Former UN chief Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Friday to push for the return to Myanmar of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohyingas who have been driven out in an army campaign.

Annan, who led an advisory commission to the Myanmar government, said world powers must work with the country's military and civilian leaders to end the refugee crisis.

The Security Council is weighing action, possibly a resolution laying out demands, but diplomats have said China, a supporter of Myanmar's former ruling junta, and Russia are opposed to such a measure.

"I hope the resolution that comes out urges the government to really press ahead and create conditions that would allow the refugees to return with dignity and with a sense of security," Annan told reporters after a closed-door meeting with the council.

"They should not be returned to camps. They should help rebuild," he said.

More than 500,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, have since late August crossed into Bangladesh, fleeing military operations in Myanmar's Rakhine state that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar authorities say they are rooting out Rohingya militants following attacks on police posts in late August.

The issue of the return of the Rohingyas is shaping up as a major hurdle.

A recent report by the UN human rights office accused Myanmar of seeking to permanently expel the Rohingya, by planting land mines at the border with Bangladesh. 

"The international community is now beginning to put pressure on the military," Annan said, adding that "military-to-military talks" were aimed at pressing Myanmar to rein in its operations.

He called on the council to agree with Myanmar on a "roadmap" and warned that without action "we are going to have a long-term festering problem" in the region that "can be very serious, down the line."

In late August, Annan presented the final report of the advisory commission on Rakhine state that he chaired at the request of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The report called for granting citizenship and other rights to the Rohingyas, who are stateless and have long faced discrimination in the Buddhist-majority nation.

The UN's top political affairs chief, Jeffrey Feltman, traveled to Myanmar on Friday for talks.

(AFP)

Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine Vice-Chairman Dr. Win Myat Aye said that they would receive back refugees who had fled immediately as soon as they had an reached agreement with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan who will come to Myanmar in the last week of October.

The two countries agreed to receive those who were fleeing to Bangladesh after violent attacks in northern Rakhine under a 1992/93 agreement reached between the two countries.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is coming to Myanmar on October 23 in order to discuss with his counterpart some points concerning the repatriation of these refugees.

Dr. Win Myat Aye said, “We heard that Bangladesh had sent her representatives for renegotiation on the repatriation of refugees but I don’t know what their proposals are in detail. We will receive these refugees immediately as soon as we have reached an agreement with them in the last week of October.”

He added that Myanmar was ready to implement a repatriation plan after the Myanmar government had reached agreement with Bangladesh though the results of negotiation that cannot be predicted.

Reportedly, the Rakhine State Government is compiling a detailed list of people who fled to Bangladesh for repatriation by visiting Bangladesh although they have a previous list of those people.

Similarly Defence Services Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that receiving Bengalis was subject to verification and also to the outcome of negotiations with the Bangladesh government.

Minister of the State Counsellor Office Kyaw Tint Swe visited Dhaka, Bangladesh earlier and he agreed the repatriation of these refugees to Myanmar during this tour. 

Bangladesh has tightened security along its western border with India amid concern that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees could be pushed into its territory, officials said Sunday.

Patrols have been stepped up along the frontier with India's West Bengal state, where border guards say they have been ordered in recent weeks to steer Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Tariqul Hakim, an area commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said Rohingya could be seen gathering opposite the Putkhali frontier post, where just a narrow river divides the two countries.

"We have stepped up surveillance and patrols so that no Rohingya can be pushed into our territory," Lieutenant Colonel Hakim told AFP.

There are 40,000 Rohingya in India but the Indian government wants them deported, telling a top court last month they pose a security threat.

Hakim said Rohingya communities inside India could be trying to reunite with their families in southeast Bangladesh, where more than half a million Rohingya refugees have arrived since August from Myanmar.

An estimated 536,000 refugees have crossed since August 25, fleeing violence in western Myanmar described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.

An Indian border guard in West Bengal told AFP that patrols had previously turned over all Rohingya intercepted at the frontier to local police.

"But now our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingya into Bangladesh," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We are trying to accomplish our task with active local support".

A Bangladesh border guard official, Abdul Hossain, said villages along the frontier were on high alert, with newly-arrived refugees saying they had been encouraged by Indian guards to cross the border.

