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Myanmar to send team to Dhaka to talk refugee issue

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An overview of a new camp crowded by Rohingya refugees at Tangkhali, Ukhiya, Bangladesh, 16 September 2017. Photo: Abir Abdullah/EPA

A Myanmar team will arrive in Bangladesh next week to discuss the mass exodus of Rohingya, an official said Tuesday, amid huge diplomatic efforts to find a durable solution to the crisis.

The team are "coming early next week," Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told AFP, saying they would be working on the Rohingya issue but not giving further details.

A senior foreign ministry official said the team was expected to be led by Myanmar's Minister of the Office of State Counsellor, Kyaw Tint Swe.

Dhaka had earlier invited the minister for talks before the latest eruption of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state triggered one of the world's worst refugee crisis in recent decades.

The announcement comes as the UN said 480,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh's southeastern border region since August 25.

Between the new arrivals and some 300,000 Rohingya who were already living in the area due to previous violence in Myanmar, there are now nearly 800,000 refugees in camps around the Bangladesh border town of Cox's Bazar that are bursting at the seams.

The situation has forced new arrivals into makeshift shelters in grim conditions, and sparked warnings that epidemics, including cholera, could easily spread. 

The bilateral talks come as Dhaka mounts a huge diplomatic effort to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya problem and make Myanmar take back all the refugees to their homeland in Rakhine.

The latest military operation was sparked by attacks carried out by Rohingya terrorists on police posts on August 25.

Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday proposed creating UN-supervised safe zones inside Myanmar to protect Rohingya Muslims fleeing a military crackdown.

She laid out a five-point plan that called for the protection of the Rohingyas in "safe zones that could be created inside Myanmar under UN supervision."

There has been mounting international outrage over the plight of the Rohingya, prompting the UN Security Council this month to call for an end to the violence.

© AFP


Monk-led mob attacks refugees in Sri Lanka

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Members from the 'Sinhala Api National Organization' gather opposite Myanmar embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 15 September 2017. Photo: EPA

Radical Buddhist monks stormed a United Nations safe house for Rohingya refugees near Sri Lanka's capital Tuesday and forced authorities to relocate the group, officials said.

Saffron-robed Buddhist monks led a mob that broke down gates and entered the walled multi-storied compound at the Mount Lavinia suburb of Colombo as frightened refugees huddled together in upstairs rooms, a police official said.

Two police were wounded in the incident, which also saw the mob pelt stones at the safe house and trash the ground floor furnishings upon entry.

There were no reports of casualties among the group of refugees, which included 16 children.

"We have pushed back the mob and the refugees have been relocated in a safer place," the official told AFP, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Police said they were going through local media video footage as well as Facebook in the hopes of arresting those who took part in the violence, and the monks who incited them.

One of the monks who stormed the building posted a video on the social networking site filmed by his radical group Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa (Sinhalese National Force) as he urged others to join him and smash the premises.

"These are Rohingya terrorists who killed Buddhist monks in Myanmar," the monk said in his live commentary, pointing to Rohingya mothers with small children in their arms.

The 31 Rohingya refugees were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy about five months ago after they were found drifting in a boat off the island's northern waters. They were thought to be victims of a people smuggler.

They were eventually to be resettled in a third country, the official said, adding that they were authorised to remain in Sri Lanka pending the processing of their papers.

Sri Lanka's extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims in the two countries.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in the face of the current wave of violence there.

© AFP

Indian soldiers kill NSCN-K militants on Myanmar border: Indian Army

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NSCN-K. Photo: Burma Link

Indian soldiers killed a large number of militants in a gunfight along the country's restive border with Myanmar, the army said Wednesday.

A statement posted by the army's eastern command on Twitter said its offensive had resulted in "heavy casualties" to insurgents on the Indian side of the border.

"A column of Indian army, while operating along the Indo-Myanmar border, was fired upon," it said.

Indian troops fired in retaliation, killing "a large number" of militants. No Indian soldier was killed in the firefight, the statement added.

The military added that the insurgents belonged to the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), a radical group seeking a 'Greater Nagaland' for the Naga tribe within India and in neighbouring Myanmar.

The Indian army has been battling dozens of separatist militant groups in the northeast for several years.

In 2015, some 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a militant ambush near the Myanmar border, prompting a fierce army counter-offensive.

Much of India's border region with Myanmar is porous and government authority there is considered weak.

© AFP

Sri Lanka calls monks who attacked refugees ‘animals’

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Demonstration against Sri Lanka providing refuge to any Rohingiyas

Protestors from a group claiming itself as the Sinhala Nidahas Satankamee Peramuna (Sinhala Independent Militants' Front) display a banner supporting Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi as they march along a street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 27 September 2017. Photo: M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA

The Sri Lankan government Wednesday slammed a group of radical Buddhist monks who attacked Rohingya refugees on the island as "animals", pledging action against police who failed to protect them.

Rajitha Senaratne, a cabinet spokesman, said the government condemned Tuesday's storming of a UN safe house where 31 Rohingya refugees, including 16 children and seven women, had been given shelter.

"As a Buddhist I am ashamed at what happened," Senaratne told reporters.

"Mothers carrying very young children were forced out of their safe house which was attacked by a mob led by a handful of monks," he said.

The mob broke down the gates of the multi-storied building near the capital Colombo, smashing windows and furniture as frightened refugees huddled together upstairs.

