ALONG THE BANGLADESH-MYANMAR BORDER: From their house, a tent impulsively erected in a grassy box, the younger Muslim Rohingya couple can see the village they left behind final year, fleeing attacks by means of Buddhist mobs and Myanmar security forces.
They arrived in a no man's land, one of the vital small, ill-defined areas that exist on the cloudiest edges of the borderlands, puts that appear to be neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh. While just about each different Rohingya refugee who crossed the border has sought protection within the immense camps a couple of miles deeper into Bangladesh, these other folks say they will move no farther.
"My ancestors' graves are there," said Abdul Naser, gesturing toward his village, lower than 100 meters (yards) away. "Sometimes, I walk close to the barbed wire fence and touch my land, and I cry in the dark."
But a couple of weeks ago issues modified. Myanmar deployed extra squaddies to the border, a few of whom began coming to inside of 10 meters (yards) of the refugees' homes. They shout insults on the Rohingya, the refugees say, they throw empty whiskey bottles. They have arrange audio system that blare announcements, insisting other folks move additional into Bangladesh.
Because to Myanmar, no man's land doesn't exist in any respect.
"We cannot accept the term `no man's land' because that is our land," said Nyan Myint Kyaw, Myanmar's deputy commander of the border police. Shifting rivers may have washed away some border markers, he says, and fences would possibly not have been erected all over. But he insists the 6,000 or so Rohingya who suppose they live between the 2 international locations are in reality residing inside of Myanmar.
It is simple to get perplexed on the border, the place many areas are not marked in any respect and the place it is every so often unclear if a fence marks somebody's personal land, or if it demarcates the frontier. Making issues extra difficult, Myanmar puts its border fences 150 ft from the true boundary line.
While Myanmar insists the entire hazy territory is their land, its security forces in addition to Bangladesh security forces also are very careful to avoid entering puts seen as a no man's land, presumably fearing unintended clashes and diplomatic bother.
Myanmar says the extra squaddies had been deployed to prevent possible cross-border attacks by means of Rohingya militants, regardless that no such attacks are recognized to have came about. When Bangladesh protested the deployments, Myanmar disregarded their proceedings.
"This is not like we are trying to invade Bangladesh," Myanmar spokesman Zaw Htay said in early March. "These are only actions taken against the terrorist groups.''
The Rohingya have long lived on the ragged fringes of lifestyles in Myanmar, denied citizenship and lots of the most basic rights. They are derided as ``Bengalis'' and plenty of in Myanmar believe they are unlawful migrants from Bangladesh. Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, maximum live in poverty in Myanmar's Rakhine state, subsequent to Bangladesh.
The most recent issues began in August, when Rohingya insurgents introduced a sequence of exceptional attacks on Myanmar security posts. Myanmar answered with overwhelming pressure, burning Muslim villages with the assistance of Buddhist mobs, raping ladies, looting homes and carrying out massacres. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the attacks into Bangladesh. Aid groups say greater than 6,700 other folks had been killed.
The UN refugee company has appealed for protection for the borderland Rohingya.
The company ``is concerned in regards to the safety of a gaggle of prone Rohingya ladies, men and children from Myanmar, who have been residing in a so-called `no man's land,''' it said in a statement. ``People who have fled violence in their country must be granted safety and protection.''
But is the no man's land inside of Myanmar? Even the Rohingya say a few of it most likely is, regardless that there are many puts the place even border guards are not positive the place to find the dividing line.
A Rohingya group chief says many of the 6,000 within the borderlands are from nearby villages.
``They don't want to leave where or input Bangladesh, hoping that they're going to return sooner or later and it will be more straightforward to transport from here,'' Dil Mohammed said.
The younger Rohingya couple agreed with him. They want to keep their village in sight. Or a minimum of what's left of it.
``My timber are nonetheless there,'' said Naser's wife, 20-year-old Ruksana Begum. ``It's spring now. I will be able to see the golf green leaves of my mango timber. They have burned our homes but my timber are nonetheless growing.''
