From a Muslim Fundamentalist Engineer

The Rohingyas are a distinct ethnic group from Myanmar's Rakhine
State. The authorities in Yangon have refused to recognise them as
citizens and they have been persecuted for their cultural difference
and practice of Islam.

For many, life in Myanmar has become so difficult that they
have fled across the border to Bangladesh. Over the past year 12,000
Rohingyas have been caught crossing the border illegally.

Now they are being forced to build a fence to prevent such escapes.  

"The Myanmar army have forced all of the men living in the villages
on the border to work on the fence," a worker involved in the
construction says. "Most of them are Rohingyas. If we don't do as they
say they beat us and our families."

So far they have fenced off 70km of border in what experts believe
is an attempt by Yangon to increase control of the lucrative smuggling
trade that flourishes in the area.  

"Illegal trade between Myanmar and Bangladesh has formerly been in
favour of Bangladesh, but this will change now,"explains
Professor Imtiaz Ahmed, from Dhaka University. "The country that
controls the barriers between borders can also assert greater control
over the illegal trade."

Disputed border 

Bangladesh and Myanmar have never agreed on their borders, and an
ongoing dispute over where their maritime frontiers lie has
seen tension rise along the Naf river. 

The contested maritime border involves a patch of sea believed to
contain valuable oil and gas. Control of these waters could make either
country very rich, and experts say that diplomatic relations between
the two countries has deteriorated as a result of the dispute.

"The tension was heightened last November when the Myanmar Navy came
in to put a rig in what Bangladesh claims, rightly, to be our own
territorial water," says Retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, from
the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies.

"Eventually
the Bangladeshi diplomatic efforts diffused the situation, and the
Myanmar navy rig went back, but the Myanmar government has consistently
told Bangladesh that this is their water, and that they will come back.
When that happens, perhaps the Myanmar government wants to put a dual
pressure on Bangladesh, not only from the sea but also from the land
border."

That process may have already started. Myanmar has deployed 50,000
men to the border with Bangladesh, and in the past month alone, Dhaka
has responded by sending an additional 3000 troops to the area in a
manoeuvre codenamed "Operation Fortress."

Officially, the Bangladeshi government denies there is tension along
the border. The troops say they are there to monitor and stop the
illegal trafficking of goods and people. 

But the soldiers know that relations between the two countries are strained.     

"We have a border through which we can observe the other side of the
river. Our troops morale is very high, under any circumstances we are
ready to protect the integrity and sovereignty of our country,"
says Lieutenant Colonel Mozammel, commanding officer of Border Guards
Bangladesh in Teknaf.

Unregistered refugees

Many Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh

Malika is one of those who crossed the Naf river illegally. Her feet
are swollen from the three-day walk to escape Yangon's soldiers.

She says she suffered horrific abuse there and had no choice but to leave.

"I couldn't stay there, the soldiers raped me over and over again," she says. "The Myanmar army do not consider us as humans." 

But once in Bangladesh, the refugees face new problems.
Of more than 400,000 Rohingyas believed to have slipped across the
border into Bangladesh, just 26,000 have been offically recognised as
refugees by the Bangladeshi government and the United Nations. 

The authorities refuse to feed and house the rest.

Even the
handful of NGOs working here are not allowed to provide food or medical
aid or education facilities to unregistered Rohingyas because
the government fears that this would spark tensions between poor local
villagers and the new arrivals.

Fadlullah Wilmot, the director
of Muslim Aid in Bangladesh, explains: "More than 44 per cent of the
population in this area are ultra poor, that means that their daily
income only provides their basic food needs. The literacy rate is about
10 per cent. The wage rate is low, so of course there are tensions."

In limbo

In 1992, the Bangladeshi government, under the supervision of UNHCR,
organised the forced repatration of 250,000 Rohingyas on the basis that
the refugees would be given citizenship by the Myanmar authorities.
That promise was never kept.

Professor Ahmad believes the refugees are trapped between a rock and a hard place.

"Myanmar's position is they do not recognise them as citizens, they
are stateless within Myanmar, and they are also stateless when they
come to Bangladesh," he says.

Trapped in limbo between two countries that don't want them, the
Rohingyas have become a bargaining chip for both Bangladesh and Myanmar
as they try to settle their border dispute.

In Bangladesh's refugee camps, frustration and anger are rife amongst the beleagured minority. 

"We cannot work. Our children can't go to school. Our wives aren't
allowed to see doctors," one man says. "We cannot receive any food aid.
No one wants us. This is humiliating, we have no arms, but we are ready
to fight and to blow ourselves up. People need to know that we exist."