Narinjara news

Burmese military delegation visit a hilly town in Bangladesh

Dhaka, 24^th September 03: The visiting Burmese military delegation on Sunday visited a hilly district town in the southeastern part of Bangladesh.

The twelve-member high-level military team led by Lieutenant General Aung Htwe, commander of the Burmese defence ministry, called at a Buddhist monastery in Rangamati Town in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, about three hundred kilometres southeast of Dhaka.  The team met the abbot of the monastery, popularly known as Bana Bhante (the forest monk) who is well known for his rigorous   meditation and respected by a huge number of followers.  Later they had a boat ride in the Kaptai Lake built by erecting a hydro-electrical power station by damming the River Karnafuli.

According to an inter-services press report the Burmese military delegation also visited a naval base and the Bhatiary Military Military Academy in Chittagong, the second city of the country.

The Burmese team has come to Dhaka on a six-day visit on Friday with an intention to discuss sharing of military intelligence to curb sea piracy, insurgency and arms smuggling, reported the Daily Star on 21 September. 

Another significant aspect of the tour is Dhaka’s willingness to shop defence hardware from Burma.  The long shopping list contains: 5.56 mm light machine gun, assault and automatic rifles, 7.62 mm light machine guns, prototype of Chinese type-58 stake mines and type 59 pressure mines.

Other items include a special combat vehicle (SCV) roof mounted with 12.7 mm Herstal machine gun, a bonnet-mounted 7.62 mm light machine gun, bonnet-mounted 84 mm Carl Gustav M2 rocket launcher, and 81 and 60 mm mortar, the paper added. 

Meanwhile Bangladesh and Burma have been trying to patch up a number of differences and eying at improving relations since the beginning of this year when the Burmese junta leader, General Than Shwe, and the premier of Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia visited each other’s country.

Since the end of last month reports in the local newspapers have confirmed a large scale offensive against a number of Burmese insurgent groups along the common border by the Bangladesh defence forces.  #