"We've been patrolling the border day and night to prevent their entry. Local villagers have also joined us in the patrols," Hossain told AFP.

Local council member Nazrul Islam said more than a dozen Rohingya who crossed at a southwestern part of the frontier Friday reported Indian guards opening a section of barbed wire to allow them to pass easily.

Bangladesh already hosts at least 800,000 Rohingya, including those who fled earlier crackdowns in Myanmar, and does not want to accept any from India.

It is trying to repatriate the Rohingya to Myanmar. But the stateless Muslim minority are reviled in the mainly Buddhist nation and considered to be illegal immigrants.

The unprecedented influx of refugees has put immense pressure on Bangladeshi authorities and charities, who have described the crisis as one of the world's most pressing humanitarian emergencies.

© AFP

At least 10 people drowned and dozens more are missing after a boat packed with Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh sank on Monday, the latest victims of a half-million-strong exodus sparked by an army crackdown in Myanmar.

The boat was carrying an estimated 50 people when it went down in the estuary of the Naf river that divides the two countries, Border Guard Bangladesh area commander Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam told AFP.

Nearly 200 Rohingya are known to have drowned over the last six weeks making the perilous crossing to Bangladesh, many in small wooden fishing boats that are dangerously overloaded.

Islam said 21 survivors had swum to safety after the small fishing trawler overturned, and coast and border guards were conducting a search and rescue operation in the Naf river.

Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman, a senior police officer, told AFP authorities had recovered the bodies of six children and four women.

"The accident happened during early morning prayers," said Shams Uddin, a resident who witnessed the disaster. "I think the boat overturned as the boatmen tried to reach the shore against the returning currents."

Another border guard told AFP the boat was just 200 yards from the Bangladesh coast when it sank in rough waters.

Fazlul Haq, a local official, said the boat was owned by a Bangladeshi villager who had made large sums of money ferrying Rohingya into the country.

He said the small fishing trawlers were highly vulnerable to accidents as they approached the shore, where they are often buffeted by large waves.

Refugees are often charged exorbitant fees for the trip.

The latest accident came a week after another boat packed with Rohingya refugees capsized in the area, killing at least 34 people including  many children.

© AFP

Two Myanmar photographers who were detained while reporting on the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh were allowed to fly home on Tuesday, their lawyer said.

Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat were arrested in September in the border district of Cox's Bazar, where more than 582,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge from army-led violence scorching through Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 25.

The pair were accused of espionage and charged with "false impersonation" for using tourist visas instead of journalist visas to enter Bangladesh, according to their lawyers.

The case was lambasted by rights groups and further strained ties between Myanmar and Bangladesh, which has struggled to absorb the staggering tide of weary Rohingya cramming into makeshift refugee camps on its side of the border.

The Myanmar journalists, who were on assignment for Hamburg-based magazine Geo, were released on bail on September 23 but unable to leave the country until Tuesday, according to their lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua.

"The boys finally managed to leave the country today," he told AFP.

"They may have to come back to attend a court hearing in November," he added.

© AFP

The squalid camps in Bangladesh that are now home to nearly 600,000 newly arrived Rohingya have no running water and barely any toilets, but they do have power -- thanks to a proliferation of solar panels.

That means refugees can charge their phones and power electric lights and fans, a lifeline in tents that become baking hot in the strong sun.

Some of the refugees say the panels were among the few precious possessions they grabbed as they fled villages in Myanmar that have been burned to the ground in a campaign of retribution following terrorist attacks on police posts.

Others have used their meagre resources to buy them after arriving in Bangladesh, where they have had to set up home in the overcrowded refugee camps near the border.

At the entrance to the Balukhali camp, one of the ubiquitous blue panels powers Kabir Ahmed's makeshift grocery store.

The 46-year-old, who worked in a shrimp farm in his native Myanmar, set up his small business when he arrived in Bangladesh at the start of August after fleeing the military crackdown in Myanmar..

He gets enough power from the sun to run four lightbulbs and two small fans.

"Now we can have light at night, and when it's really hot the fan gives us a bit of relief," he told AFP as he wiped the sweat from his body with a cloth.

