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15 Burmese

drown in BD

COX'S BAZAR, (BD): Fifteen Burmese Muslims drowned when a boat overturned and sank on the Bangladeshi side of the Naaf river on Saturday, police said.

Thirty other people were rescued.

The Burmese Muslims, known as Rohingyas, were apparently trying to join thousands of others living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, police said.

They said some 250,000 Rohingyas fled their homes in early 1992 to escape alleged persecution in Burma's Muslim-majority state of Arakan, bordering Bangladesh.

Repatriation began in September 1992 after an agreement between Bangladesh and Burma but more than 50,000 Rohingyas are still in refugee camps.-Reuter