ALONG the Bangladesh-Myanmar border—From their home, a tent hastily erected in a grassy field, the young Muslim Rohingya couple can see the village they left behind last year, fleeing attacks by Buddhist mobs and Myanmar security forces. They arrived in a “no man’s land”—one of the small, ill-defined areas that…
In Photo: Rohingya Muslims living in “no man’s land” collect water donated by Bangladesh Red Crescent members, near Cox’s Bazar’s Tombru area, on September 4, 2017. Some 6,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, who fled attacks in Myanmar last year, live at the edges of the border with Bangladesh.
“My ancestors’ graves are there,” said Abdul Naser, gesturing toward his village, less than 100 meters away. “Sometimes, I walk close to the barbed wire fence and touch my land, and I cry in the dark.” Shifting rivers may have washed away some border markers, he says, and fences may not have been erected everywhere. But he insists the 6,000, or so Rohingya who think they live between the two countries are actually living inside Myanmar.
While Myanmar insists all the hazy territory is their land, its security forces—as well as Bangladesh security forces—are also very careful to avoid entering places seen as a no man’s land, presumably fearing accidental clashes and diplomatic trouble. They are derided as “Bengalis,” and many in Myanmar believe they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, most live in poverty in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, next to Bangladesh. The most recent problems began in August, when Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on Myanmar security posts.
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