- Solar only power source -

In the absence of mains electricity, the sun is a precious source of energy for the Rohingya now living in camps, where even food and clean water are hard to come by.

But many villages in the isolated and under-developed northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine state where the refugees have travelled from also lacked access to mains power.

The refugees AFP spoke to accused mainly Buddhist Myanmar of being unwilling to invest in areas inhabited by the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that the government regards as illegal immigrants.

In fact it is not just the Rohingya -- 50 percent of the population of Myanmar lacks access to mains electricity.

Solar power was "the only source of electricity in the area," said Anwar Sadeq, one of Kabir's sons, as he minded the store selling sweets and baskets of dried fish.

The family left Rakhine in such a hurry they had to leave their 20-watt solar panel behind, but they have bought a bigger one in Bangladesh.

On cloudy days, they put out the lights early to save enough energy to run the fans through the night.

A handful of power points in tents, served by long electricity cables, are available for the 582,000 Rohingya the UN estimates have arrived in Bangladesh since an upsurge in violence on August 25.

Kabir and his family recharge their phone batteries at a nearby market at a cost of 30 taka (36 US cents).

But not all of the refugees have the money to do that and most cook on firewood and use little if any electricity.

In the neighbouring Kutupalong camp, Anwara Begum has placed her miniature solar panel on a brick in the middle of an alleyway to absorb as much sun as possible.

The panel is connected to a small battery powering a mobile charger and a small bedside light.

In a place where the sun sets at 5:30pm, that means the refugees don't have to eat their dinner in the dark, said the 30-year-old, who arrived in Bangladesh at the beginning of last month.

But after barely an hour, the light goes out, plunging the tent once again into darkness.

© AFP

More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since violence erupted in northern Rakhine in August, a UN report said Sunday.

The new landmark comes as authorities in Bangladesh were bracing for another possible surge in Rohingya arrivals, with thousands from the Muslim minority believed to be stranded along the border waiting to cross.

Rohingya refugees have headed for Bangladesh in huge numbers after terrorist attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine state sparked a major army crackdown on the community likened to ethnic cleansing by the UN.

Now the UN-led Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), which is directing the humanitarian effort, has said an estimated 603,000 refugees from Rakhine have crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 25.

"Cross border movement of over 14,000 newly arrived refugees has been verified in the past week," the ISCG report said.

Bangladesh border guards are also concerned the relaxation later Sunday of a temporary ban on fishing in the Bay of Bengal could see a surge in people-smuggling along the coast as unscrupulous captains return to the seas.

Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh have received videos from families across the border showing thousands of displaced Muslims massing near crossing points, waiting for an opportunity to cross.

"We have seen some videos sent by people across the border. There are many gathered there. The number could be big," Border Guard Bangladesh commander Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam told AFP, without giving an estimate.

Around 10,000 refugees were left stranded in no man's land near Anjumanpara village for three days last week after being prevented from crossing into Bangladesh. They were finally permitted by authorities to enter Thursday.

The influx has slowed since then, with charities and officials reporting about 200 people crossing the Naf River dividing the two countries.

"(But) those that came told us thousands were still stranded on the other side of Naf," Jashim Uddin, a volunteer for the International Organisation for Migration, told AFP.

Another border guard told AFP an estimated 10-15,000 refugees were heading to Anjumanpara but had been pushed back.

"We heard from their relatives that the Myanmar army has stopped them from heading to the border," said a Border Guard spokesman, Iqbal Ahmed.

Refugees arriving Sunday described violence in their villages in Rakhine and food shortages that had forced countless people to flee.

"We hardly had any food for the last 10-15 days. They torched our home. We did not have any choice but to leave," Yasmin, who goes by one name, told AFP at the coastal village of Shah Porir Dwip.

Authorities meanwhile are on high alert for fishermen seeking to ferry refugees to Bangladesh via the open sea as the temporary fishing ban expires later Sunday.

"It is risky, but you can make a lot of money ferrying Rohingya to Bangladesh," said local fisherman Shawkat Hossain.

©AFP

Myanmar must take back the millions of Rohingya people who have been coming to Bangladesh to escape violence, India’s external affairs minister has said.  

