Approximately 10,500 Rohingya Muslims have taken shelter in India

[Hindustani78]

http://indianexpress.com/article/in...rder-talks-on-rohingyas-other-issues-4871435/

A 24-member delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) led by Director General Maj Gen. Abul Hossain will hold talks with a Border Security Force (BSF) team led by its chief K K Sharma.

By: PTI | New Delhi | Updated: October 2, 2017 6:46 pm

Delegation of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) led by Director General Maj Gen Abul Hossain arrives for 45th DG-level talks with BSF. (Source: Twitter/ANI)

The movement of Rohingya refugees, smuggling of fake Indian currency notes and narcotics are among a host of issues that will be discussed at the bi-annual talks between the chiefs of the border guarding forces of India and Bangladesh beginning tomorrow.

A 24-member delegation of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) led by Director General Maj Gen. Abul Hossain will hold talks with a Border Security Force (BSF) team led by its chief K K Sharma. The DG-level talks, the 45th between the two sides, will be held at a BSF camp here. They will end on October 5.

Officials said both the sides are expected to bring on the table the recent incidents of movement of Rohingya Muslims across the border they share. The Indian side is also expected to take up the issue of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) being smuggled from the other side.

The two sides are also expected to discuss trans-border crimes, including cattle smuggling; activities of Indian insurgent groups based in Bangladesh, prevention of illegal migration, joint efforts for effective implementation of common agenda programmes and other confidence-building measures, they said.

“The two sides will also take up issues that were discussed when a BSF delegation visited Bangladesh in February this year. “The relations between the two forces are very cordial and the aim of these talks is to take them forward,” they said.

The two sides will also review the progress of the single -row fence they are erecting to secure over 250 villages ahead of the existing barbed-wire fence along the International Border to curb cross-border crimes and instill a sense of security among the people living in the area. India shares a 4,096-km-long border with Bangladesh.

 

[BATMAN]

Why don't India build toilets for Indians, instead of building shelters for Rohingay?

 

[Hindustani78]

A delegation led by the Director General, Border Guard Bangladesh, Major General Abul Hossain calling on the Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi on October 03, 2017.

Rohingya refugees who just arrived by wooden boats from Myanmar wait for some aid to be distributed at a relief centre in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh | Photo Credit: Reuters

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...c-asks-govt/article19791035.ece?homepage=true



The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was outside the domain of the judiciary.
Can India live up to its international commitments and protect a large section of humanity comprising Rohingya women, children, the sick and the old who are “really suffering”?

This is the question the Supreme Court wants the government to answer.

The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was not “justiciable”, that is, outside the domain of the judiciary.

But the court rejected this stand outright.

“I, for one, believe, from my past experience of 40 years, that when a petition like this comes to us under Article 32 of the Constitution, the court should be very slow in abdicating its jurisdiction,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who leads the three-judge Bench, said.

The government said its August 8, 2017 communication to all the States to identify Rohingya and aid in their deportation was based on certain “executive parameters” like diplomatic concerns, on whether the county can sustain such an influx of refugees and geographically whether there would be tensions and threat to national security.

It denied saying all Rohingya were terrorists, but only “some of them”.

Faced with stiff resistance from the Bench, the government climbed down and explained saying whether an issue was justiciable or not had to be decided on a case to case basis.

“Obligation to grant assylum is universal”
Senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for the Rohingya community, said the government “has gone out of sync” with its August 8 directive for deportation of Rohingya.

He submitted that the government’s affidavit claiming the question of deportation of Rohingya was exclusively “within its subjective domain and not justiciable” makes “big inroads into what we thought our Constitution was”.

He rubbished the government’s claims that the Rohingya refugees will eat into the resources meant for citizens. “Our Constitution is not made up of group rights but individual rights,” he said.

Mr. Nariman, who introduced himself as a refugee from British Burma, submitted that the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution protected all “persons”, including refugees who fled persecution in their native countries.

He said the obligation to grant assylum was universal. “The Government of India has constantly made efforts to substantiate, enhance the rights of refugees. The August 8 communication is totally contradictory to Article 14. It sticks out like a sore thumb in our nation’s policy towards protecting refugees.”

Mr. Nariman referred to the December 29, 2011 directive, which laid out the standard operating procedure and internal guidelines for Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO), and if necessary take steps to provide the foreign national with a long term visa. This had to be done irrespective of religion, gender, etc.

