KALADAN NEWS

Dated: Saturday January 31, 2004

Forgotten people:

Burmese Rohingyas’ Uncertain Destiny In Bangladesh Prison

Chitagong, January 31: Some Burmese Rohingyas are being blocked with an uncertain destiny in Bangladesh prisons for many years after the expiry of their prison terms. 

There are seventy-four Burmese prisoners have already spent 5 to 12 years after the expiry of their prison terms in Bandarband Jail, a district jail of southern Chittagong Hill Tracts, said a prison clerk of the jail, named Dipok Sharker.

A total of 230 prisoners are lingering in a Bandarban jail, of them 74 prisoners are Burmese citizens. Two of them are Burman from Rangoon capital, who were caught while fishing illegally in the Bangladesh waters with Thai fishing Boat and the rest 72 are Burmese Rohingya from Arakan State, Burma. They were also caught while taking shelter in Bangladesh after crossing Burma-Bangladesh border and some were caught, fishing in Bangladesh waters, he further said. 

Among the Rohingya prisoners, there are two families, consisting of whole family members, numbering five and six, where the first family consists of 3 sons and parents and the latter consists of parents together with two daughters, 10 and 12 and two sons, 6 and 9. They were arrested in 1997 while crossing Burma-Bangladesh Border hailing from Buthidaung Township in Arakan State. All these children seem to be paralyzed as inadequate of nutrition and permanent locked in a ward of the jail, said Rashid, a prisoner who was recently released.

The rest Burmese prisoners are from Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Minbya and Sittwe(Akyab) Townships of Arakan State, while the only one Burmese refugee was released on December 7, 2003, by the intervention of the UNHCR, a protection staff in Cox’s Bazar named Miss. Joinab. He was overstayed his prison term by as many as eight years and hailed from Naribil village of Maungdaw Township, he further described.

Though the Bangladesh authorities have repeatedly tried to repatriate all the Burmese prisoners to Burma during these years, but the Burmese military junta has denied accepting them as their own citizens, while some Rakhaings were taken back to their home, said another prisoner who declined to identify.

“We only knew that the prison authorities have tried many times to pursue the attention of the Burmese regime through the Burmese embassy in Dhaka, but in vain. The Burmese military regime has all along been unwilling either to identify us their genuine citizens or simply ignored our appeals, on grounds only known to them”, he further said.

The jail authorities have sent several letters to the concerned authorities but the respective government has never answered them. The non-cooperation on part of the neighboring country, in this regard has not only belated the release of the prisoners but also put more pressure on the capacity of the jail authorities to keep them in prison, according to BSS.

The future of these Burmese prisoners is still uncertain though the bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries have ‘improved significantly”, according to Narinjara, referring to a head of a local NGO dealing in human rights.

There are about 500 to 700 Burmese Rohingya prisoners still passing their lives in various jails of Bangladesh. Now, they are suffering from many kinds of diseases such as - malaria, cough, asthma, skin diseases and etc. for insufficient of medical treatments and shortage of medicines. They have been forced to work in the farms by jail authorities and are also being fed inadequate food, according to the prisoner who was recenly relaesed.

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