New Delhi (Mizzima) – The proposed barbed wire fencing along the Burma-Bangladesh border, could be the ruling military junta’s plan to curb the movement of Rohingya minorities living in the region, according to observers.
Sources near the border earlier told Mizzima, that Burma’s military authorities had brought in materials needed for erecting the fence along the Burma-Bangladesh border.
According to the source, Burma’s military government plans to construct a barbed wire fence about 50 miles in length, along the border with Bangladesh.
Tin Soe, Editor of Bangladesh-based Kaladan Press Network, on Thursday said the fence may be aimed at stopping the cross-border movement of the Rohingya, who in recent months have become a regional concern, after hundreds of them were rescued from the sea by authorities in Thailand, India and Indonesia.
In December last year, Indian authorities claimed over a hundred Rohingya migrants were rescued from India’s Andaman Island and feared that hundreds more had drowned, after the migrants were towed away into the sea by Thai authorities.
Similarly, Indonesia and Thailand reported rescuing several hundreds of migrants, who claimed to have fled military-ruled Burma, in search of better jobs abroad.
Burma, however, denied the presence of Rohingya minorities in its territory and offered to accept the migrants if they could prove their identity and furnish proof of being born in Burma.
Meanwhile, representatives of Rohingya minorities abroad said, they had lived in Burma’s northern Arakan state for generations, but were subjected to human rights abuse by the authorities, including the denial of citizenship and the right to own properties.
Tin Soe said, “I think it [the fencing] is a plan to curb the movement of Rohingya, who cross the border into Bangladesh.”
He added that the Rohingya, Muslim minorities mostly living in Maungdaw Township bordering Bangladesh, had often crossed over to Bangladesh in search of better security.
However, Htun Kyaw, an Assistant Editor at Bangladesh-based Narinjara News, said the fence might not only be meant to curb the movement of Rohingya, but might also be connected with the possible joint maritime patrol, to be conducted by the navy of Bangladesh and USA in the Bay of Bengal.
“The possible joint naval exercise of Bangladesh and US could also be one of the reasons why Burma wants to fence its border,” Htun Kyaw said.
Sources near the border said, since March 14, authorities had reinforced military presence in the border town of Maungdaw, in western Burma, to provide security to the fencing project along the Bangladesh-Burma border.
“Several soldiers and over 100 prisoners are being transported to construct the fence. They have all arrived in our village,” a local resident in Ngakhura village, where the fencing was supposed to commence, earlier told Mizzima.
Similarly, sources said Bangladesh had also reinforced its border security force along the land border with Burma, and sent a navy ship to the Bay of Bengal to watch the movement of the Burmese Army.
“The Bangladesh Army is on alert but the situation in the border is still calm,” the source said.
A stand-off between the two countries over maritime territories had occurred in November, after the Burmese Navy escorted South Korean Daewoo Company to test a drill in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh, immediately opposed the activity and sent naval vessels into the Bay of Bengal. The tension mounted when Burma’s naval vessels withdrew from the Bay of Bengal. Both countries, later, agreed to address the situation through diplomatic channels.
