Law
News
Bangladesh and Myanmar exchange prisoners
Dr.
Udatta Bikash
Bangladesh
and Myanmar (formerly Burma) exchanged 192 prisoners on
27 April 2005. This was done following a flag meeting
in the border town of Tekhnaf in Cox's Bazar between the
Nasaka, Myanmar border security forces and Bangladesh
Border Security force.
Bangladeshi
authorities handed over 172 Myanmar prisoners to the Nasaka
Officials while Myanmar authority handed over 20 Bangladeshi
prisoners to the BDR. The Myanmar prisoners included one
child and 3 women.
According
to different sources including the Narinjara News, Bangladesh-based
e-news service run by exiled Rakhine, about 572 Myanmarese
prisoners have been languishing in different jails including
Cox's Bazar, Chittagang, Bandarban and Comilla jails etc.
Some are even in detention for years after serving the
jail terms. According to press reports, the Myanmar authorities,
in the first round of exchanges accepted only 172 released
prisoners.
The
fates of 400 remaining Burmese prisoners in Bangladeshi
jails are unknown. Some even are not interested to go
back to Myanmar fearing arrest, detention and persecution
by the authority concerned.
It
is learnt that there are 43 Bangladeshi prisoners in different
jails in Myanmar. Out of them 20 are already handed over.
Among them, 16 were fishermen who were arrested by Nasaka
on 4 April 2005 and four were woodcutters.
On
12 March 2005, Myanmar and Bangladeshi authorities have
agreed to exchange each other's prisoners. However, the
Myanmar authorities continually postponed the date of
exchange due to their doubt regarding the number of Myanmarese
prisoners in Bangladesh. It is learnt that the Myanmar
authorities used to interrogate Myanmarese prisoners released
from Bangladeshi jails when they arrive back at their
homeland, Narinjara News quoted a teacher from Maungdaw
as saying. So, the fate of the handed over Myanmareses,
may be few are totally at risk of being persecuted.
Considering
the human rights record of Myanmar which is ruled by the
military dictators over the years and where there is presence
of gross human rights violations, the authorities in Bangladesh
should be more cautious and responsible for the sake of
human rights. There should a system of screening to verify
those who really fear persecution in Myanmar and really
are in need of international protection. Bangladesh government
should take the assistance of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The national
human rights organizations should also come forward in
this regard. Unfortunately, generally these organizations
are not interested to the plight of the unfortunate Myanmarese
including the Rohingyas who fled the country due to gross
discrimination against them and with a well-founded fear
of persecution. According to official figure, the number
of the remain Rohingya refugees are around 21,000. However,
more than 200,000 of them have been staying in Bangladesh
illegally and with out any status as estimated.
The
author is human rights advocate.