There were no reports of casualties among the refugees, who were later taken to another location, but two police officers were wounded and admitted to hospital.

Senaratne said police had been ordered to take disciplinary action against officers found to have failed to control the mob.

"This is not what the Buddha taught. We have to show compassion to these refugees. These monks who carried out the attacks are actually not monks, but animals," he said.

Sri Lanka's extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims in the two countries.

One of the monks who stormed the building posted a video on Facebook filmed by his radical group SinhaleJathika Balamuluwa (Sinhalese National Force) as he urged others to join him and smash the premises.

"These are Rohingya terrorists who killed Buddhist monks in Myanmar," the monk said in his live commentary, pointing to Rohingya mothers with small children in their arms.

The 31 Rohingya refugees were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy five months ago after they were found drifting in a boat off the island's northern coast

They had been living in India for several years before leaving a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu state.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed alarm over Tuesday's attack and urged Sri Lankans to show empathy for civilians fleeing persecution and violence.

© AFP

At least 14 dead as Refugee boat capsizes off Bangladesh

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People stand next to the covered body of Rohingya Muslim refugee near Inani beach, Cox's Bazar on September 29, 2017. At least 15 people drowned and scores are feared missing after a boat carrying Rohingya families capsized off Bangladesh on September 28, as UN chief Antonio Guterres exhorted Myanmar's leaders to end the refugees'"nightmare". Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP

At least 10 children and four women were killed when a boat carrying Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized off Bangladesh on Thursday, as the number of new arrivals topped 500,000.

The latest disaster came as a UN visit to Myanmar's conflict-battered Rakhine state was postponed Thursday, thwarting efforts to reach the epicentre of violence for the first time since the start of the massive Rohingya exodus.

At the scene of the accident, witnesses and survivors said the boat overturned just yards from the coast after apparently hitting a submerged object and was later washed ashore in two parts along with the victims' bodies.

"They drowned before our eyes," said Mohammad Sohel, a local shopkeeper.

"Minutes later, the waves washed the bodies to the beach."

One distraught survivor said he had set off for Bangladesh from a coastal village in Myanmar late Wednesday with his wife, who was killed in the disaster along with one of his children.

"The boat hit something underground as it came close to the beach. Then it overturned," Nurus Salam told AFP.

Another survivor who was seen weeping on the beach told an AFP reporter at the scene that her parents and children were missing.

Local police constable Fazlul Karim told AFP 14 bodies had so far been washed ashore, and there were fears the number could rise.

The UN said more than half a million refugees had now crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since August 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts prompted a military crackdown.

It said the flow of new arrivals had slowed and the new figure of 501,800 -- up from around 480,000 -- was due mainly to the counting of refugees not previously included in the tally.

- UN visit postponed -

The huge influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh -- the largest mass movement of refugees in the region in decades -- has created a humanitarian crisis as the government and aid agencies struggle to provide food, clean water and shelter.

Rakhine has long been a cauldron of ethnic and religious tensions, but the last five years has seen communal relations plunge to their worst yet, and there are reports thousands more Rohingya could be waiting to enter Bangladesh.

Images circulated by Myanmar authorities on Wednesday showed hundreds waiting to cross the Naf River that divides the two countries.

Access to Rakhine by relief agencies and global media has been heavily controlled by Myanmar's army and government, making it difficult to assess the situation there.

On Thursday, the UN said a planned visit to the state was postponed due to weather conditions there.

The United Nations has been demanding access since its humanitarian organizations were forced to pull out of Rakhine when Myanmar's military launched operations against Rohingya terrorists in late August.

Police in Bangladesh say an estimated 120 Rohingya have drowned trying to reach the country's shores in small fishing boats that coastguards say are woefully inadequate for the rough seas, many of them children unable to swim.

Survivors said the boat that capsized on Thursday was carrying around 40 people, many of them children.

Local police chief AbulKhair said at least 18 people survived the accident and they were trying to find out how many were missing.

"We have sent nine of the survivors to hospitals," he told AFP.

© AFP

Race row hampers refugee registration in Bangladesh

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Rohingya refugees stand in front of a makeshift tent with their children in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, 19 September 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE

Many of the half a million Rohingya refugees newly arrived in Bangladesh are refusing to be registered because their ethnicity is not included in the document, slowing a process seen as key to their eventual return to Myanmar.

The Bangladesh military began registering the estimated 480,000 new arrivals more than two weeks ago, but has so far only completed the process for around 24,000.

On Thursday the coordinator for the registration centres said refugees were objecting to the language on the form, which refers to them simply as Myanmar nationals.

"According to our information, they want to have the name 'Rohingya' in their cards beside their citizenship status," Major Kabir Kibria told AFP.

"The government decision is to term them as only Myanmar citizen."

Registering the Rohingya is seen as key to their eventual return to Myanmar, whose de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said the country would take back verified refugees.

Aid agencies say it is also crucial to ensure that supplies are distributed evenly.

The United Nations estimates around 480,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25 after fleeing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

There were already at least 300,000 Rohingya living there after fleeing previous bouts of violence in Myanmar, which regards them as illegal immigrants even though they have lived there for many generations.

Bangladesh recognises only a tiny proportion of the Rohingya as refugees, referring to the majority as undocumented Myanmar nationals.

