KALADAN NEWS

 Violence against Rohingya Refugees in Burma – Bangladesh border

Teknaf, Mar 26: A violence fire broke out in the makeshift camp of Rohingya refugees in Taknaf injuring 8 inmates while damaging belongings of thousands of others, said a refugee leader of the camp.

On 24^th March 2004, at about 8 PM, a group of local goons came to the refugee camp and attempted to hijack a teenage refugee girl. When the girl was screaming for help, many refugees came to the spot at her rescue. But the criminal gang consisting of 10 person, led by one Syed Alam S/o Hajee Bashir Ahmed, assaulted 4 refugees : Eman Hussain 26, Sadek Hussain26, Mohammed Rafique 25 and Nur Mohamed 28 , with sharp knives, he further said.

Immediately after that the goons had retreated. Their purpose was to force the refugees vacate the land where their makeshift hunts were built. Being not satisfied, at about 8:30 PM, the criminals had set the refugee camp on fire and three-fouth of the hunts were completely gutted, said another refugee leader of the camp.

This time they hurt three refugee women: Rashida Begum 25, Zarina 21, Nayema Nahar18 and two men named Rashid Ahmed 28 and Anam Ullah 26.No action has yet been taken against the culprits, he further said.

On 25^th March,at about 1 PM, the Thana Officer ( TNO) Matinul Haque together with Medical Officer Dr.Farid Osman, Police Officer Mohamed Mani Uddin, local UNHCR Officers and local elders had visited the site, he further told our correspondent.

It may be mentioned here that an estimated 970 undocumented Rohingya Refugee families withabout 7000 members have been living in these makeshift huts for more than two years, after being dragged and driven out of their shelters taken amidst the locals during an operation in 2002. The authorities had herded them together to these places where they were living under open sky without any help from any quarters. After sometimes, the refugees themselves started building makeshift huts with their own initiative. Unfortunately, these hapless and helpless souls are not documented as refugees by the authorities concerned. They are awaiting for a just solution and wish to be repatriated to their original homes in Arakan with full guarantee for their life, property and honour.

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