“Myanmar must take back their nationals, they are a big burden for Bangladesh,” Sushma Swaraj said during her meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday.    

“How long will Bangladesh bear it? There should be a permanent solution,” the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted Swaraj as saying.

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a violent army crackdown in Rakhine since it began on Aug 25.

Bangladesh has been struggling to provide shelter and aid to the masses who have been living in squalid sheds on cleared forest land at Cox’s Bazar.

The Indian minister, without pronouncing the word Rohingya, praised the Hasina government’s efforts to provide shelter to the Myanmar nationals.

She spoke of their repatriation, but also sought punishment for “terrorists” responsible for the attacks on Myanmar security posts that prompted the army’s counterassault in Rakhine.

Swaraj said the huge number of refugees was a ‘big burden’ on Bangladesh. “The international community should contribute to social and economic development of Rakhine,” she said. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Naypyidaw soon after the Myanmar army began its ‘clearance operations’ in Rakhine.

He reminded Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi of her image, Swaraj told Hasina.

“Narendra Modi told Suu Kyi that she enjoys a good image globally and should not risk ruining it,” Press Secretary Karim told reporters.

Prime Minister Hasina talked about her government’s efforts to provide the Rohingyas with help.

If Bangladesh can provide for 160 million of its citizens, it can do the same for people who have fled Myanmar, she said.

She remembered the time when millions of Bengalis were made refugees in India during the 1971 War of Independence against Pakistan.

Hasina said she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were also given shelter by India.

Swaraj spoke of her successful meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali. “The Indian external minister said the work being conducted under her country’s line of credit are experiencing delays,” said Karim.

Her meeting with Hasina began with the exchange of military weapons used by freedom fighters and Indian army officers during the Liberation War.

India has presented Bangladesh with MI helicopters, two tanks and 25 weapons. Sushma Swaraj handed a .38-calibre revolver to Hasina before the meeting at the Ganabhaban.

Courtesy bdnews24.com, edited for style

Nations have pledged $345 million (294 million euros) to care for Myanmar's Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an "encouraging" step in the response to the intensifying crisis, the UN said Monday.

Many of the funds for the minority Muslim group, who have fled from violence in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine state, were promised at a high-level conference in Geneva, co-hosted by the United Nations, the European Union and Kuwait.

The UN says it needs $434 million to provide support through February for the 900,000 Rohingya who have fled across the border, as well as the 300,000 local Bangladeshis hosting the influx.

UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock called the haul "encouraging" and praised donors who "expressed their solidarity and compassion with the families and communities in need."

Some of the money was promised in the run up to the conference and Lowcock said he expected more commitments in the coming days.

A group of nations had also offered $50 million of in-kind donations.

Lowcock stressed the importance of countries actually delivering the cash, with the UN having confronted unfulfilled pledges in past crises.

"Pledges are one thing," he told reporters. "It's really important to us that the pledges are translated as soon as possible into contributions".

Among the 35 nations and blocs that promised funds were Britain ($63 million) the EU ($42 million), the United States ($38 million) and Sweden ($24 million), according to the UN.

With no apparent resolution to the crisis in sight, Lowcock noted that there may be a need to raise more funds again next year.

The head of the International Organization for Migration, William Lacey Swing, called the wave of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh "the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world."

"It is, in its own way, a nightmare," he added. 

Bangladesh's government and the community in the Cox's Bazar area on the Myanmar border have been broadly praised for the response to Rohingya refugee influx, notably for keeping the border open.

More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have headed for Bangladesh in huge numbers since late August after militant attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine sparked a major army crackdown on the community likened to ethnic cleansing by the UN.

Rohingyas have been systematically deprived of basic rights over decades in majority Buddhist Myanmar.

In the latest crackdown, Myanmar's security forces have fired indiscriminately on unarmed civilians, including children, and committed widespread sexual violence, according to UN investigators.

© AFP

The eight-month-old Rohingya boy was close to death when he arrived at the field hospital in a Bangladesh refugee camp, his tiny lungs racked by pneumonia as he struggled to draw breath.

But he made it -- saved by doctors at a new Red Cross field hospital in Cox's Bazar, the largest clinic of its kind in the overcrowded camps stretching along the border with Myanmar.

