around 250,000.
"Rohingya"
are the Muslims of the Arakan (renamed as "Rakhine")
province of Burma.
This
is the third major influx since 1978.
Muslims
have been fleeing Myanmar to escape persecution by the brutal regime
of military junta which is extremely harsh on democratic rights
activists, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable sections of society.
Rohingya
Muslims, a minority in Myanmar, have been persecuted by the military
junta over the years, Amnesty International said in a 1992 report
after interviewing 100 Burmese Muslim refugees in Bangladesh.
The
refugees told Amnesty that they had fled persecution, leaving their
homes in Maungdaw and Bathidaung township areas of the Rakhine
province.
Troops
entered the area, occupied and closed mosques, seized livestock and
crops, captured villagers for forced labor and evicted them from their
homes.
Many
of them have since returned. The latest lot of refugees have been
living in camps outside a government building in Teknaaf town in the
south-eastern district of Cox’ s Bazar.
A
senior government official was reported by BBC from Teknaaf as saying
that district officials had been informed about the fresh wave of
refugees, and they were waiting for a decision.
The
government could either decide to settle them somewhere or ask Myanmar
to take them back.
Despite
an agreement to take back the refugees, Myanmar had been reluctant to
act, Bangladeshi officials were reported to have said.
Bangladesh
dailies said many of the new refugees had settled in slums and
unauthorized compounds in Bandarban district.
The
leading daily Observer claimed that many Rohingyas had also
settled in forests and were involved in indiscriminate logging and
other criminal activities.
Another
daily Bhorer Kagoj said the "soft attitude" of
the administration had led to the fresh influx of refugees.
The
first major wave came in 1978 during the regime of President Ziaur
Rahman (the present president Khaledia Zia’ s husband).
The
second came in 1991 during the first government of Khaleda Zia.
Many
refugees have married Bangladeshis and acquired Bangladeshi passports.
With
the fresh influx, their numbers have grown to 150,0001 according to
Bangladesh's Refugee Rehabilitation Commission.
Most
refugees came from Kawor, Akiyab, Mondu, Buchitang, Rachitang and
Anedangku areas of Arakan, the commission said.
Economic
difficulties within Bangladesh itself has led several hundred thousand
Bangalis to leave their country and migrate to big cities in India in
search of livelihood, sometimes triggering political controversies in
the process.
The
Rohingya influx has created animosity in certain sections of
Bangladeshi society against these people.
Resentment
against refugees and settlers among locals is a well-known phenomenon,
but the anti-Rohingya sentiment has grown in Bangladesh of late.
Political
groups opposed to President Khaleda Zia are not above using it against
her.
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