He said India had been “supportive of burden-sharing, of providing humanitarian assistance”, citing the Nepal earthquake as an instance.

The court asked the government to address Mr. Nariman’s submissions that humanitarian concerns of children, women, the sick and the old outweigh justiciability and cannot be viewed in the same light as “everyone”.

The next date of hearing is October 13.

No blanket claims of terrorism
The Rohingya had said anyone among them found to be a militant can be proceeded against in accordance with law and he or she can be stripped off the status of a refugee under the exclusion clause of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

They were replying to the Centre’s claims that the Rohingya community was a threat to national security, easy prey for radicalisation. Their affidavit in the Supreme Court had referred to India’s strong track record of hosting refugees of different profiles from those from Tibet to ethnic Chakmas and Hajongs.

The Rohingya community, represented by Mohammad Salimullah, the main petitioner who moved the Supreme Court, said the government cannot make a “blanket claim that all Rohingya refugees have terror links”.

The Rohingya countered the government’s claims that India was not bound by the Convention Relating to Status of Refugees, 1951 and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967. They said though India was not a signatory, it was a member of several international instruments/declarations which provide for right to asylum and against forcible repatriation.

India had a legal obligation to protect the human rights of refugees under Article 51(c) of the Constitution, the Rohingya said.

 

[Hindustani78]

Dhaka, October 05, 2017 22:28 IST
Updated: October 05, 2017 22:28 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/rohingya-camp-to-be-expanded/article19803328.ece


Bangladesh will expand a massive settlement under construction in its southernmost district to house 9,00,000 Rohingya Muslims, a Minister said on Thursday, putting it on track to rival the world’s largest refugee camps.

Two thousand acres of land in Cox’s Bazar district were set aside last month for a new site to house 4,00,000 Rohingya who had fled ethnic bloodshed in neighbouring Myanmar since late August. But space has been exhausted as the number of refugees exceeded half a million.

Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Minister for disaster Management and Relief, said the estimated 8,00,000-9,00,000 refugees would be relocated to the new camp on the fringes of Kutupalong, the largest Rohingya settlement in the area.

The settlement being built by the Army — known as the Kutupalong Extension — would be expanded by 1,000 acres to accommodate the enormous population, said Mr. Maya.

He said all refugees living in the 23 camps stretching along the border would be relocated to the new site, and the existing settlements closed.

 

[Hindustani78]

Picture for representational purpose. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
NEW DELHI, October 05, 2017 12:09 IST
Updated: October 05, 2017 12:33 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...nd-rohingya/article19801172.ece?homepage=true


Rohingya crisis
“The collective duty to seize cattle and push Rohingyas is having a negative impact on the morale of our troops,” said a BSF official

Stopping Rohingya refugees from crossing India's eastern border with Bangladesh is straining the resources of guards battling to halt a flow of smuggled cattle in the opposite direction, security officials say.

More than half a million Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since violence erupted on Aug. 25, but it is not clear how many then sought to travel on to India.

Last month, Reuters had reported that India had ordered its border guards to use “chilli and stun grenades" to block their entry.

But that directive clashes with another task that the Indian government has set for its border guards — to keep cows, considered as sacred, from being smuggled into Bangladesh for slaughter, in a trade worth $600 million a year.

“It's hard to stop cows and human beings at the same time,” a senior official of India's Border Security Force (BSF), which has about 30,000 troops patrolling the frontier with Bangladesh, said in New Delhi.

“The collective duty to seize cattle and push Rohingyas is having a negative impact on the morale of our troops,” added the official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “We have conveyed this message to the top government officials.”

He was one of four senior officials who told Reuters that the government must decide which task should get priority.

An official of the Indian home ministry told Reuters that the authorities were working to tackle the concerns of the border guards, who have been successful in blocking entry of the Rohingya.

India wants to deport about 40,000 Rohingya refugees who arrived in previous years, calling them a threat to national security, despite an outcry from human rights groups.

Fewer obstacles
Since the violence in Myanmar, there has been a sudden rise in the number of cattle coming from India, said traders in Bangladesh, which considers the border trade legal.

