DHAKA – At least 28 more defeated Myanmar junta troops have fled across the border to Bangladesh amid ongoing conflict with the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) in northern Rakhine State, Bangladesh officials said on Thursday.
The officials said the troops were disarmed and given safe shelter but declined to reveal which unit or battalion they belonged to.
The junta personnel escaped a rural conflict zone by boat before being picked up by the Bangladesh Coast Guard and handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh on Tuesday.
This latest influx came just days after at least 134 Myanmar security personnel and their families who fled fighting with the AA were repatriated from Bangladesh on Sunday.
Bangladeshi rights activist and Rohingya researcher Mohammad Nur Khan on Thursday demanded transparency in the sheltering and repatriation of junta forces, which is being funded by Bangladesh taxpayers.
“We must know their identities and whether they had roles in persecuting the Rohingya over the years,’ he said, referring to the campaign of ethnic cleansing waged by the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine.
“Bangladeshi people should also be told which country’s weapons they are using in the conflict against Rohingya or other ethnicities,” he added.
“Instead, Bangladeshi authorities have remained tight-lipped about the fleeing troops.”
More than 752 fleeing junta personnel and their families have been repatriated since mid-February after the AA launched offensives near Rakhine’s international border, according to Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry.
Bangladeshi officials told The Irrawaddy that the troops and family members were handed back after the junta promised that none would face intimidation or legal charges.
Conducted despite the absence of a bilateral extradition treaty, the repatriation process is being led by the Foreign Ministry’s top official on Myanmar, Miah Md Mainul Kabir.