"Had he come even an hour later, he would have no chance to survive," Peter Meyer, team leader at the 60-bed hospital the size of two football fields, told AFP.

The infant, Mohammad Hares, is among the more than 600,000 refugees who have poured into Bangladesh since late August to escape ethnic violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

Many arrived sick, starving and nursing bullet wounds and landmine injuries, putting enormous pressure on the already overwhelmed medical clinics operating in camps near the border.

Red Cross doctors at the new hospital have been treating upwards of 200 patients a day, as exhausted Rohingya Muslims continue to cross into Bangladesh by land and sea, many in desperate need of treatment.

"A lot of patients we've treated are weak and tired. There is a lot of exhaustion and dehydration due to long walks," said paediatric nurse Hildur Svenonsdottir at the clinic equipped with an operating theatre, maternity ward and isolation unit.

"There are patients who have not eaten for days," she added.

The threat of a serious disease outbreak stalks the densely populated camps, where hundreds of thousands of refugees live squeezed together in basic shanties lacking proper toilets.

Doctors fear a water-borne disease like cholera would wreak havoc in such conditions and thousands of patients -- especially children -- are already suffering from acute diarrhoea.

Meyer said the hospital was planning to send mobile teams deeper into the camps, where bamboo and plastic shanties -- perched on hillsides far from relief centres -- stretch for miles.

"What we have seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg," he said.

For many Rohingya, the new hospital staffed by foreign doctors and stocked with equipment is their first encounter with modern medicine.

Healthcare is abysmal across the border in Rakhine, Buddhist-majority Myanmar's poorest state, where the Rohingya are denied citizenship and regarded as illegal migrants.

The persecuted Muslim minority have been largely deprived of proper medical care, and doctors say those arriving already show signs of serious malnutrition and other preventable illnesses.

"I have never seen such a hospital in my entire life," Mohammad's mother Halima Khatun told AFP.

"When we were sick, we only saw the local village healers."

Her young boy was saved by urgent surgery from a team of doctors who drained fluid from his lungs -- treatment unimaginable in her village back home.

The infant was "recovering fast", Meyer said, adding: "He is a great fighter."

© AFP

A sea of black-clad mourners massed across Bangkok's historic heart early Thursday as funeral rituals began for King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a revered monarch whose passing after a seven-decade reign.

As dawn broke an estimated 200,000 Thais had gathered around the Grand Palace to bid an emotional farewell to a monarch known as "father of the nation", silently packing the pavements, many clutching portraits of the beloved late king.

The golden spires of a spectacular cremation site, purpose-built for the funeral, were bathed in light as Bhumibol's son and heir, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, joined Buddhist monks to start a day of sombre processions, colourful pageantry and religious ceremony.

Vajiralongkorn will light the funeral pyre at 10pm (1500 GMT) as his father, Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty, is laid to rest.

AFP

Bangladesh has arrested on terrorism charges a prominent Buddhist whose charity operates in Myanmar's strife-torn Rakhine state, police said Wednesday.

Police said U Chit Maung, 67, was detained as he tried to board a flight to Myanmar at Dhaka's international airport last week.

Police only revealed Wednesday that Maung, who heads the Rakhaing Development Foundation, had been detained after allegedly suspicious images were found on his laptop.

"The RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) arrested him over anti-terrorism charges last week from the airport and handed him to us," airport police chief Noor-e-Azam Mia told AFP, without elaborating on the charges.

Maung's sister Ayethein Rakhaing said her brother, whose wife lives in Myanmar, was innocent and described the charges against him as false.

"He works for both the Muslims and Buddhists. He works there (Rakhine) for peace," said Rakhaing, a former lawmaker from the ruling Awami League.

His wife Mra Raza Linn was a prominent rebel leader turned peace activist in Myanmar, according to Maung's family.

"She is known to Aung San Suu Kyi," a family member told AFP by phone, referring to Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel peace prize laureate.

The relative added Linn heads a women's group in Rakhine and is a senior member of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), while she used to be a guerrilla leader.

The ALP has been anti-Rohingya in recent years, a Bangladesh security official told AFP.

