Bangladesh protests refugee influx, alleged border landmines

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh on Wednesday protested the huge influx of people fleeing violence in Myanmar and raised concerns with Myanmar’s government about reports that its military was placing landmines along the countries’ shared border.

Bangladesh “demanded immediate measures from Myanmar to de-escalate the ongoing violence”, said the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury, director-general for Southeast Asia for the Foreign Ministry, issued the protest on Wednesday to Aung Myint, chargé d’affaires of the Myanmar Embassy in Dhaka.

Myanmar’s government did not issue an immediate response.

Zaw Htay, a spokesman for its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, questioned who was responsible for the landmines in comments this week to Reuters, which first reported Bangladesh’s allegations.

“Who can surely say those mines were not laid by the terrorists?” he asked.

More than 146,000 people are believed to have crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh since late last month, according to the United Nations.

Nearly all are ethnic Rohingya. The surge across the border followed Aug 25 attacks by a Rohingya militant group on police stations and a military base in Rakhine State.

Rohingya witnesses, who had reached Bangladesh, said the military and vigilante mobs of ethnic Rakhine had torched dozens of villages and sprayed bullets at fleeing residents.

Satellite photos had shown many fires in the area, which was unusual given the current monsoon conditions, Human Rights Watch said.

At least 15 members of the Myanmar security forces and 370 members of the militant group had been killed, the government said.

The government of Myanmar has denied that its military is attacking civilians in Rakhine.

Suu Kyi said on Tuesday that security forces were carrying out a campaign against terrorists while protecting residents of the area.

“We know very well, more than most, what it means to be deprived of human rights and democratic protection,” she said during a phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, according to her office. NYT