Refugees in limbo as deadline expir

[ausgeo@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Refugees in limbo as deadline expires 

South China Morning Post
Friday  August 15  1997

Bangladesh 
Refugees in limbo as deadline expires 

ARSHAD MAHMUD in Dhaka 
The deadline for repatriation expires today but the fate of nearly 28,000 
Burmese refugees languishing in camps in Bangladesh is still uncertain.

A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official dealing with the repatriation said: 
"We're already in touch with the Burmese authorities to extend the deadline 
further and we hope they would agree to our request."

He said although officials were hopeful of sending back 7,000 refugees already 
cleared by Rangoon, the fate of the other 21,000 remained uncertain.

The refugees, locally known as Rohingyas, are part of the 250,000 Burmese who 
fled to Bangladesh from the bordering Arakan province in 1992 in the wake of a 
bloody crackdown by the Burmese military.

Nearly 220,000 Rohingyas have already returned in the past five years, under 
an agreement between Dhaka and Rangoon. But complications arose last June when 
Rangoon showed reluctance to accept back nearly 20,000 refugees without any 
apparent reason. Some of the refugees have been on hunger strike since July 21 
over attempts to forcibly repatriate them. Twenty-five have died.

The refugees say they will not return to Burma until democracy is restored.

The Bangladesh official said: "This is an absurd demand as we don't have any 
power to restore democracy there."

The refugees' intransigence has put the authorities in a dilemma as, under an 
agreement signed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 
repatriation has to be voluntary and nobody can be sent back forcibly.

To demonstrate their resolve, the refugees resorted to violence aimed at 
blocking repatriation of 400 Rohingyas from the two camps in Cox's Bazar last 
month.

In the face of increasing defiance, the Bangladesh authorities were forced to 
postpone the programme indefinitely.

Meanwhile, the UN has proposed to the Government to absorb the refugees into 
Bangladesh. But the Government has rejected the proposal, saying it is not 
possible to accommodate thousands of refugees in a country already severely 
over-populated.