Bangladesh resumes repatriation of

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Bangladesh resumes repatriation of Burma refugees 



Bangladesh resumes repatriation of Burma refugees 
07:22 a.m. Apr 21, 1997 Eastern 

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, April 21 (Reuter) - Repatriation of Burmese Moslem
refugees from
Bangladesh, suspended for three weeks, resumed on Monday with 58 men, women
aned children
crossing the Naf border river, officials said. 

They sailed home from refugee camps in Cox's Bazar district under
supervision of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees and Bangladeshi repatriation officials. 

Nearly 229,000 refugees, called Rohingyas, had gone back home in west Burma's
Moslem-majority Arakan province before the process was abruptly halted on
April 1 for what
Bangladeshi officials said was a delay by Burmese immigration to give
clearance to the returnees. 

Earler, the two governments agreed to complete repatriation of more than
250,000 Rohingyas by
March 31. 

The Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in early 1992 to escape alleged military
attrocities in Arakan. The
repatriation began in September that year following an agreement between
Dhaka and Rangoon.
^REUTER@