Escape route for Rohingya minority closed – Warning of new boat people

Burma has begun the construction of a fence 200 km along the frontier with the neighbouring country of Bangladesh to prevent members of the persecuted Moslem Rohingya from escaping. This was reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on Friday in Göttingen. The human rights organisation warned of a sharp increase in the number of boat people, since the only the way still open to the Rohingya to escape from persecution is by sea. In January and February 2009 the flight of hundreds of Rohingya in fishing-boats made for headlines throughout the world.

"Burma’s military junta has considerably increased the strength of its armed forces on the border with Bangladesh, which was in the past was not secured in any way”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. Four battalions are already stationed there and three more are on their way. Militia have also been set up in 27 settlements along the river Naaf to secure the border. Villagers have been forced to carry ordnance and other supplies for the troops without receiving any recompense, say Rohingya refugees reporting on recent events. For years the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has criticised the systematic use of the minorities as forced workers.

Several hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the end of the 70s. The governments of Burma, Bangladesh and the High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations (UNHCR) have however always organised mass deportations, with the result that today there are only 28,000 members of the minority remaining in the two camps permitted by the authorities in Bangladesh. Some 200,000 Rohingya have for fear of deportation gone into hiding and are living in Bangladesh under the most dreadful conditions. It was just this week that three Rohingya fleeing from Burma were arrested at the frontier crossing. They are now threatened with deportation to Burma.

The approximately 1.5 million Moslem Rohingya living in Burma, which is in the main Buddhist, are not recognized as citizens by the authorities in Burma. Since they are not issued with any papers their freedom movement is severely restricted and they cannot contract a legal marriage. Many are fleeing from arbitrary arrest and torture.

Their homeland, the Burmese federal state of Arakan, is of very great importance for the neighbouring country of China. For China is beginning in the year 2009 the construction of a pipeline for mineral oil and natural gas from the port of Kyaukphu in the west of Burma to the Chinese province of Yunnan. It is due for completion in April 2013. The strategically important pipeline, which is to bring oil from Africa and the Near East and gas from the Indian Ocean, guarantees China quick and safe access to the urgently needed resources.