Nur Hakim, who received his registration card on Thursday said he was "not happy" that the card given to him at the registration centre did not carry the word "Rohingya".

"We are Rohingya Muslims. That's our primary identity. Why is it not mentioned in our cards?" he said.

One Bangladeshi official said the government's decision not to include the refugees' ethnicity was in line with international norms.

"Many of their community leaders are spreading false information that the card wouldn't work without 'proper' identification," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(AFP)

Bangladesh to move 15,000 refugees from tribal district

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Rohingya refugees queue to receive relief in front of makeshift tents in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, 20 September 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE

Bangladesh is to move to a camp at least 15,000 Rohingya refugees who have settled in a restive hill district near the border with Myanmar, a local official said on Sunday.

Most of the estimated half a million Rohingya who have arrived in southeastern Bangladesh over the last five weeks after fleeing violence in Myanmar are crammed into the camps that have sprung up on government land.

But thousands of the mainly Muslim refugees have settled in the nearby district of Bandarban, part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where indigenous tribes waged a separatist insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bangladesh authorities fear their presence could revive communal tensions between the local Muslim population and the tribal minority, who are mainly Buddhist.

“The government has now decided to shift all 15,000 newly arrived Rohingya to the main camp,” Bandarban government administrator Dilip Kumar Banik told AFP.

Banik said the government would begin moving them on Monday to “ensure peace in the hill district”.

Bangladesh has opened its borders to the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in their native Myanmar.

But it has not granted them official refugee status and has made clear it does not want them to remain indefinitely.

Authorities have restricted the movement of the refugees, banning them from leaving the overcrowded camp areas where hundreds of thousands are living in desperate conditions with inadequate shelter.

Banik said the government also wanted to move around 12,000 Rohingya who are stranded in the nearby no-man’s land between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Tribal groups ended their separatist insurgency in 1997 and signed a peace treaty with the government.

But tensions persist between the local Muslim population and the tribal groups, who have close ties with the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists accused of carrying out attacks on Rohingya in Myanmar.

In June this year local Muslims torched hundreds of houses in a tribal community following the alleged murder of a local politician.

And in May last year a 75-year-old Buddhist monk was found hacked to death in Bandarban, an attack later claimed by the Islamic State group.

©AFP

Sri Lanka arrests six in hunt for monks who attacked refugees

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Protestors from a group claiming itself as the Sinhala Nidahas Satankamee Peramuna (Sinhala Independent Militants' Front) carrying distorted national flags protest in front of the United Nations office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 27 September 2017. Photo: M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA

Sri Lankan police said Sunday they have arrested six people in their hunt for a mob led by Buddhist monks who attacked Rohingya refugees last week.

The government of the Buddhist-majority country has accused the monks of behaving like "animals" during Tuesday's attack on a centre housing Rohingya Muslims including children on the outskirts of Colombo.

"We have identified the monks who led the attack," an officer involved in the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have deployed three teams to arrest them."

Two police officers had to be hospitalised after the attack, in which monks and their supporters threw stones and smashed windows and furniture.

Five men and a woman have already been arrested and a government official said several police officers were also under investigation for failing to prevent the violence.

The refugees had arrived in Sri Lanka five months ago after the navy found them drifting in a boat off the island's north coast.

Before that, they had been living in India for several years.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent years and while most are in refugee camps in Bangladesh, a sizeable minority have moved to other parts of South Asia.

They have been the target of decades of state-backed persecution and discrimination in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, where many view them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka's extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims in the two countries.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees expressed alarm over Tuesday's attack and urged Sri Lankans to show empathy for civilians fleeing persecution and violence.

The 31 Rohingya refugees, including 16 children and seven women, were evacuated by the police and accommodated at a former detention centre in the south of the island for their safety, according to the government.

© AFP


Sri Lanka remands militant monk for attacking refugees

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Sri Lankan guards escort Buddhist monk Akmeemana Dayarathana (C) after he was remanded in custody in Colombo on October 2, 2017, over his involvement in a violent attack on Rohingya refugees. The monk is accused of leading a violent attack on a UN-protected refugee centre at the Colombo suburb of Mount Lavinia and forcing the removal of 31 Rohingya, including 16 children, to a safer location. Photo: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP

A Sri Lankan court on Monday remanded in custody a Buddhist monk charged with leading a mob which evicted Rohingya refugees, including 16 children, from a UN-protected shelter.

A magistrate ordered that Akmeemana Dayarathana be held for a week pending an identification parade in connection with last Tuesday's attack on a refugee centre near Colombo.

Police told the court in Mount Lavinia that the monk was a member of an unlawful assembly, obstructed police and caused disaffection among peaceful Buddhists.

"Peace-loving Buddhists were shocked to see a saffron-robed monk behaving so badly," a prosecuting police officer told AFP. "We are charging the monk for causing distress to Buddhists."

The raid on the refugee centre, which housed 31 Rohingya refugees, was led by Dayarathana's radical Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa (Sinhalese National Force), which uploaded videos of the attack on their Facebook page.

Several other people, including monks, were seen on the video urging supporters to destroy the refugee facility.

Dozens of men and women led by monks stormed the building and smashed windows and furniture. Police eventually rescued the refugees who had huddled in upstairs rooms.

Five men and a woman arrested over the weekend were also remanded in custody until October 9.

