Arakan News Agency
Myanmar’s security forces used loudspeakers again to order hundreds of Rohingya refugees to leave an uninhabited border area on their border with Bangladesh immediately, refugees said Sunday.
Some 6,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have been living in a small strip of land between Myanmar and Bangladesh since they fled Arakan following widespread repression against the Muslim minority in August 2017.
The majority of Rohingya refugees who fled the violence in their country have settled in large camps in Bangladesh, but a few are determined to stay in the area separating the two countries.
In February, Myanmar agreed to suspend the use of loudspeakers to order Rwandan refugees to leave the area immediately and to cross into Bangladesh.
The army has also withdrawn some of its troops and heavy equipment from areas adjacent to the uninhabited area, where refugees who have settled on the other side of the barbed wire complain of intimidation.
But Myanmar security forces resumed their loudspeaker warnings again, according to Rohingya leaders in the area.
“They broadcast it several times yesterday and are re-broadcasting this morning,” said Mohammed Aref, a commander in the uninhabited area. It is very disturbing and terrifying. “
The Myanmar troops broadcast their messages in Burmese and the local language of the Rohingya, ordering the refugees “to leave the area under Myanmar jurisdiction or face trial.”
In these letters, Myanmar refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis”, treats them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refuses to grant them citizenship and deprives them of their basic rights.
The refugee crisis has caused considerable tension in relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Camp leaders in the uninhabited area refuse to return to Myanmar unless their demands for citizenship and security guarantees are met.
Some 700,000 Muslim Rohingya Muslims from Arakan province fled to Bangladesh in August because of military operations the United Nations said amounted to “ethnic cleansing”.