The Rohingya refugee crisis has prompted an outpouring of sympathy in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, but has also fuelled tensions with the small population of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists living there.

Some refugees living in overcrowded camps have alleged that Bangladeshi Buddhists, known locally as Moghs, have joined militias perpetrating atrocities across the border in Rakhine.

"My brother was killed by Bangladeshi Moghs," Rohingya refugee Amirul Islam, who fled from Myanmar, told AFP at a camp in Cox's Bazar district.

Bangladesh police have bolstered security at Buddhist temples near the border, fearing local hostility among the Rohingya could boil over into reprisal attacks.

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Bangladesh says Myanmar has not yet given them a 'definite time frame'on taking back Rohingya refugees.

Officials who accompanied Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to Nay Phi Taw this week told Mizzima the two countries have agreed to stop the flow of refugees to Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

A senior official in Naypyitaw was quoted by Dhaka Tribune as saying that Bangladesh and Myanmar have discussed repatriation of the refugees but did not reach an agreement.

Both countries, however, have agreed to halt the mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh and restore stability in Rakhine state to facilitate the repatriation.

Myanmar Foreign Ministry’s Permanent Secretary U Kyaw Zeya told reporters in Naypyitaw on Tuesday that they would go “step by step” on the repatriation issue although Dhaka wanted it to start as soon as possible.

He said the neighbours would form a joint working group for repatriation.

Myanmar Home Minister Lt Gen Kyaw Swe and his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal met on Tuesday. The two countries signed two agreements on security and border cooperation.

Home Ministry’s Permanent Secretary U Tint Myint said they were “yet to rebuild infrastructure and draw up resettlement plans” to take back the refugees.

He said Rakhine state leaders were handling the issue and it was “difficult to predict” when preparations would be complete.

President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said during the Dhaka visit of union minister for the State Counsellor’s Office U Kyaw Tint Swe in October, Bangladesh and Myanmar had discussed principals agreed by the two countries in 1993.

Myanmar cabinet discussed a proposal made by Bangladesh at that time and forwarded the decision to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

But there was no “final discussion” on the matter in Tuesday’s meeting which mainly focused on cooperation, security and law enforcement issues.

Myanmar’s cross-border crime department’s Brig Gen Aung Htay Myint said they “did not discuss plans for refugees.”

He said they discussed the repatriation “to verify and accept back those who have settled in Myanmar and fled to Bangladesh after violence.”

It is unclear how the verification process would work on the ground.

Myanmar Consul General in Calcutta Mr Pyi Soe has been killed in a road accident in India.

His wife has been admitted to a hospital with serious injuries.

Mr Pyi Soe was traveling with his wife in India when he met with a road accident on Friday morning, said a press release issued by the Indian embassy in Yangon.

It described Mr Pyi Soe as a 'friend of India'.

He had taken over recently from Mr Aye Paing and had made an impact, according to the press release.

Indian think tank ORF researcher Anasua Basu Raychaudhury told Mizzima that Mr Pyi Soe had taken a lot of interest in pushing through the coastal shipping agreement between India and Myanmar.

The Consul General was reportedly returning from Bodh Gaya when his car was hit at the 170 kms marker from the Jharkhand state capital Ranchi.

The 11th Indo-Myanmar Regional Border Committee Meet between India and Myanmar concluded on 27 October 2017 with the signing of the minutes of the meeting between the two countries, according to a press release.

The 11th edition of the meet was held at Imphal under the aegis of Spear Corps of Indian Army from 25-27 October, according to the Inspector General of the Assam Rifles (South) October 27.

An 18 member delegation from Myanmar, consisting of officials of the Army and Civil departments attended the meeting.

The Indian delegation was headed by Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan, AVSM, SM, VSM, GOC Spear Corps and the Myanmar delegation was headed by Maj Gen Phone Myat, Commander, North West Command. They were accompanied by other civil and military officials of their respective countries.

Maj Gen Phone Myat said the talks were fruitful with regards to commitments on the Myanmar-India border, and issues of insurgency.

He stressed his command’s commitment to protect the security and interests of India.

by Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan thanked the Myanmar delegation for the cordial and constructive engagement including discussions on border management, the Free Movement Regime and communications.

