Accord Will Allow Refugees' Return to Bangladesh
India and Bangladesh have agreed on the repatriation of more than 50,000 refugees of the Chakma tribe of Bangladesh who fled military pressure and went to northeastern India more than five years ago.
Salman Khurshid, India's Minister of State for External Affairs, said that the return of the Chakmas could begin in mid-June from the remote state of Tripura, where the refugees have lived in three camps since 1988.
Leaders of the refugees told the Indian and Bangladeshi officials that they wanted several assurances from Dhaka before they would return. These included an end to reported assaults on the indigenous people, judicial investigations of reported killings of local villagers by security people and establishment of civilian rule.
The India-Bangladesh agreement followed talks in New Delhi and in Tripura between Mr. Khurshid and a Bangladesh team led by Communications Minister Oli Ahmed. In Tripura, the delegations met with representatives of the refugees and visited the three camps.
"They were not hostile to the Bangladeshi delegation; they said they were eager to return home," Mr. Khurshid said in an interview. The official added that India will not, however, force the refugees to return to their original homes in the thickly forested and tropical Chittagong Hill Tracts District of Bangladesh.
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