Report: Tension mounts on Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Oct 7, 2009, 6:50 GMT

   Dhaka - Tension has mounted along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border after Myanmar military authorities resumed the construction of border fences, newspaper reports said Wednesday.

   Bangladesh has reinforced its paramilitary troops along the south-eastern border in the hilly Bandarban district, canceling troopers' leaves, the English-language New Age newspaper reported quoting a top official of the Bangladesh Rifles border force.

   'Troop deployment at the border has been reinforced and all-but-essential leaves of BDR personnel have been cancelled,' chief of the paramilitary force Major General Mohammad Mainul Islam was quoted by the paper as saying.

   He said the BDR troops had been deployed along sensitive areas on the border and other preparations had been made.

   The recent troubles between the two neighbouring countries started in November 2008 when a Myanmar naval ship allegedly intruded into Bangladesh's territorial waters for hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal.

   Bangladesh, which also sent warships into the bay to counter the alleged intrusion at that time, had managed to defuse tension after involving China in negotiations.

   Bangladesh also resumed negotiation with Myanmar to define their maritime borders in 2008, after about three decades of uncertainty, but a series of discussions are yet to make any headway in resolving the issue.

   The tension surged again when Myanmar began erecting barbed-wire fencing along the border with Bangladesh early this year. It was stopped after Dhaka sent a note of protest to Yangon.

   But the Yangon authorities resumed the fencing project again recently and also deployed troop reinforcements on their side of the border, according to Bangladesh intelligence reports.