DHAKA — A Myanmar regime naval ship on Thursday evacuated 330 defeated troops and civilians who fled fighting in Rakhine State with the Arakan Army.
They left from a naval jetty in Cox’s Bazar where their identities were verified and they boarded a Bangladeshi ship towards the Chindwin, which was anchored at sea. They are due to be taken to the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, according to Bangladeshi officials.
The security checks were conducted with five junta staff, led by Police Colonel Myo Thura Naung.
Some troops were in sandals or bare feet and injured soldiers were carried by their fellows. The authorities cordoned off a large area from the public. The Bangladeshi naval vessel Prottay escorted the Chindwin to Myanmar’s waters.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) chief Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui told the media that all stakeholders worked to successfully repatriate the personnel.
The authorities said no more troops would be allowed to cross the border from Rakhine State.
Aung Kyaw Moe, the regime’s ambassador to Bangladesh, at the same press conference, thanked the Bangladeshi authorities for the evacuation and providing medical treatment to injured soldiers. He praised the “special relations” between the two border forces.
The BGB said the group included 302 border guards, four relatives including a boy, two regime soldiers, 18 immigration staff and four other civilians.
Siddiqui said weapons seized by the Bangladeshi authorities would be handed back in a separate process.
Bangkok-based rights group Fortify Right this month called on Bangladesh to investigate the junta personnel for possible involvement in atrocities in Myanmar and coordinate with the International Criminal Court’s ongoing investigation into crimes against the Rohingya.
But Bangladeshi foreign minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters in Dhaka on Wednesday that repatriation of the troops was the prime objective.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Tuesday that Bangladesh had no list of Myanmar’s personnel involved in genocide in Rakhine State.
The opposition Amar Bangladesh Party said on Monday that handing back the regime’s personnel without any interrogation over the Rohingya genocide was “irrational”.
The Geneva Convention forbids the return of prisoners of war while a conflict continues, the party said.
The AB Party said it was an opportunity to negotiate with the junta over the repatriation of 1.3 million Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh.
The BGB and Coast Guard have been patrolling the River Naf, which marks the border, since Monday. Civilian vessels have been banned from the river between Teknaf and the island of St Martin’s since February 10.
