Burmese Troops Mobilize on Bangladesh Border

New Delhi, Mar 18 :  Tension between Bangladesh and Burma went up another notch on Tuesday as the Burmese junta mobilized army and navy units along the border area, according to Bangladesh media.

The Dhaka-based Daily Star reported that Burma started erecting barbed-wire fences unilaterally along the 200-km border with Bangladesh.

“The neighboring nation is also mobilizing its troops and naval force,” the newspaper said.

It said that Bangladesh’s foreign ministry confirmed that Burma has been increasing its forces in the border since Burma naval ships “intruded” in the Bay of Bengal in November 2008.

The Daily Star said a number of Chinese-made naval ships are stationed close to the maritime boundary with the neighboring country.

The Burmese junta withdrew an oil and gas-drilling rig from Bangladesh’s maritime boundary that the junta claimed as its territory, the newspaper reported.

“Since then Myanmar [Burma] has kept its soldiers on high alert alongside the Bangladesh border while Bangladesh also had its troops on alert for some time,” the newspaper said.

The New Age newspaper also reported on Tuesday that some 200 troops from Burma’s border force had been stationed to work on the construction of fences on the border.

According to Bangladesh’s home secretary, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, a new contingent of Burmese troops had been mobilized across the Naaf River.

Burma and Bangladesh have held meetings to discuss the disputed area since 1974, but the talks were put on hold for more than two decades and only resumed in January in 2008. A meeting in Dhaka in November was the fourth round of talks following recent tension in the Bay of Bengal involving maritime vessels from both countries.

In October, Burma sent navy ships into the area and permitted a South Korean company to explore for nature gas in the disputed area, prompting Bangladesh to position naval ships in the area.

Since early this year, high ranking generals of the Burmese junta, including Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein and key ministers, have traveled to Arakan State, near the border.

Recently the Burmese junta had been criticized over so-called Rohingya “boat people” who claim to originate from Maungdaw and Buthidaung, an area near the Bangladesh-Burma border.

However, the Burmese Foreign Minister rejected the term Rohingya, labeling them “Bengali” at the 14th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in February in Cha-am, Thailand.

According to the Dhaka-based Narinjara, Burma has been preparing to build a barbed-wire fence on its border with Bangladesh to prevent human trafficking.