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USIA REPORT ON BURMESE MUSLIM REFU



Subject: USIA REPORT ON BURMESE  MUSLIM REFUGEES

ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97072201.EEA
DATE:07/22/97
TITLE:22-07-97  BANGLADESH CONTINUES TO REPATRIATE BURMESE REFUGEES

TEXT:
(U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees lodges second protest)  (330)
Wendy C. Lubetkin
USIA European Correspondent

Geneva -- Bangladesh forcibly repatriated another 212 Burmese Muslims
July 22, despite appeals from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) that the expulsions stop.

UNHCR spokesperson Pam O'Toole said the group, which included many
women and children and sick people, were herded onto buses and taken
to the border.

"Their huts were dismantled behind them, and the plastic sheeting was
taken away, so they felt they had no option but to go back," O'Toole
told a press briefing July 22.

The group was the second to be sent back to Burma in three days. On
July 20 Bangladesh forcibly repatriated 180 refugees from the area,
prompting riots in which police and refugees were wounded.

"The refugees tried to prevent themselves being rounded up. Stones
were thrown, and it appears that the police went in with rubber
bullets and tear gas to disperse the refugees," O'Toole said. "Between
five and 10 police were injured. A number of refugees have rubber
bullet wounds."

In both cases the refugees were loaded onto buses before UNHCR field
staff could get to them to do the usual checks to ensure that refugees
were going back voluntarily.

"This kind of conduct is a disgrace," O'Toole said. UNHCR says the
Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh has not responded to its appeal that
the expulsions stop. The agency sent a second letter of protest July
22.

Meanwhile, Burmese Muslims are continuing to enter Bangladesh. Some of
them, interviewed by UNHCR staff, speak of forced labor and having
their land confiscated.

"One man told our officers that he would rather die than go back to
Myanmar," O'Toole said.

UNHCR says it has seen a number of men from the refugee camps taking
to the hills, fleeing to avoid being forced back to Burma.