The government of the Buddhist-majority country has accused the monks of behaving like "animals" during the attack, which left two police officers injured.

The refugees arrived in Sri Lanka five months ago after the navy found them drifting in a boat off the north coast.

Before that, they had been living in India for several years.

Extremist Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have close links with ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has expressed alarm over last Tuesday's attack.

© AFP

Bangladesh rescues 20 people held by refugee racket gang

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A Bangladeshi man helps Rohingya Muslim refugees to disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the Naf river after crossing the border from Myanmar in Teknaf on September 30, 2017. Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP

Bangladesh police have rescued 20 Rohingya after busting a gang which ferried the refugees from Myanmar but demanded thousands of dollars for the boat ride, an official said Tuesday.

The Rapid Action Battalion raided a village near the border with Myanmar late Monday to free the Rohingya Muslims who had been held there for a day, said Major Ruhul Amin.

The RAB chief who led the operation at Sabrung near Cox's Bazar told AFP the 20 included seven women, five men and eight children.

"They were held there by a gang of boat owners and crew who demanded 20,000 taka ($250) per person for a two-hour boat ride from Myanmar," he said.

A boat ride between Maungdaw and Bangladesh's main landing station at Shah Porir Dwip would cost no more than five dollars normally.

Amin said they arrested three members of the gang for profiteering.     

The UN estimates that 507,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine into Bangladesh since late August after the latest eruption of violence in the northern Myanmar state.

Many have arrived on rickety boats crossing the Naf river, which marks the border between Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district and Rakhine.

Police said boat owners, crew and fishermen have charged exorbitant prices for the rides.

"It has become a common phenomenon" since the influx began, Amin said.

Authorities have deployed mobile courts to crack down on the profiteering gangs and handed down sentences of up to six months' jail on nearly 200 people.

"We have arrested 20 brokers and freed nearly 2,000 people in raids in the coastal villages. In one raid we rescued about 1,000 Rohingya who were held at six houses," Amin said.

Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh said the boatmen extracted every last penny from them for the ferry and threatened to throw them overboard if they refused to surrender valuables including gold ornaments

Media reports have mentioned Rohingya being held by boatmen and agents for hours in coastal villages until they made inflated payments for the trip.

Rohingya living in established refugee camps in Bangladesh have also been accused of joining the profiteering.

© AFP

UN battles mounting illness in refugee camps

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Rohingya refugees stand under the rain waiting for relief near a camp at Tengkhal, Ukhiya, Coxsbazar, Bangladesh, 03 October 2017. Photo: Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE

Relief agencies on Tuesday fought to contain a diarrhoea outbreak around camps in Bangladesh where more than 500,000 Rohingya have taken shelter in the past five weeks.

The United Nations said meanwhile it would seek $430 million to increase operations in the camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The Rohingya Muslims have poured across the frontier to escape a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

A 20-bed treatment clinic was opened at Kutupalong refugee camp Monday to treat diarrhoea victims and another 60-bed facility would be set up this week, a UN spokesman said.

UN staff and volunteers were touring Kutupalong and nearby makeshift camps to identify those who have not sought treatment, UN refugee agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic said.

"We have seen an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases, including cases of diarrhoea with severe dehydration," he said.

Bangladesh authorities were not aware of diarrhoea-related deaths in the camps, but the health department said more than 10,500 Rohingya had been treated since the influx began on August 25.

Last week the World Health Organisation warned of a growing cholera risk in the makeshift camps as they lacked safe drinking and hygiene facilities. The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group also said the camps were on the brink of a public health disaster.

The camps face dire shortages of food and medicine in what has become one of the world's largest refugee settlements.

The overwhelmed camps around the border town of Cox's Bazar already had 300,000 people who fled earlier violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Mark Lowcock, a UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said the world body would be seeking "something like $430 million to enable us to scale up the relief operation."

"Conditions in the camps at the moment are terrible," Lowcock told reporters in Cox's Bazar.

The UN has already given an extra $12 million from its emergency response fund.

"What we want to do is to make sure that the tragedy of the Rohingya is not magnified and amplified by a human catastrophe and health catastrophe," the UN official declared.

© AFP

All Myanmar refugees to be shifted to mega camp: Bangladesh

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An overview of the tents in a camp at Palongkhali, Ukhiya, Cox's bazar, Bangladesh, 05 October 2017. Photo: Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE

Bangladesh on Thursday announced it would build one of the world's biggest refugee camps to house all the 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims who have sought asylum from violence in Myanmar.

The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar since August 25 has put an immense strain on camps in Bangladesh where there are growing fears of a disease epidemic.

A Bangladesh minister gave details of the mega camp as Myanmar's army blamed Rohingya terrorists for setting fire to houses in troubled Rakhine state in recent days to intensify the exodus of the Muslim minority across the border.

Hard-pressed Bangladesh authorities plan to expand a refugee camp at Kutupalong near the border town of Cox's Bazar to accommodate all the Rohingya.

Two thousand acres (790 hectares) of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp were set aside last month for the new Rohingya arrivals. But as the number of newcomers has exceeded 500,000 -- adding to 300,000 already in Bangladesh -- another 1,000 acres has been set aside for the new camp.

Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, minister for disaster management and relief, said all the Rohingya would eventually be moved from 23 camps along the border and other makeshift camps around Cox's Bazar to the new zone.

