Burmese refugees clash with police;

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Subject: Burmese refugees clash with police; 15 injuried.


	Burmese refugees clash with police; 15 injured
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	 7.18 p.m. EDT (2318 GMT) July 20, 1997

 TEKNAF, Bangladesh (AP)  Police opened fire and lobbed tear gas to
 quell Burmese refugees who were resisting government efforts to
 send them back to neighboring Burma, an official said. 

 Three officials and 12 refugees were injured in the three-hour clash,
 said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

 The refugees had attacked with canes, arrows and iron rods when
 the officials began rounding up people to be repatriated. 

 More than 250,000 Muslim Burmese refugees fled to Bangladesh in
 1991 to escape persecution by Rangoon's military Junta in
 Rangoon. Most have been repatriated under an agreement between
 the two nations. 

 The remaining 21,625 refugees, living in two camps, are demanding
 that they be sent back together and not in batches of a few hundred
 each. 

(20 July 1997, FOXNews)

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