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| India-Pakistan |
| Refugees flee ethnic violence in Assam |
| 2012-07-27 |
| BIJNI, India: Trucks loaded with women, children, mattresses and bags of rice rolled into a refugee camp in IndiaÂ’s northeastern Assam state yesterday as security forces tried to stamp out the worst communal violence in a decade with shoot-on-sight orders. The death toll from clashes between Bodo tribespeople and Muslim settlers rose to 40 overnight, police said, after four more bodies were found. Police also opened fire on groups armed with sticks and spears for violating a curfew. Fearing for their lives, tens of thousands of Muslims and Bodos have fled their homes in remote hamlets along the border with Bhutan, and sought shelter in camps in larger towns. Roving armed bands have set ablaze hundreds of tin-roofed homes, many made of hay and clay, in the nearly week-long orgy of violence. Local officials estimate 150,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. The relief camp in a school in the town of Bijni is just one of nearly 60 hastily set up to cope with the flood of refugees, officials said. Many of the camps lack food, water and security. Angry refugees surrounded a group of state lawmakers visiting the Bijni camp on Wednesday and demanded they take action. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in parliamentÂ’s upper house, may fly to the area on Saturday, his office said. Ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, IndiaÂ’s northeast is home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal groups and has been racked by separatist revolts since IndiaÂ’s independence from Britain in 1947. In recent years, Hindu and Christian tribes have vented strong anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment against settlers from mostly Muslim Bangladesh, which neighbors Assam. The latest violence erupted days after floods killed more than 100 people and left at least 400,000 homeless in Assam. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Aswan : Egypt : Meditiate : Non- Aligned Movement & Agha Khan : The Arab League : Red Crescent Society : Int.l Red Cross 2 |
| Posted by: 7334 2012-07-27 19:23 |