"All of those who are living in scattered places... would be brought into one place. That's why more land is needed. Slowly all of them will come," the minister told AFP, adding families were already moving to the new site known as the Kutupalong Extension.

The minister said two of the existing settlements have already been shut down.

This week Bangladesh reported 4,000-5,000 Rohingya were crossing the border daily after a brief lull in arrivals, with 10,000 more waiting at the frontier.

The United Nations has praised Bangladesh's "extraordinary spirit of generosity" in opening up its borders.

But UNICEF chief Anthony Lake and UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock said in an appeal for $430 million to provide aid that "the needs (of the Rohingya) are growing at a faster pace than our ability to meet them".

"The human tragedy unfolding in southern Bangladesh is staggering in its scale, complexity and rapidity," they said in a statement calling the Rohingya crisis "the world's fastest developing refugee emergency".

© AFP

Bangladesh scuttles boats, jails captains to curb refugee influx

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This photograph taken on September 12, 2017 shows Rohingya refugees arriving by boat, as smoke rises from fires on the shoreline behind them, at Shah Parir Dwip on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River after fleeing violence in Myanmar. Photo: Adib Chowdhury/AFP

Bangladesh has destroyed at least 30 wooden fishing boats to deter local captains from smuggling Rohingya refugees and illegal drugs across the border from strife-torn Myanmar, officials said Thursday.

Border guards seized the vessels and arrested the captains after they were intercepted Tuesday evening bringing more than 700 Rohingya Muslims across the river from Myanmar's westernmost Rakhine state.

The boatmen were also caught in possession of about 100,000 "yaba" pills, an illegal stimulant popular in Bangladesh, said a border guard official.

More than half a million Rohingya have fled ethnic bloodshed in Rakhine since late August, many by boat across the Naf River which divides Myanmar and Bangladesh.

"These brokers (boatmen) were smuggling people," one border guard told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.

"We were asked to destroy the 30 boats. These are hand-pulled vessels, not run by engines", he added, saying non-motorised boats were used to avoid detection.

A government official confirmed 39 people, mostly Rohingya living in Bangladesh, were jailed for six months for "excessively charging" refugees for passage across the Naf.

"The BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) has done an appropriate job," Zahid Siddique, a local magistrate and government administrator, told AFP.

Gangs of boat owners, crew and fishermen have been charging the fleeing Rohingya upwards of US$250 for the two-hour journey that normally costs no more than US$5.

Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion this week rescued 20 Rohingya being held hostage by local gangs demanding huge fares from the refugees.

Some arriving in Shah Porir Dwip told AFP that boatmen had demanded they hand over gold, jewels and cash before taking them across.

The boatmen are accused of not just trafficking people but drugs from Myanmar, with border guards discovering 100,000 "yaba" pills inside the seized vessels.

The BGB officer said the drugs - a blend of methamphetamine and caffeine popular among Bangladeshi youth - were concealed inside the boats.

Bangladeshi security forces have seized millions of yaba pills in recent years from traffickers attempting to smuggle the drugs through the border district of Cox's Bazar by land and sea from Myanmar.

In the past fortnight at least five Rohingya men have been arrested on the Naf river in possession of 1.23 million yaba pills.

©AFP

Bangladesh Islamists call to arm Rohingya

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Supporters of hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam take part in a protest calling on Bangladesh's government to arm Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar, in Chittagong on October 6, 2017.  Photo: AFP

Thousands of people marched in Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong Friday calling for the government to arm Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing a crackdown in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state.

More than half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since attacks by terrorists belonging to the Muslim minority on Myanmar police posts sparked brutal reprisals by security forces.

Up to 15,000 people joined the demonstrations in Bangladesh's second largest city, police said, organised by hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam to protest against the killings of the Rohingya.

"We demanded a halt to the genocide of the Rohingya," Hefazat spokesman Azizul Hoque Islamabad told AFP.

"We have also asked the government to train and arm the Rohingya so that they can liberate their homeland," he said.

Communities in Chittagong share close cultural, religious and linguistic ties with the Rohingya, and images on social media purportedly showing abuses against the Muslim minority in mainly Buddhist Myanmar have aroused strong sympathy in Bangladesh.

Islamist parties, including Hefazat, have staged several demonstrations over the issue in recent weeks and some firebrand leaders have called on the government to go to war with Myanmar to liberate Rakhine for the persecuted Rohingya.

Experts said Bangladeshi Islamist extremist groups could exploit the situation and forge closer ties with Rohingya militants.

The plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who are reviled and denied citizenship in Myanmar, has roused anger across the Islamic world, with protests held in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The influx has also put Bangladesh under immense strain, with the South Asian country already hosting at least 300,000 Rohingya refugees in squalid camps along its border with Myanmar before the latest surge in arrivals.

(AFP)

Myanmar naval officers and cadets visit Indian Naval Academy

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Myanmar naval officers and cadets visit Indian Naval Academy in Kerala, India. Photo: INA

Myanmar naval officers and cadets visit Indian Naval Academy in Kerala, India. Photo: INA

A delegation of five cadets led by Major Thike Zaw Hein and Captain Ko Ko Min of the Myanmar Defense Services Academy visited Indian Naval Academy (INA) in Kerala, India for a period of seven days from October 1.

