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May
23, 2000
Sylhet,
May 22 (UNB) – In response to a Bangladesh government’s call to
take back their 79 prisoners who have already completed their jail
terms, the Myanmar government has sent a diplomatic team to
Bangladesh.
The
team that came here Friday is now interviewing each and every Myanmar
nationals in the district jail to verify their nationality.
Sources
said the Myanmar prisoners would be repatriated after the concerned
ministry of that country confirms the records.
The
Myanmar nationals were arrested while fishing in Bangladesh nautical
area in the Bay of Bengal near Cox’s Bazar with a trawler in 1997.
They
were later jailed in Chittagong and completed their prison terms on
April 5, 1998. The Myanmar fishermen were then sent to Sylhet jail on
March 3, 1999.
The
sources said the Bangladesh government had contacted the Myanmar
Foreign Ministry on a number of occasions for the repatriation of
their nationals, but they did not respond positively.
But
this time they came up with a positive response when the Myanmar
prisoners threatened to commit suicide on February 14 this year. They
had also observed hunger strikes in the Chittagong jail several times
demanding their immediate repatriation.
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