“There are fewer obstacles to getting cattle from India right now,” said Rabiul Alam, secretary of the Bangladesh Meat Traders' Association, which has about 1,000 members.

In July, India's top court suspended a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, giving a boost to its meat and leather industries, worth more than $16 billion in annual sales.

The slaughter of cows was already banned in most parts of India, but cow vigilante groups have been increasingly asserting themselves since Mr. Modi's government came to power in 2014.

Stopping the cattle smugglers is not easy
At least 400 border guards have been injured and six killed in such operations since 2015, BSF figures show.

The guards often have to wade through fields and ponds, wielding bamboo sticks and ropes to deter smugglers and round up the cattle.

“Injuries to guards is almost a routine affair now,” said R.P. Singh, a BSF official in West Bengal, which shares a 2,216-km (1,375-mile) border with Bangladesh.

 

[Hindustani78]

Rohingya carry belongings through muddy water moving in the sprawling refugee camp on October 5, 2017 at Palongkhali, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The outbreak of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state has caused a humanitarian crisis in the region with continued challenges for aid agencies. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...ceptable-un/article19813761.ece?homepage=true

High-level agency team may visit the area soon, says official

The lack of humanitarian access granted by Myanmar’s government to Rakhine State, where more than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled violence, is “unacceptable”, the United Nations said on Friday.

“The access we have in northern Rakhine State is unacceptable”, the head of the United Nations humanitarian office, Mark Lowcock, told reporters in Geneva.

A small UN team visited the crisis-wracked region in majority Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing “unimaginable” suffering.

Myanmar has tightly controlled access to the State since last month when attacks by Rohingya militants prompted an army kickback that has sent about 5,15,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

Scores of Rohingya villages have been torched.

Mr. Lowcock said he believed a “a high-level” UN team would be able to visit the area “in the next few days.”

‘Unfettered’ access
He repeated the UN’s call for the government to allow “unhindered [and] unfettered” access.

“Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim,” Mr. Lowcock added, stressing that the scale of the exodus was evidence of a severe crisis in northern Rakhine.

The UN has “substantial capacity” in Myanmar, which can be quickly deployed to northern Rakhine once clearance is granted he added.

Actual death toll
A Myanmar official tally says hundreds of people died as violence consumed remote communities, including Rohingya.

Hindus and ethnic Rakhine were also among the dead — allegedly killed by Rohingya militants.

Rights groups say the real death toll is likely to be much higher, especially among the Rohingya, while the UN has labelled army operations as “ethnic cleansing” against the Muslim group.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/636682/rohingya-issue-border-forces-india.html
DH News Service, New Delhi, Oct 7 2017, 2:36 IST

The BSF has identified 140 vulnerable locations, which have been reinforced with more personnel and surveillance gadgets. PTI file photo.

Border security forces of India and Bangladesh have taken steps to ensure that Rohingya refugees do not cross over to the Indian side, top officials said on Friday.

The Border Security Force (BSF) has identified 140 vulnerable locations where security deployment has been reinforced and more surveillance gadgets installed to tackle organised criminal gangs that help Rohingyas to sneak across the Indo-Bangla border.

Addressing a press conference with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) chief, Maj Gen Abul Hossain, BSF Director-General K K Sharma said they have chalked out plans to keep a vigil on the “spillover effect of the Rohingyas crossing over to India” during the bi-annual four-day talks between the two forces.

“We are both aware that the issue is very very serious as large number of Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh. You are very right in apprehending that the spillover effect of the Rohingyas crossing over to India is also very genuine. Both of us have taken steps. The BGB has ensured that their movement is being regulated and they have mounted some ‘nakas’,” Sharma said.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...ofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

In view of the increasing influx of illegal immigrants, especially Rohingyas, the BSF has identified 140 "vulnerable" locations on India-Bangladesh border and initiated a campaign to prevent their influx by curbing the activities of touts, the BSF chief said on Friday.

"We both (Border Security Force and Border Guards Bangladesh) are aware that the issue is very very serious as a large number of Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh and India. Both the forces discussed the issue and have taken steps to curb the menace," BSF Director General K.K. Sharma said here.

He was addressing media persons at the end of a four-day bi-annual Directors General-level talks, which began on October 2, between a 26-member Indian team and a 24-member Bangladesh delegation led by BGB chief Major General Abul Hossain.