During this period the Officers and cadets of Myanmar Defense Services Academy were acquainted with Infrastructure, Academic facilities and training processes at the INA, according to a press release issued on October 7. 

The aim of the visit was to build bridges of friendship between the two navies, exchange best practices and to consolidate and enhance bilateral defence relations between India and Myanmar. 

Naval cooperation between India and Myanmar has been traditionally strong, encompassing a wide span which includes operational interactions through coordinated patrols, training, port calls, passage exercises along with capacity building and capability augmentation initiatives. 

The visit also gave INA staff an opportunity to learn and understand the training processes and philosophy followed at Myanmar Defense Services Academy.  The visiting Myanmar officer delegation and cadets were given opportunities to not only understand the functionality of INA, but to form bonds of friendship with INA cadets. 

Towards this end, they were accommodated in the cadet’s squadron, dined and worked with the INA cadets and also attended classes in the company of their INA counterparts. They were also exposed to ‘God’s Own Country’, Kerala through visits to places of historical and cultural interest in and around Payyanur. 

The visit of Myanmar Naval delegation to INA closely follows the recent visit of Admiral Tin Aung San, Commander in Chief, Myanmar Navy to India from September 18 to 21 and is reflective of the growing level of cooperation between both Navies. 

It was said to be a mutually satisfying and enriching experience for the young officers of both Navies and reaffirmed the universal truth that Oceans unite all Nations. The Myanmar Naval delegation departed Indian Naval Academy on October 7. 

Indian Naval Academy is the initial officer training establishment of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard.


At least 12 dead as refugee boat sinks off Bangladesh

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A Bangladeshi volunteer carries the body of a Rohingya refugees child, who died when their boat capsized when crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh, at a graveyard in Sha Porir Dwip in Teknaf on October 9, 2017.  Photo: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP

At least 12 Rohingya refugees, most of them children, drowned and scores more were missing Monday after their overloaded boat capsized in the latest tragedy to strike those fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Authorities in Bangladesh said the boat was carrying between 60 and 100 people when it overturned and sank late Sunday in rough seas.

More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state for Bangladesh since late August. Many walk for days through thick jungle before making the perilous boat journey across the Naf river that divides the two countries.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) official Abdul Jalil told AFP on Monday they had recovered the bodies of 10 children, an elderly woman and a man after an all-night rescue operation.

Survivor Sayed Hossain wept as he watched the body of his two and a half-year-old son being taken away to the local cemetery for burial.

"We set off at around 6pm. We did not have any choice but to leave our village," he said, telling how the overloaded boat overturned when it hit a shoal and sank in rough water.

"They (security forces) have restricted our movements. Many are starving as we could not even go to shop or market to buy food," said the 30-year-old Rohingya farmhand, who lived in a village east of Myanmar's Buthidaung township.

Hossain's mother, his pregnant wife and two children were all still missing. 

Border guard boats have rescued 13 Rohingya and the rest are missing, Jalil said, adding many may have swum to the Rakhine coast.

Area coast guard commander Alauddin Nayan said the boat capsized near the coastal village of Galachar with nearly 100 people on board, more than half of them children.

- Dangerous journey -

Around 150 Rohingya, many of them children, have drowned trying to reach Bangladesh in small and rickety fishing boats that coastguards say are woefully inadequate for the rough seas.

Late last month more than 60 refugees are feared to have died when the boat carrying them from Myanmar capsized in rough weather in the Bay of Bengal.

Villagers at Shah Porir Dwip where the boats mostly land told AFP the Rohingya were increasingly travelling at night to avoid strict border patrols in Bangladesh, making the journey even more dangerous.

Last week the guards destroyed at least 30 wooden fishing vessels amid increased concern they were being used to bring the popular methamphetamine drug known locally as Yaba into the country and using the refugee crisis as cover.

Gangs of boat owners, crew and fishermen have also been charging the fleeing Rohingya upwards of $250 for the two-hour journey that normally costs no more than $5.

Nearly 520,000 Rohingya Muslims have now entered Bangladesh since terrorist raids on Myanmar police posts on August 25 prompted a brutal military backlash.

(AFP)

Hindu refugees in Bangladesh isolated, uncertain about future

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Displaced Hindu people who fled from Maungdaw township gather inside a temple in Siittwe of Rakhine State, western Myanmar, 05 September 2017. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA

Hindu refugees living in a temporary camp in Bangladesh remember when harmony prevailed between them and their Rohingya Muslim neighbors back in Myanmar.

“If we held any ceremony, we called them. If they held any ceremony, they called us,” said 60-year-old Bolaran Shil, who says he lived in a village in Maungdaw called Siyon Suri, or Ah San Kyaw in Burmese.

But the violence that erupted on August 25 between the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Burmese military shattered those bonds, perhaps permanently. 

Hindus from Yebawkya, a village near Siyon Suri in Maungdaw, accuse ARSA of killing dozens of their relatives and dumping them in mass graves shortly after they attacked police and army posts. Dozens more Hindus remain missing.

While ARSA denies responsibility, the Myanmar government has seized on the allegations to prove the sinister intent of the group, and brought back relatives of the victims who fled across the border.

Hundreds of Hindu families fleeing violence in Rakhine have sought shelter in Rakhine, where the government has provided for them.

