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.