The Indo-Myanmar Regional Border Committee Meet is a bi-annual landmark event which provides opportunities for representatives of Security Forces and Civil establishment of both the Nations to discuss and resolve crucial issues relating to border management, bi-lateral cooperation and terrorism. This forum is a platform for the delegates to brainstorm various issues and exchange information, thereby further strengthening the bond between both the countries.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has urged the Myanmar government to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh for the 'sake of humanity'.

The former prime minister's call came on Monday during her visit to the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, when she also blamed the government for failing to take proper diplomatic efforts to send the Rohingyas back.

More than 600,000 Rohingyas, mostly Muslims, have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since security forces responded to Rohingya terrorists' attacks on Aug 25 by launching a crackdown.

Bangladesh initially kept its border closed after violence broke out in the western Myanmar state, but later opened it to Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds.

Bangladesh was already home to at least 400,000 Rohingya refugees over the last few decades before the latest colossal exodus.

Urging Myanmar to take back its citizens, Khaleda called on the government and international organisations to strengthen diplomatic efforts.

"I would ask the international bodies, including the UN and the OIC, to step up diplomatic efforts to solve this crisis," she said while speaking to the media after distributing aid at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya.

The BNP chief blamed the government for failing to stand by the Rohingya refugees. "Moreover, it created obstacles for those who wanted to work for them."

Khaleda, who served as a prime minister twice, said the Rohingya crisis can be solved by diplomatic efforts.

During her 1991-96 term, Bangladesh signed a repatriation agreement with the then military regime of Myanmar in 1992, following which 236,599 Rohingyas returned to their homeland.

But another 2,415 were denied entry even after meeting the criteria under the arrangement.

Courtesy bdnews24.com, edited for style

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/10/30/khaleda-urges-myanmar-to-take...

At least four Rohingya were killed Tuesday when their boat sank off the coast of Bangladesh, police said, just hours after three babies drowned as they reached shore in a separate incident.

At least 200 Rohingya have drowned since late August making the treacherous sea crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

Overall, some 600,000 members of the Muslim minority have fled their mainly Buddhist homeland following a wave of violence there.

Police said the three babies fell into the water as their boat reached shore in the town of Teknaf on Monday evening.

"Two of the children were dropped from their mothers' laps," Teknaf police chief Main Uddin told AFP. "The children were aged between three and 10 months."

The other four victims drowned when their boat sank in rough weather on Tuesday morning as it neared the Bangladesh coast.

"There were at least 33 people in the small trawler, which capsized after it was caught in high waves," local police chief Abul Khair told AFP.

He said one person was found dead at the scene while six others were rushed to hospital in critical condition. Three of them later died.

The rest were dragged ashore or managed to swim to safety, Khair added.

He said the victims were all Rohingya from Buthidaung district in Myanmar's westernmost Rakhine state. The UN estimates that 605,000 members of the persecuted minority have fled since August 25.

Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, where refugee camps have been overwhelmed by the sick and injured.

But others have made the dangerous voyage by sea, taking rickety fishing boats into the Bay of Bengal and snaking up the coastline of Bangladesh looking for a spot to make landfall.

© AFP

Troops of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have prevented a group of around 5,000 Rohingyas from crossing over to Bangladesh, UN officials and journalists said Wednesday.

A UN official visiting the area told Mizzima that the BGB troops pushed back the Rohingyas twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday morning when they tried to cross into Bangladesh at Anjumanpara.

"It seems the troops have instructions not to let any more Rohingyas cross into Bangladesh," the official said but insisted on anonymity.

More than 585,000 Rohingyas have already crossed into Bangladesh, severely straining its resources.

Dhaka is insisting on an early start to the process of sending them back to Myanmar, something that the country's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal insisted during his recent visit to Myanmar.

But a time frame on the repatriation has not yet been agreed so far.

The Department of State said Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Simon Henshaw has taken a delegation to Myanmar and Bangladesh on a six-day visit which began on Oct 29.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Vajda of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Office Director Patricia Mahoney of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs is accompanying the acting assistant secretary.