The BSF officer said his counterpart had assured of major steps to deal with the movement of Rohingya Muslims, who have fled Rakhine state in Myanmar after security forces' action since August 25, by setting up roadblocks/checkpoints on various routes to ensure no one crossed into Indian territory illegally.

Sharma said BSF had identified "140 vulnerable border posts" along the 4,096.7-km India-Bangladesh border, from where some touts and organised groups help Rohingyas sneak into India.

"There are organised criminals on both sides who assist in their (Rohingyas) entry to India. So, we are mounting a campaign against these touts. We have deployed forces to strengthen security at these vulnerable posts. More manpower, technological inputs, and gadgets have been put in place."

Surveillance equipment, the BSF chief said, from other BSF posts have been diverted and deployed all along the eastern frontier.

"We are in touch with our sister agencies, intelligence agencies, to identify and take action against these touts. Because, these people (Rohingyas) cannot come on their own," Sharma said.

The BSF Director General said the border force has "sensitised" local populace to inform authorities about people entering Indian illegally.

He said the BSF is constantly in touch with the BGB on a daily basis. "Our commanders on the border can speak to each other quickly and share intelligence on any movement of Rohingyas."

BGB chief Hossain told the media that his country had already begun mandatory registration of all Rohingyas entering Bangladesh.

He said his country was planning to fence the country's border with Myanmar.

"Five lakh people have already come to Bangladesh. It is a problem for our country... they cannot spread all over the country. Our government has taken a decision and the refugees have been housed in Cox's Bazar district," the BGB chief said. ..

He said the BGB had identified exit and entry points , which are being guarded by the force, and have started registration of the refugees.

"Our citizens have been informed to share details on any such person to law enforcement agencies," Hossain said, adding Myanmar had told Bangladesh to set up a joint working committee to find out Rohingyas and send them back to their native place.

At the DG-level talks, the BGB raised issues like firing, killing, injuring, and beating of Bangladesh nationals by the BSF as well as arrest or detention of Bangladesh citizens.

Smuggling of firearms, ammunition, explosive, drugs, development works within 150 yards of the International Border, assistance for river bank protection works along the border, confidence-building measure, exchange of visit by BGB-BSF medical team, prevention against attacks on BSF personnel by Bangladeshi criminals, and prevention of trans-border crimes was discussed at the meet.

On Friday, a Joint Record of Discussions was signed by the Directors General of BSF and BGB. The next DG-level talk will be hosted by the BGB in Dhaka in February/March 2018.

 

[Hindustani78]

Agence France-Presse, Yangon, Oct 12 2017, 15:19 IST
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/637466/myanmars-army-chief-says-rohingya.html

The media has "exaggerated" the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing an army crackdown, Myanmar's commander-in-chief said today, in a brash rebuttal of accusations of ethnic cleansing by his forces.

Some 520,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's western Rakhine state since August 25, when the military launched a sweeping campaign against militants from the Muslim minority.

The crackdown has been so intense that the UN yesterday accused Myanmar of trying to purge its entire Rohingya population.

A new UN report released yesterday described the army-led crackdown as "well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes".

Half of Myanmar's Rohingya have bolted over the last seven weeks, fleeing incinerated villages to join what has become the world's largest refugee camp in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Thousands more are still trying to escape, massing on beaches and hoping to cross the Naf River before their food runs out.

But in a Facebook post on his official page on Thursday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing was unrepentant, describing the military response as proportionate and playing down the scale of the exodus.

It is an "exaggeration to say that the number of Bengalis fleeing to Bangladesh is very large," the post quoted him as saying, using a pejorative term for the Rohingya that classifies them as illegal immigrants.

Instead, he blamed "instigation and propaganda" by the media, who have become a punching bag for anger inside Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country where there is little sympathy for the Rohingya.

The humanitarian needs of the refugees who have made it to Bangaldesh are immense with limited food, shelter and the threat a disease outbreak deepening by the day.

But Min Aung Hlaing, who rights groups say carries personal responsibility for the crisis, insisted the Rohingya are merely returning to their motherland.

"The native place of Bengalis is really Bengal," he said. "They might have fled to the other country with the same language, race and culture as theirs by assuming that they would be safer there."

He also reiterated the army's view on the contested history of the Rohingya, saying they were moved in from Bangladesh by British colonialists and have no legitimate claim to lineage on Myanmar soil.

