And - Bangladesh plans to move Rohingya to deserted island in Bay of Bengal
It's hard to imagine land in Bangladesh where no-one lives, especially land that is probably quite fertile. There must obviously be a reason no-one lives there, but the government has a plan, apparently.
Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News
Police arrest a group of people for allegedly taking and selling drugs during an anti-narcotics operation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this week. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina authorized the anti-drug campaign that human rights activists have compared to the aggressive drug war launched by Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. (Monirul Alam/EPA-EFE)
The sweeps, led by the police Rapid Action Battalion — normally an anti-terrorism squad — have seized 1.7 million methamphetamine pills and 23 kilograms of heroin to date, according to the country's home ministry.
Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) soldiers stand guard during a raid on suspected drug dealers at Mohammadpur Geneva Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Saturday. (Mehedi Hasan/Associated Press)
But human rights groups are expressing concern over the large number of suspected dealers and users who are dying in what police say are almost daily gun battles.
Today, the Bangladesh Daily Star reported five more killings by police overnight. In most of the cases, police reported that "rival groups" of drug dealers were attacking each other, drawing officers to the area.
"Sensing the presence of police, drug dealers opened fire on law enforcers," says one official account.
And a raid of a slum in the capital of Dhaka, involving 500 officers and several police dogs, resulted in the arrest of 28 suspects and the seizure of three kilograms of cannabis, along with smaller amounts of methamphetamine, heroin and Demerol.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police load a group of people into vans after their arrest for allegedly taking and selling drugs on Monday. (Monirul Alam/EPA-EFE)
Many of the killings have occurred in areas close to the border with Myanmar —the source of much of South East Asia's illicit drugs. Heroin, opium, and pot are all produced in its hard-to-reach outlying states, often under the watchful eye of rebel groups or the military.
But meth — or yaba as it is known locally — has become Myanmar's biggest export. In 2015, police in Bangladesh seized 50 million pills. The following year their haul was 98 million.
Still, it hardly makes a dent. Authorities estimate that 300 million pills crossed the border last year.
Bangladesh border guards search a fishing boat during their patrol along the Naf River in Teknaf between Myanmar and Bangladesh, in April. Meth is spilling into Bangladesh at record rates. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
And the trade isn't just a problem in Bangladesh. Last week, customs officials in Malaysia discovered nearly 1.2 tonnes of crystal meth disguised as tea in a container at Kuala Lumpur's port. The shipment, valued at $20 million US, had originated in Myanmar.
Authorities in Bangladesh have frequently blamed the influx of Rohingya for both the increased availability of meth and its soaring use. They cite the drug problem as a justification for a controversial plan to establish a new refugee camp on an isolated island in Bay of Bengal. (See below)
Bangladesh border guards examine small bags of the drug yaba (methamphetamine) recovered from a passenger bus at a checkpoint along the Teknaf-Cox's Bazar highway in Teknaf in April. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
However, the new drug war seems to have more to do with the upcoming elections and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's bid for another term.
"The government's development work in all sectors is being overshadowed by the failure to curb the curse of drugs from the country," a high-ranking member of the ruling Awami League told the Dhaka Tribune last week.
Resettling refugees
Bangladesh is not expecting much help from foreign donors as it forges ahead with plans to relocate 100,000 Rohingya refugees to an uninhabited island, an undertaking that does not yet have a timeline, a state minister said in an interview.
A Rohingya refugee boy carries water in the Kutupalong refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
The minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed Shahriar Alam, told Reuters on Friday that Bangladesh was paying the entire roughly $280 million to build homes and fortify the muddy island in the Bay of Bengal from cyclones, and that it was mulling a formal request for international funds.
No refugees who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar would be moved there against their will, he added.
FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees build shelter with bamboo at the Jamtoli camp in the morning in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed the border from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August, and are in cramped camps at Cox’s Bazar. Because a repatriation deal between the neighboring countries has been delayed, Bangladesh aims to prepare new homes on the nearby island, called Bhasan Char, before the onset of seasonal monsoon rains that could come in late April.
“We don’t have a timeline because it’s a lot of money,” Alam said at Bangladesh’s United Nations office in New York. “We are so far building it with our own finances. I am not very hopeful about how much funds the international community will be able to raise.”
The latest wave of refugees joined about 300,000 Rohingya already in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest and most crowded countries, who fled previous bouts of violence. A U.N. coordination branch has separately requested $951 million for immediate relief.
He brushed off as “misunderstandings” concerns raised by humanitarian groups such as Amnesty International that the silt island was vulnerable to flooding. “Some people raised concerns about Bhasan Char (but) there is absolutely no reason to be concerned because we are building an embankment,” he said.
Bangladesh sees the island as a temporary arrangement for refugees but has given conflicting signals on how much freedom they would have to leave once there.
Alam said Bangladesh shared the building designs with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which suggested “we engage people, countries and organizations to come help and contribute” to the cost. “We are yet to do it,” the minister said. “We haven’t decided on that.”
Bhasan Island, Bangladesh
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