News from India Newspaper (r)

[drzaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"Burma jails more than 300 Bangladeshis for illegal fishing"

"The Asian Age" newspaper
Date December 8, 1999.

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh: Burma border guards have jailed more than 300
Bangladeshis they accuse of illegal fishing, officials said on Tuesday.
 But the president of the Bangladeshi Teknaf Fishing Owners Association
said the fishermen were abducted while in Bangladeshi territorial waters
on the Naf river and from near Saint Martin island in the Bay of Bengal.

 "These people have been languishing in Burma jails for several months,"
said Rashid Ahmad. The Naf river partly demarcates the two Asian
neighbours. "Nasaka often abduct Bangladeshi fishermen along with boats
from Bangladesh territory. We get many of them released after
negotiations with Myanmar authorities," said Colonel Waliullah of the
Bangladesh Rifles border force. (Reuters)