While immigration increased under British rule, historians say Muslim communities were recorded living in the Rakhine region long before the colonial era.

His comments followed a meeting with US Ambassador Scot Marciel, who according to the post "expressed concern" over the half million refugees and offered to help aid efforts.

This week an AFP reporter on a rare government-steered trip to the conflict-hit Rakhine heard testimony from Rohingya villagers who are scared and fast running out of food.

They said ethnic Rakhine Buddhist villagers are trying to starve them out of their homes.

Authorities are providing supplies to the Rohingya left behind, Min Aung Hlaing, glibbly adding food is plentiful in Rakhine where "fish can easily be caught" in its waterways.

 

[Hindustani78]

The Constitution is a protector of human rights, especially of children, women,” the Court said. A scene at the Rohingya Camp in Kalindi Kunj, in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...ngya-crisis/article19853498.ece?homepage=true

The Supreme adjourned the matter to November 21 for a detailed hearing.

The Supreme Court on Friday orally indicated that the government should not deport Rohingya “now” as the Centre prevailed over it to not record any such views in its formal order, citing “international ramifications”.

With this, the status quo over the Rohingya crisis continues even as the Supreme Court gave the Rohingya community liberty to approach it in case of “any contingency”.

As it is closed for Diwali holidays till October 22, the court adjourned the matter to November 21 for a detailed hearing.

“Take action wherever you find wrong, but do not deport now,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra orally asked the Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre.

Senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for the Rohingya community, said “in case of any difficulty we will come here”.

But Mr. Mehta put up a stiff resistance to the tenor of the proceedings, asking the court why they should even address the question of deportation at this stage without any reason for such apprehensions coming up now.

“We know what to do... if Your Lordships say anything, it will have international ramifications. No such contingency has arrived so far,” Mr. Mehta submitted.

“Make sure no such contingency is arrived at, in case of which petitioners (Rohingyas) can come (to SC),” the Bench observed.

Mr. Mehta continued to strongly protest the Bench mentioning anything in its order which may give the impression that a direction is being passed by the Supreme Court to the government regarding deportation. He objected even when the court attempted to record in its order that the case is “subjudice” or even tried to mention that the “government is sensitive to the problem”.

The Additional Solicitor General urged the court, at this point of time, to plainly record a line in its order that “Mr. Nariman says in case of contingency, he will approach the court”.

The Bench agreed even as the Chief Justice remarked this as an “extraordinary situation” and an “issue of great magnitude” in which the State has a pivotal role.

Chief Justice Misra pointed out that the Constitution is a protector of human rights, especially of children, women, the sick, the infirm and the innocent.

“By ‘innocent’ we mean the (Rohingya) children and women who know nothing about what is happening. As a constitutional court we cannot be oblivious of this fact. The State should also not be oblivious,” he observed.

The court said the approach of the government should be “multi-pronged”. It should consider both the humanitarian spectrum as well as concerns over national security, economic and labour interests.

“National security and economic interests cannot be seconded. How to strike a balance?” Chief Justice Misra asked both Mr. Nariman and the government to address this aspect.

In his submissions, Mr. Nariman shortly argued that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution has been expanded to include any “persons” and not just citizens.

“There are different types of foreigners. There are those who need protection. Every person has a right to safeguard his personal liberty and not be deported,” Mr. Nariman submitted.

Mr. Nariman said the concept of human rights is statutorily recognised and defined in the Protection of Human Rights of 1993. Human rights has thus become essentially justiciable with its inclusion under as a law as defined under Article 13 of the Constitution, Mr. Nariman submitted.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, one filed by persons within Rohingya community, against a proposed move to deport over 40,000 Rohingya refugees.

 

[Hindustani78]

Rohingya children attend a temporary school at a slum in New Delhi. File | Photo Credit: AP

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...says-centre/article19856772.ece?homepage=true

Supreme Court has not asked for withdrawal of order on the Rohingya, says official.

A day before the Centre for the first time acknowledged in the Supreme Court that the latter’s remark on its order to deport Rohingya could have international ramifications, the Home Ministry brainstormed on steps to be taken if Myanmar refused to accept the undocumented migrants.

