Myanmar tells Bangladesh to stop aiding Rohingya Muslims in ‘No Man’s land’

Rohingya refugees collecting aid supplies in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Myanmar officials want Bangladesh to cut-off aid support to Rohingya refugees residing at the Zero line ( Reuters)

NAIROBI—Myanmar officials have told Bangladesh to cut-off any life saving aid to Rohingya Muslims living in the undeveloped strip of unclaimed land between the neighboring countries, known as the Zero Line

In a meeting between border authorities on Tuesday both Myanmarese and Bangladeshi officials met to discuss the repatriation process of Rohingya refugees that have fled to Bangladesh in recent months.

It was noted that more than 6,500 Rohingya are staying at the Zero Line.

Deputy Commissioner of the General Administration Department in Rakhine State, U Ye Htut, said that no person should be staying in the area as it was “No Man’s Land.”

“The matters of international non-government agencies (INGOs) providing aid and entering the restricted area of Zero Line are not in accordance with the law and thus they are being informed about it,” he said, as reported by Myanmarese state newspaper.

During an interval in the meeting, both the 11-member Bangladeshi delegation and the 14-member Myanmarese delegation visited the Zero Line where they met with Rohingya Muslims living in the area.

“While the aid agencies had not crossed the dividing river to provide support, they were indirectly supplying relief to people in the buffer zone,” U Ye Htut noted, telling Bangladesh’s border guard police that they must prevent this from happening.

According to the state media Myanmarese officials have met with the community repeatedly to discuss their return to Myanmar, but they were “not cooperating.”

Deputy Commissioner U Ye Htut called their actions “politically motivated,” accusing them of “spreading fake news” and pushing to be detained by security forces in order to “create international pressure.”

Rohingya community leader Dil Mohammad however disputed these sentiments, saying Rohingya would like to return home but they need a guarantee of their safety.

“Our no-man’s land camp demands are that there must be a safe return, we need security and all basic rights, including citizenship,” he told Reuters.

According to Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star, Dil also alleged that Myanmar’s border guard police often come near the barbed-wire fences, fire blank shots and even throw bricks and empty liquor bottles at the Rohingya, instilling in them a greater sense of fear.

Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since August, when attacks on security posts by insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said may amount to genocide.

Myanmar government denied that the killings of the Rohingya in the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din earlier this month amounted to ethnic cleansing.