Bangladesh guards push back Burmese

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Bangladesh guards push back Burmese Moslems 

Bangladesh guards push back Burmese Moslems 
 03:47 a.m. Jun 28, 1997 Eastern 

 COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, June 28 (Reuter) - Bangladeshi
 border guards have sent back over 1,000 Burmese Moslems who
 illegally crossed into Bangladesh in recent weeks, police said on
 Saturday. 

 They said over 400 ``Rohingya'' Moslems, inhabitants of west
 Burma's Arakan province, were arrested on Thursday when security
 forces raided their forest hideouts and put them on several boats
 across the Naf border river. 

 Over 500 Rohingyas were sent back earlier this month after they fled
 to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, which borders Arakan,
 Burma's only Moslem-majority province. 

 The arrested Rohingyas told police and officials that the influx was
 triggered by rising food prices, unemployment, torture by security
 forces and forced labour. 

 Eight Rohingyas were drowned on Tuesday as they crossed the Naf
 river in an attempt to reach Bangladesh, police said. 

 The new influx began while some 21,500 Burmese Rohingyas were
 still huddled in two large camps, awaiting their return home after a
 long-running repatriation process was disrupted on May 1, officials
 said. 

 The officials blamed the suspension on delay by Burmese immigration
 authorities in giving clearance for the home-bound Rohingyas.
 ^REUTER@