But tensions have carried over for those who fled to Bangladesh amid allegations of a violent encounter in a Rohingya refugee camp here, compounding the sense of isolation and uncertainty about the future.

Many don’t want to stay or return, leaving them in limbo.

“Bangladesh is a Muslim country. We want to go to India,” said Sitro Runjun Pal, 55.

FORMER FRIENDS

Hindus in northern Rakhine State enjoyed more freedom of movement than their Rohingya neighbors, but they were also discriminated against, providing some common ground between the two groups.

The entrance of ARSA into Siyon Suri, however, drove a wedge between the Hindus and Muslims there.

Though Rohingya insurgencies are not new, most have been short-lived and unsuccessful. 

ARSA emerged in the aftermath of 2012, when violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine State increased restrictions on the more than 1 million Rohingya living there at the time, sending more than 140,000 mostly Muslims into internal displacement camps, where they remain today.

Led by a Pakistani-born Rohingya man named At Ullah, ARSA first attacked a year ago, on October 9, when it was still known as Harakat Al-Yakin, or the Faith Movement. The group attracted more members in the aftermath of that first military crackdown, which brought widespread claims of sexual assault, extrajudicial killings and arson.

Pal said he saw recruitment in the village. He said young people and even those he knew were persuaded to take part.

“Some of my friends joined ARSA,” he said. He asked them why. They told him they needed freedom. 

One of them was a close friend. 

“We grew up together,” he said. "I know him, his name, his father's name."

In private they talked more about it. Pal advised against getting involved, telling his friend that the government “can do anything to you.”

His friend told him not to share his disapproval with anyone else, because if others learned that he knew of their activities, “it will be a problem.” ARSA has been accused of targeting informers. He kept quiet.

After the attacks on August 25, Pal said ARSA members wearing black scarves around their faces surrounded his village and told him they wouldn’t be harmed. Some even secretly gave him cooking supplies and cigarettes. 

But a relative called him and said he had heard rumors of Hindus being killed, and told him to leave. 

“We started to be afraid of them,” he said.

That’s when he went to Bangladesh. Pal hasn’t seen his friend since.

THE FIGHT

More than 500 Hindus went to Bangladesh, a number dwarfed by the more than 500,00 Rohingya who fled across the border. They were given a separate shelter in a chicken coop, near an existing Hindu temple. 

The camp is not as crowded and chaotic as the Rohingya settlements, nor does it have the same level of despair and destitution. But it's still not home.

A week or so after arriving in Bangladesh, the villagers from Siyon Suri were able to get in contact with some of their former neighbors.

According to their accounts, the Hindus wanted to collect money for livestock that their neighbors had sold for them. 

What happened next remains murky, but two Hindu men said their group of 11 was accosted on the way and beaten with wooden sticks and metal bars.  

One man showed scars on his arms and buttocks where he said he was struck.

Inspector Mohammed Kai-Kisluin from the police station in Ukhia, a sub-district of Cox's Bazar where the camps are located, said he believes the alleged incident happened around September 12, and that it stemmed from grievances in Myanmar. He said that some of the men in the group were later herded into a forested area and assaulted. 

“They tied their hands with the rope and started beating them another time,” he said, citing information gathered from a complaint.

The men escaped, but not all came back, the Hindu refugees say. Kai-Kisluin said Ukhia police did find two bodies, but they were so decomposed it's impossible to say if they are connected to the case. 

One family member came to claim a corpse, insisting it belonged to the community, but authorities remain skeptical.

“Nobody can identify the two guys,” Kai-Kisluin said.

Another police source said the matter was still under investigation, but that inconsistencies in the story left many holes. For instance, he said, one of the men who was thought to be missing was found in the end. 

Still, Kai-Kisluin said the cases are being considered murders.

THE GRAVE

Jagadish Pal removes his footwear, climbs the grassy embankment and walks over to a fresh mount of dirt. He offers a prayer to the makeshift grave, which he says belongs to his father, Rabindra Pal. As part of mourning rites, the son’s head is shaven.

The grave is in the same temporary refugee camp for Hindus, separated from an existing Buddhist cemetery. There are no markers. Both look like part of the fields and forests, blending seamlessly into the landscape.

Pal says his father was one of the men who never came back after going with the group of 10 other Hindus to collect the money. Men in the camp say they were able to identify him as Hindu because of the remnants of a red bracelet that many wear on their wrists.

Pal, whose six siblings are also in the camp, said his mother is still in Myanmar, and that he had been working in Chittagong as a barber. 

He said that he would consider going back to Myanmar for good if the country granted them citizenship and let them live in Yangon, the commercial capital.

“We cannot exist in the same village [as before],” he said, adding that “we don’t want to stay in Bangladesh.”

He also suggested India as a prospect. 

“We don’t have safety here.”

Mass cholera vaccinations begin in refugee camps

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Bangladesh army personel direct Rohingya volunteers carrying ice boxes with cholera vaccines at the Thangkhali refugee camp in Ukhia district on October 10, 2017. Photo: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP

The United Nations launched one of its biggest ever cholera vaccination drives in the vast refugee camps of southeast Bangladesh Tuesday amid fears of an outbreak among nearly a million Rohingya now living there.

Thousands of Rohingya men and women lined up in intense heat at makeshift health centres, many with young children in their arms, to receive the oral vaccine against the disease.