Myanmar on Wednesday accused Bangladesh of delaying the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Rakhine state since August, as conditions worsen for the stateless minority penned into squalid refugee camps.

More than 600,000 members of the Muslim minority have fled a brutal army crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar over the past two months.

After weeks of intense global pressure Myanmar vowed to take back Rohingya who meet "verification" standards.

But the criteria remain vague, raising fears it will be used to restrict the number of returnees.

On Wednesday Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay pointed the finger at Bangladesh for allegedly delaying the repatriation.

"The Myanmar government already declared we are ready to receive (the refugees) at any time... but the Bangladeshi government is still considering the agreement between the two countries," he told AFP.

Dhaka has yet to send an official list of the Rohingya who have fled since August 25, he added.

The Myanmar spokesman declined to elaborate on comments he made to the local press linking the delay to $400 million in aid which Dhaka had received to expand housing for Rohingya.

"Currently they have got nearly $400 million. Over their receipt of this amount, we are now afraid of (them) delaying the programme of deporting the refugees," he was quoted as saying.

A senior Bangladesh foreign ministry official denied Dhaka was dragging its feet, telling AFP the two countries were working to overcome differences in drafts of a repatriation agreement.

Myanmar "were themselves not prepared", the official said, requesting anonymity.

Myanmar has said Rohingya will have to prove prior residence in Rakhine in order to return -- but this could be difficult for many members of a stateless minority who lack proper documentation.

The government has previously only issued ID cards to Rohingya willing to identify as "Bengalis" -- a name that brands them as foreigners.

Repatriation will also be complicated by the scale of destruction in Rakhine, where hundreds of Rohingya villages have been reduced to ash.

Relief workers say some refugees have expressed reluctance to return if it would mean living in camp-like settlements or being barred from the land they had before.

Meanwhile, Myanmar authorities have begun a new drive to issue National Verification cards inside Rakhine, where a dwindling number of Rohingya have stayed on despite severe food shortages and soaring communal tensions.

Those who sign up are rewarded with food and mosquito nets, reported the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

© AFP

Simon Henshaw, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, has led a high level US delegation to Myanmar and is now in Bangladesh for the second leg of their visit. 

The delegation met senior Myanmar government officials, diplomats and UN officials during their stay in Yangon and NayPhi Taw and their visit to Sittwe between Oct 29-31, "They discussed the US and international responses to the ongoing crisis and tried to explore durable solutions," US diplomats said.

But the delegation did not visit troubled spots in Northern Rakhine. 

They discussed "ways to address the humanitarian and human rights concerns stemming from the Rakhine State crisis and improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance to displaced persons in Burma, Bangladesh, and the region," US diplomats said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Vajda of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Office Director Patricia Mahoney of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs accompanied Acting Assistant Secretary Simon Henshaw during their three visits to Myanmar.

 The delegation also met international and NGO partners to "discuss the current state of the crisis, promote protection for persons affected by the violence and accountability for reported human rights abuses, urge unhindered humanitarian access to affected communities in Rakhine State, and press for the establishment of protection mechanisms to enable individuals to voluntarily return in safety and with dignity." 

The delegation is now in Bangladesh, where they are meeting senior government officials, donors, and humanitarian agencies to "discuss efforts to improve conditions for the significant influx of refugees into Bangladesh to effectively meet life-saving needs."

The delegation is now visiting affected communities in Cox’s Bazar District in southeastern Bangladesh to hear the stories of the people who have fled, assess the impact of the emergency humanitarian response, identify gaps in assistance, and advise on ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

On Wednesday, they met Bangladesh's junior foreign minister Mohd Shahriar Alam in Dhaka.

Speaking with the US delegates, State Minister Shahriar expressed sincere gratitude for the strong political as well as humanitarian support of the US government on the refugee crisis, reported 'Dhaka Tribune.'

Minister Alam also highlighted the five-point proposal given by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in September and requested the continuation of US support in this regard.

Secretary Simon Henshaw deeply appreciated Bangladesh’s decision to temporarily shelter more than 600,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. “Bangladesh responded extremely well to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” Minister Alam claimed.

Henshaw also assured the state minister of support from the US government, both financial and diplomatic, for the safe, sustainable and dignified repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.