One killed in clash at Mayanmar ref

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

One killed in clash at Mayanmar refugee camp
01:55 p.m Sep 24, 1998 Eastern

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Sept 24 (Reuters) - At least one man was killed and
30 others injured when Moslem refugees from Myanmar clashed with Bangladesh
police on Thursday, witnesses said.

They said the clash erupted at Nayapara refugee camp at Teknaf near the
border with Myanmar. Local villagers supported the refugees, fighting police
with spears, knives, stones and sticks.

Police opened fire, killing one villager, witnesses said.

In protest against the death, the villagers blocked a highway connecting
Teknaf with resort town of Cox's Bazar until evening.

The trouble started when officials of the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) were refused entry by the inmates of the Nayapara camp,
which houses some 1,200 Rohingya Moslems from Myanmar.

Over 21,000 Rohingyas have been living in two camps, at Nayapara and
Kutupalong, since early 1992, and attempts to send them back home have
proved futile over the years.

Some 250,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from west Myanmar's
Moslem-majority province of Arakan in 1992 trying to escape alleged military
persecution.

All but these 21,000 had returned home under UNHCR supervision until August
1997 when the process abruptly stopped, which Bangladesh said was because
Myanmar was unwilling to take them home.