With no concrete “plan” in place to deport the Rohingya, the Ministry convened a meeting on Thursday to decide the logistics and financial implications if the illegal migrants were not accepted by Myanmar.

On August 9, the Ministry issued a circular asking State governments to initiate the procedure to deport illegal immigrants, including the Rohingya.

A Ministry spokesperson said the SC’s oral order on Friday was “neither a stay nor an interim order” on the circular. An official said the circular was still operative and the apex court had not asked the Centre to withdraw it.

“Since the circular asked State governments to identify and deport the Rohingya, the meeting discussed threadbare who will bear the expenses of keeping them in camps till their nationality is decided. A Tribunal will be set up to decide their nationality and police will have to prove that they are illegal migrants first,” said a senior Ministry official.


Another official said the limitations faced in case of illegal Bangladeshi migrants were also discussed.

In the past three years only two Bangladeshis have been deported.

According to the Ministry’s estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingya in India, of which around 5,700 are in Jammu. Of these, only 16,000 are said to be registered with the U.N. body.

“Another important aspect was that if Rohingya were not sent back and continued to live here, how much allowance will they be granted and will they be allowed to take up a job for sustenance,” said the official.

On September 11, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had slammed India for its plan to deport the Rohingya. Mr. Hussein had said that “India cannot carry out collective expulsions, or return people to a place where they risk torture or other serious violations.”

Reacting to the statement, Mr. Rijiju had said the government had not firmed up a plan to deport the Rohingya yet and had only asked State governments to identify the illegal immigrants and initiate action as per the established procedure.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...ingya-fears/story-QIpMYthXPdogByiRR5d34N.html

Bangladesh has tightened security along its western border with India amid concern that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees could be pushed into its territory, officials said Sunday.

Patrols have been stepped up along the frontier with India’s West Bengal state, where border guards say they have been ordered in recent weeks to steer Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Tariqul Hakim, an area commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said Rohingya could be seen gathering opposite the Putkhali frontier post, where just a narrow river divides the two countries.

“We have stepped up surveillance and patrols so that no Rohingya can be pushed into our territory,” Lieutenant Colonel Hakim told AFP.

There are 40,000 Rohingya in India but the Indian government wants them deported, telling a top court last month they pose a security threat.

Hakim said Rohingya communities inside India could be trying to reunite with their families in southeast Bangladesh, where more than half a million Rohingya refugees have arrived since August from Myanmar.

An estimated 536,000 refugees have crossed since August 25, fleeing violence in western Myanmar described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.

An Indian border guard in West Bengal told AFP that patrols had previously turned over all Rohingya intercepted at the frontier to local police.

“But now our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingya into Bangladesh,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We are trying to accomplish our task with active local support”.

A Bangladesh border guard official, Abdul Hossain, said villages along the frontier were on high alert, with newly-arrived refugees saying they had been encouraged by Indian guards to cross the border.

“We’ve been patrolling the border day and night to prevent their entry. Local villagers have also joined us in the patrols,” Hossain told AFP.

Local council member Nazrul Islam said more than a dozen Rohingya who crossed at a southwestern part of the frontier Friday reported Indian guards opening a section of barbed wire to allow them to pass easily.

Bangladesh already hosts at least 800,000 Rohingya, including those who fled earlier crackdowns in Myanmar, and does not want to accept any from India.

It is trying to repatriate the Rohingya to Myanmar. But the stateless Muslim minority are reviled in the mainly Buddhist nation and considered to be illegal immigrants.

The unprecedented influx of refugees has put immense pressure on Bangladeshi authorities and charities, who have described the crisis as one of the world’s most pressing humanitarian emergencies.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://indianexpress.com/article/in...k-influx-of-rohingya-from-bangladesh-4896671/

The BSF IG (Tripura frontier) said after the recent conflict in Rakhine province of Myanmar not a single Rohingya had entered Tripura

By: PTI | Agartala | Published:October 18, 2017 4:41 pm

The Border Security Force (BSF) sounded an alert on Wednesday along the 856km-long India-Bangladesh border in Tripura to check the influx of Rohingya into the country.

“The threat of Rohingya intrusion cannot be ruled out as in the past similar cross-border movement of the same group was observed. Many Rohingya have taken shelter in Bangladesh. So, we have alerted our people guarding the border in Tripura to prevent any such intrusion,” BSF IG (Tripura Frontier) S R Ojha said. After the recent conflict in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar, not a single Rohingya had entered Tripura, the IG said.