The UN is working with the Bangladesh government to vaccinate 650,000 people living in the sprawling camps against cholera, which spreads through dirty water and can kill if left untreated.

"These people lack most of the basic services -- toilets, water sanitation and everything," UNICEF spokesman A M Sakil Faizullah told AFP.

"When we have this kind of situation, there's a heavy possibility of a cholera outbreak."

Nearly 520,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh since late August, fleeing a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist neighbouring Myanmar that the UN has said likely amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Poor and overpopulated Bangladesh has struggled to cope with the mass influx of people, many of whom have to travel for days or even weeks to reach safety and arrive exhausted and malnourished.

The influx had slowed in recent weeks, but now appears to have picked up again and an estimated 11,000 new refugees arrived on Monday.

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it was working with the Bangladesh authorities to set up a transit centre in preparation for a fresh influx from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

World Health Organization (WHO) workers and local volunteers will vaccinate  650,000 Rohingya over the coming weeks and then follow up with a second dose of the vaccine for an estimated 250,000 children aged between one and five.

It the second biggest such campaign ever, after 800,000 people were immunised against the disease in Haiti in November.

The WHO's Bangladesh representative N Paranietharan called it a "huge undertaking" and said he was confident an outbreak would be averted.

He said thousands of Bangladeshis living near the refugee camps would also be vaccinated.

Cholera was a major killer in Bangladesh until in the 1970s, but the country has seen major improvements in sanitation facilities since then.

(AFP)

Bangladesh minister to hold talks in Myanmar on refugees

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An overview of a newly built camp for the Rohingya refugees near Thangkhali, in Coxsbazar, Bangladesh 12 October 2017. Photo: Abir Abdullah/EPA

Bangladesh's home minister said Thursday he will travel to Myanmar on October 23 for talks on the crisis that has seen more than half a million Rohingya refugees cross into his country in just six weeks.

Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed the dates of his visit as the United Nations said at least 14,000 new refugees had entered Bangladesh from Myanmar in the past two days after a brief lull in arrivals.

"We'll ask them to take action so that no more people from this community from Myanmar enter Bangladesh," said Khan of the crisis, which has strained ties between the two neighbours.

"We'll also ask them to take back those who've already come in."

Khan said the talks would also cover border security including along the Naf river, which acts as a frontier between Bangladesh and Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state.

Nearly a million Rohingya refugees are now crowded into packed refugee camps near the border where most live in desperate conditions with limited access to food, clean water or proper sanitation.

Bangladesh said earlier this month that a senior Myanmar minister had agreed during a visit to Dhaka to set up a working group to discuss taking back the Rohingya, a Muslim minority.

But no details were given, and experts have questioned the likelihood of the refugees being able to return to mainly Buddhist Myanmar any time soon.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said last month that her country would take back "verified" refugees.

This would be done according to criteria agreed in 1993, when tens of thousands of Rohingya were repatriated, she said.

© AFP

Bangladesh bans three charities from giving Refugees aid

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Rohingya refugees stand in queue during rain to collect relief goods near a center in Balukhali, in Coxsbazar, Bangladesh, 12 October 2017. Photo: Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE

Bangladesh has banned three Islamic charities from working with Rohingya refugees, a lawmaker said Thursday, amid concerns displaced Muslims in camps along its border could be radicalized.

Mahjabeen Khaled, an MP from the ruling Awami League, said the international charities Muslim Aid and Islamic Relief, and Bangladesh-based Allama Fazlullah Foundation, had been blacklisted from the Rohingya refugee camps in southernmost Cox's Bazar district.

Khaled, who sits on the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs, said no specific allegations had been levelled at the charities.

But authorities were "scrutinising and screening" all aid agencies wanting to contribute to the massive relief effort in Cox's Bazar, where more than half a million refugees had fled to squalid camps since August.

"We want to monitor who is giving aid, and why, for security reasons. Who are funding them, and what they are going to do with the money?" Khaled told AFP.

"They (Rohingya) are vulnerable. A lot can be done with this Rohingya people. We want to be careful," she said, adding it would be "easy" to lure the refugees to militancy.

Waseem Ahmed, a director of Islamic Relief, said any allegations of misconduct by the charity were "baseless and misguided".

"Since we are still awaiting approval from the government and haven't started any projects yet in the camps, it would be completely unwarranted to tag us with any activities that we haven't conducted," he said.

Bangladesh has heavily curtailed access to the Rohingya camps in recent years, but eased restrictions last month after more than 520,000 new refugees poured across the border.

The government's NGO Affairs Bureau approved 30 local and global aid groups to meet "emergency needs" in the overwhelmed camps, which already housed about 300,000 Rohingya before the latest influx.

Before that, just four international charities -- including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Action Against Hunger (ACF) -- were permitted to operate in the sensitive border district.

Khaled said Muslim Aid had also been banned from working in the refugee camps in 2012, when tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled a separate surge of violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

Bangladesh authorities are reluctant to discuss their reasons for curbing access to the camps, but fears prevail that anger among the displaced Rohingya could be exploited by extremist networks.

Bangladesh is fighting its own battle against homegrown Islamist radicals, who have claimed responsibility for the brutal murder of progressive bloggers, secular activists and foreigners in recent years.

Even those charities given the green light last month can only work for two months, and must restrict activities to providing healthcare, sanitation facilities and shelter for the Rohingya.

© AFP

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