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NEWS - Bangladesh forces trade fire



Subject: NEWS - Bangladesh forces trade fire with Myanmar

Bangladesh forces trade fire with Myanmar

  
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Bangladesh and Myanmar
border troops have exchanged fire across their mutual frontier near the
southern Bangladeshi resort town of Cox's Bazar, security officials said
on Wednesday. 

``The three-hour exchange occured early on Tuesday as the Myanmar
frontier force Nasaka fired on our camp across the border without any
provocation,'' Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Wasim of the Bangladesh
Rifles (BDR) told Reuters. 

``The Nasaka used heavy machine guns while BDR silenced them with
mortars,'' he said, adding it was not immediately known if there were
any casualties. 

The Myanmar side was yet to respond to a BDR proposal for a meeting over
the incident, which occurred at Tumbru, 65 km (40 miles) southeast of
Cox's Bazar, Wasim said. 

Cross border shooting incidents are not uncommon between the two sides,
often accompanied by Bangladeshi allegations of intrusions by Myanmar
forces into its territory. 

The latest shootout followed the arrest of two suspected Myanmar
militants armed with sub-machineguns along the frontier on Sunday,
officials said. 

But it was not immediately clear if the shooting incident was linked to
the arrests. 

The arrested militants said they were members of the Nasaka but
Bangladesh police suspect them of belonging to armed Moslem groups
seeking either a separate homeland or an end to the Yangon military
junta's rule. 

``We are investigating, they could be separatists,'' one police officers
said, adding they had seized their guns along with more than 50 rounds
of live ammunition. 

In the early 1990s Myanmar forces overran a BDR camp near the border,
killing one paramilitary soldier. 

``They often intrude into our territory and abduct fishermen and wood
cutters,'' a BDR officer said, adding nearly 300 Bangladeshis, mostly
fishermen, were now in Myanmar jails. 

The official said the fishermen had been charged falsely with illegal
fishing. 

04:28 12-29-99