Arakan News Agency
Bangladeshi authorities have announced that they will be transferred a camp of 15,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing Myanmar from a troubled mountainous tribal area near to the border, to avoid their re-igniting religious tensions between local Muslims and tribal minorities, most of them Buddhists.
The majority of the Rohingya were half of the millions who fled to Bangladesh in overcrowded camps set up on government land. But thousands have taken refuge in the neighboring Bandarban district, on the Chittagong Highlands where indigenous tribes launched a separatist war during the 1980s and 1990s.
Last week, Amnesty International called on Thailand not to “repel” the Rohingya people who fled the violence, give them legal status and protect them. Thailand does not recognize any refugee or Rohingya as legal migrant workers.
Thailand supported a statement issued by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), condemning “all acts of violence that resulted in the deaths of civilians.” Malaysia, a member of ASEAN, said it gave a false picture of issues related to displacement Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya. ”
On the other hand, the Myanmar authorities have reopened schools to Rakhine Buddhist children in towns that have experienced religious violence, while the Rohingya Muslims continue to flee.
Representatives of the United Nations are expected to take part in relief and diplomatic missions on a government tour to Arakan this week, the first of its kind in the conflict zone.
