Bangladesh on alert, awaits talks with Myanmar

Bangladesh on alert, awaits talks with Myanmar

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters): Bangladesh said on Sunday
its troops were ready to respond quickly if Myanmar soldiers
opened fire across the countries' border or if Myanmar resumes
construction of a dam on the Naf border river.

"We are ready for a prompt and appropriate response if they
pull the trigger again or resume construction of the dam." said
Colonel Shawkat Ali, a commanding officer of the Bangladesh
Rifles (BDR) border force.

Tension along the border in southeast Bangladesh has been high
for the past two weeks since Myanmar began building a dam, or
embankment, on the Naf river at Totardia to divert water for
irrigation and shrimp farming.

Bangladesh says the structure will cause soil erosion and
flooding on the Bangladesh side and has demanded that it be
stopped.

The two sides exchanged fire across the Naf on Jan. 8 but
there were no casualties. Myanmar then suspended construction of
the dam but deployed some 35,000 troops along its 320 km border
with Bangladesh, Bangladesh military officers say.

The Naf forms part of the border.

Ali said Bangladesh had deployed more than 10,000 paramilitary
troops to face any attack from Myanmar.

Witnesses said BDR troops have taken up position in fortified
positions and bunkers.
"We are maintaining a round-the-clock alert," Ali told reporters.
"We are ready to defend our interests along the frontier."

Bangladesh is still awaiting a response from Myanmar to a call
for a high-level meeting to resolve the dispute, he said.

Usually only a few hundred troops are stationed on either side
of the Naf. Both countries have restricted the movement of
civilians near the frontier.

The two countries fought a brief battle in 1967 over a similar
attempt by military-ruled Myanmar to build a dam in the Naf in
violation of an international convention.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's Chittagong port was paralyzed on
Sunday at the start of a 48-hour strike called by the Muslim
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party to protest against a
sweeping security law.

The Jamaat and other opposition parties say the law is used
against the political opponents of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Schools, offices, factories and the Chittagong Stock Exchange
were all shut because of the strike on Sunday, a working day in
Muslim Bangladesh.

There was no road transport except for rickshaws while trains
and flights were running but with only a few passengers,
Chittagong officials said.

"All port activity including the handling and delivery of
cargo has been stopped," said port traffic director, Mohsin
Sarker.

More than 50 ships were stranded at berths and in the port's
outer anchorage, he said.

Chittagong port employs some 20,000 workers and handles 80
percent of Bangladesh's exports and imports.

Jamaat said the strike, which began at 6 a.m. (7 a.am. Jakarta
time), was aimed at pressuring the government to scrap the
security law and release opposition leaders and activists
detained under it.

The government said the law, adopted by parliament last year,
was intended to curb crime. It allows police to arrest people for
threatening people's safety, damaging property and obstructing
vehicles, and to detain them indefinitely before laying charges.

Leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party,
Begum Khaleda Zia, in a Saturday meeting with diplomats and aid
donors, described the law as a "black law".

She said it must be repealed before the next parliamentary
elections, due after July 13 this year, to ensure a free and fair
vote.