They arrived in a no man's land, one of the vital small, ill-defined areas that exist on the cloudiest edges of the borderlands, puts that appear to be neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh. While just about each different Rohingya refugee who crossed the border has sought protection within the immense camps a couple of miles deeper into Bangladesh, these other folks say they will move no farther.
"My ancestors' graves are there," said Abdul Naser, gesturing toward his village, lower than 100 meters (yards) away. "Sometimes, I walk close to the barbed wire fence and touch my land, and I cry in the dark."
But a couple of weeks ago issues modified. Myanmar deployed extra squaddies to the border, a few of whom began coming to inside of 10 meters (yards) of the refugees' homes. They shout insults on the Rohingya, the refugees say, they throw empty whiskey bottles. They have arrange audio system that blare announcements, insisting other folks move additional into Bangladesh.
Because to Myanmar, no man's land doesn't exist in any respect.
"We cannot accept the term `no man's land' because that is our land," said Nyan Myint Kyaw, Myanmar's deputy commander of the border police. Shifting rivers may have washed away some border markers, he says, and fences would possibly not have been erected all over. But he insists the 6,000 or so Rohingya who suppose they live between the 2 international locations are in reality residing inside of Myanmar.
It is simple to get perplexed on the border, the place many areas are not marked in any respect and the place it is every so often unclear if a fence marks somebody's personal land, or if it demarcates the frontier. Making issues extra difficult, Myanmar puts its border fences 150 ft from the true boundary line.
While Myanmar insists the entire hazy territory is their land, its security forces in addition to Bangladesh security forces also are very careful to avoid entering puts seen as a no man's land, presumably fearing unintended clashes and diplomatic bother.
Myanmar says the extra squaddies had been deployed to prevent possible cross-border attacks by means of Rohingya militants, regardless that no such attacks are recognized to have came about. When Bangladesh protested the deployments, Myanmar disregarded their proceedings.
"This is not like we are trying to invade Bangladesh," Myanmar spokesman Zaw Htay said in early March. "These are only actions taken against the terrorist groups.''
The Rohingya have long lived on the ragged fringes of lifestyles in Myanmar, denied citizenship and lots of the most basic rights. They are derided as ``Bengalis'' and plenty of in Myanmar believe they are unlawful migrants from Bangladesh. Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, maximum live in poverty in Myanmar's Rakhine state, subsequent to Bangladesh.
The most recent issues began in August, when Rohingya insurgents introduced a sequence of exceptional attacks on Myanmar security posts. Myanmar answered with overwhelming pressure, burning Muslim villages with the assistance of Buddhist mobs, raping ladies, looting homes and carrying out massacres. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the attacks into Bangladesh. Aid groups say greater than 6,700 other folks had been killed.
The UN refugee company has appealed for protection for the borderland Rohingya.
The company ``is concerned in regards to the safety of a gaggle of prone Rohingya ladies, men and children from Myanmar, who have been residing in a so-called `no man's land,''' it said in a statement. ``People who have fled violence in their country must be granted safety and protection.''
But is the no man's land inside of Myanmar? Even the Rohingya say a few of it most likely is, regardless that there are many puts the place even border guards are not positive the place to find the dividing line.
A Rohingya group chief says many of the 6,000 within the borderlands are from nearby villages.
``They don't want to leave where or input Bangladesh, hoping that they're going to return sooner or later and it will be more straightforward to transport from here,'' Dil Mohammed said.
The younger Rohingya couple agreed with him. They want to keep their village in sight. Or a minimum of what's left of it.
``My timber are nonetheless there,'' said Naser's wife, 20-year-old Ruksana Begum. ``It's spring now. I will be able to see the golf green leaves of my mango timber. They have burned our homes but my timber are nonetheless growing.''
Rohingya living in 'no man's land' insist they will stay
![Rohingya living in 'no man's land' insist they will stay]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
March 10, 2018
Rating:
