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| Southeast Asia |
| Myanmar to free 49 Bangladeshi detainees |
| 2007-12-06 |
| DHAKA - Myanmar has agreed to release 49 Bangladeshi fishermen and loggers arrested in border areas between the two countries over recent months, Bangladesh officials said on Wednesday. They are expected to be released and handed over to Bangladesh border forces soon, the officials said. Bangladesh said the fishermen and loggers had been picked up by the Myanmar border force, Nasak, while they were working inside Bangladeshi territory. ‘I see this as a good and friendly gesture ... It shows that patient diplomacy bears fruit,’ Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser to the interim government, said in a statement. Bangladesh and Myanmar share a 320-km (200-mile) border. Relations between the countries are generally good, but there are occasional spats over allegations that fishermen stray out of their territorial waters. |
| Posted by:Steve White |