More than 5,80,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25, when Myanmar security forces began a crackdown against the minority group. The government had said it was responding to attacks by the Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and the international community called the response disproportionate.

Ojha also said the Tripura Frontier of the BSF would organise a run on October 22 in memory of the jawans who laid down their lives while guarding the border. “Anybody can participate in the ‘BSF half marathon’. Eminent persons and sports personalities of Tripura will participate in the event,” Ojha said.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...t-stability/article19894781.ece?homepage=true

Senior official Guo Yezhou says Beijing’s policy is not to meddle in the internal affairs of another country.

Experience shows that foreign interference in crises does not work and China supports the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect stability, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday, amid ongoing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

More than 5,00,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh following a counter-insurgency offensive by Myanmar’s army in the wake of militant attacks on security forces.

U.N. officials have described Myanmar’s strategy as “ethnic cleansing.” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States held Myanmar’s military leadership responsible for its harsh crackdown.

Guo Yezhou, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international department, told reporters on the sidelines of a party congress that China condemned the attacks in Rakhine and understands and supports Myanmar's efforts to protect peace and stability there.

‘Long-standing friendship’
China and Myanmar have a deep, long-standing friendship, and China believes Myanmar can handle its problems on its own, he added.

Asked why China’s approach to the Rohingya crisis was different from Western nations, Mr. Guo said that China’s principle was not to interfere in the internal affairs of another country.

“Based on experience, you can see recently the consequences when one country interferes in another. We won’t do it,” he said, without offering any examples of when interventions go wrong.

China does not want instability in Myanmar as it inevitably will be affected as they share a long land border, Guo has said. “We condemn violent and terrorist acts,” he added.

Mr. Guo’s department has been at the forefront of building relations with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who visited China in 2015 at the Communist Party’s invitation, rather than the Chinese government’s. Department head Song Tao also visited Myanmar in August and met Ms. Suu Kyi.

Mass exodus
Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in large numbers since late August when Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape.

The European Union and the United States have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s military leadership.

Punitive measures aimed specifically at top generals are among a range of options that have been discussed, but they are wary of action that could hurt the wider economy or destabilize already tense ties between Ms. Suu Kyi and the army.

 

[Hindustani78]

Sushma Swaraj with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting in Dhaka | Photo Credit: PTI/Twitter

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...nmar-swaraj/article19901490.ece?homepage=true

Bangladesh has sought India’s ‘sustained pressures’ on Myanmar for its resolution of the Rohingya crisis

India is “deeply concerned” at the spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where normalcy will be restored only with the return of “displaced persons”, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said here amidst the raging Rohingya refugee crisis.

Nearly 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where the army has launched a crackdown against militants.

Myanmar doesn’t recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country. Bangladesh has sought India’s “sustained pressures” on Myanmar for its resolution.

“India is deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State,” Ms. Swaraj said after talks with the Bangladeshi side as part of the fourth Joint Consultative Commission.

population”.

Swaraj is on a two-day visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.

“It is clear that normalcy will only be restored with the return of the displaced persons to Rakhine State. The only long-term solution to the situation in Rakhine State is rapid socio-economic and infrastructure development that would have a positive impact on all the communities living in the State,” she said.

Mr. Ali said Dhaka was “happy to be reassured that India would continue to support the humanitarian cause related to Rohingyas in Bangladesh”.

“We further urged India to contribute towards exerting sustained pressure on Myanmar to find a peaceful solution to the including sustainable return of all Rohingyas to their motherland,” he said.

India has committed to provide financial and technical assistance for identified projects to be undertaken in Rakhine State in conjunction with the local authorities, Ms. Swaraj said.

India has supported implementation of the recommendations contained in the Kofi Annan-led Special Advisory Commission report.

India and Bangladesh today discussed the common challenge of terrorism and resolved to fight the scourge together even as New Delhi reaffirmed its status as a reliable development partner of Dhaka.

This is Ms. Swaraj’s second visit to Bangladesh and comes after the recent trip of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during which India operationalised a USD 4.5 billion line of credit to Bangladesh to enable implementation of development projects in key areas, including power, railways, roads and shipping.