Arakan News Agency
The Myanmar authorities have allocated $ 15 million to build a border wall with Bangladesh, near Arakan province, a stronghold of the Rohingya Muslims west of the country, in a move to impose a further siege on the Rohingya.
The Myanmar parliament approved Friday a budget of $ 15 million to build the border wall.
“The budget has been proposed by the ministries of interior, defense and border affairs, all of which are under the control of the military,” said Myanmar MP Myo Zaw Aung, according to the Associated Press.
The parliament’s approval of the planned budget came after 656,000 people from the Muslim Rohingya minority crossed into Bangladesh against the backdrop of violence against them since last August.
On Thursday, deputy interior minister, said the new budget covers the construction of a 202-km-long wall of 293 km along the border with Bangladesh, without giving details of the wall and its construction.
On November 23, the Myanmar government concluded a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh on the return of hundreds of thousands of fleeing Rwandan Muslims to Bangladesh to escape abuses by Myanmar’s army and extremist Buddhist militias.
The ongoing crimes against Rohingya for years have left some 826,000 Bangladeshis, including 656,000 who have fled since Aug. 25, according to the United Nations.
At least 9,000 people from the Rohingya minority were killed in Arakan, western Myanmar, between August 25 and September 24, according to the international organization Doctors Without Borders.
Myanmar considers Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted religious minority in the world”.
