06-26-2007, 07:28 PM
Posting in full as this article contains the usual drivel of blaming everything on India. The last paragraph is simply hilarious.
<b>'Before, it was like being part of one country'</b>
Associated Press
Posted online: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 1316 hours IST
Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 1455 hours IST
Sujatpur, Bangladesh, June 26: Everyone knew it was out there somewhere, an invisible line that cut through a cow pasture and, at least in theory, divided one nation from another. But no one saw it as a border.
It was just a lumpy field of grass, uneven from the hooves of generations of cattle, and villagers crossed back and forth without even thinking about it.
Today, no one can ignore the line.
In a construction project that will eventually reach across 3,300 kilometres, hundreds of rivers and long stretches of forests and fields, India has been quietly sealing itself off from Bangladesh, its much poorer neighbour. Sections totaling about 2,500 kilometres have been built in the past seven years.
In Sujatpur, a poor farming village, the frontier is now defined by two rows of 3-metre-high barbed wire barriers, the posts studded with ugly spikes the size of a toddler's fingers. A smaller fence, and miles of barbed wire coils, fill the space in between. The expanse of steel, set into concrete, spills off toward the horizon in both directions.
"Before, it was like we were one country," said Mohammed Iqbal, a Bangladeshi farmer walking near the border on a windy afternoon.
"I used to go over there just to pass the time."
As he spoke, a cow wandered past, brass bells jangling around its neck. "But now that's over," he said.
In the United States, the decision to fence 1,100 kilometres of the Mexican border triggered months of political debate ranging across issues from immigration reform to the environmental impact. When Israel announced it would build a 680-kilometre barrier around the West Bank, an international outcry erupted.
But there has been barely a ripple over India's far larger project, launched in earnest in 2000 amid growing fears in New Delhi about illegal immigration and cross-border terrorism.
The Bangladesh government made a few complaints, the fence felt like an insult, as if their country was a plague that needed to be quarantined but soon gave up.
India has become enamoured with fences in recent years.
<b>First it started closing off much of its border with Pakistan, trying to stop incursions by Muslim extremists. Then it turned to its other Muslim neighbor, Bangladesh, and has been building the fence intermittently ever since. </b>
There's no clear completion date for the USD 1.2 billion project, which when finished will nearly encircle Bangladesh, leaving open only its seacoast and its border of about 320 kilometres with Myanmar.
India believes some Indian militant groups are based in Bangladesh, a charge the Bangladeshi government denies.
But the larger fear in New Delhi is that illegal immigrants will flood out of Bangladesh, one of the world's most crowded countries.
Its 150 million people, about half the US population, jam an area the size of Wisconsin, and the low-lying land is prone to devastating floods and typhoons. Scientists also warn that rising sea levels from global warming could force millions of Bangladeshis from their homes.
<b>India already has millions of its own citizens living in desperate poverty, despite an economy growing at more than 8 per cent annually. Its population is approaching 1.2 billion and what little is left of its once-vast wilderness is being chewed up rapidly. </b>
<b>'Before, it was like being part of one country'</b>
Associated Press
Posted online: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 1316 hours IST
Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 1455 hours IST
Sujatpur, Bangladesh, June 26: Everyone knew it was out there somewhere, an invisible line that cut through a cow pasture and, at least in theory, divided one nation from another. But no one saw it as a border.
It was just a lumpy field of grass, uneven from the hooves of generations of cattle, and villagers crossed back and forth without even thinking about it.
Today, no one can ignore the line.
In a construction project that will eventually reach across 3,300 kilometres, hundreds of rivers and long stretches of forests and fields, India has been quietly sealing itself off from Bangladesh, its much poorer neighbour. Sections totaling about 2,500 kilometres have been built in the past seven years.
In Sujatpur, a poor farming village, the frontier is now defined by two rows of 3-metre-high barbed wire barriers, the posts studded with ugly spikes the size of a toddler's fingers. A smaller fence, and miles of barbed wire coils, fill the space in between. The expanse of steel, set into concrete, spills off toward the horizon in both directions.
"Before, it was like we were one country," said Mohammed Iqbal, a Bangladeshi farmer walking near the border on a windy afternoon.
"I used to go over there just to pass the time."
As he spoke, a cow wandered past, brass bells jangling around its neck. "But now that's over," he said.
In the United States, the decision to fence 1,100 kilometres of the Mexican border triggered months of political debate ranging across issues from immigration reform to the environmental impact. When Israel announced it would build a 680-kilometre barrier around the West Bank, an international outcry erupted.
But there has been barely a ripple over India's far larger project, launched in earnest in 2000 amid growing fears in New Delhi about illegal immigration and cross-border terrorism.
The Bangladesh government made a few complaints, the fence felt like an insult, as if their country was a plague that needed to be quarantined but soon gave up.
India has become enamoured with fences in recent years.
<b>First it started closing off much of its border with Pakistan, trying to stop incursions by Muslim extremists. Then it turned to its other Muslim neighbor, Bangladesh, and has been building the fence intermittently ever since. </b>
There's no clear completion date for the USD 1.2 billion project, which when finished will nearly encircle Bangladesh, leaving open only its seacoast and its border of about 320 kilometres with Myanmar.
India believes some Indian militant groups are based in Bangladesh, a charge the Bangladeshi government denies.
But the larger fear in New Delhi is that illegal immigrants will flood out of Bangladesh, one of the world's most crowded countries.
Its 150 million people, about half the US population, jam an area the size of Wisconsin, and the low-lying land is prone to devastating floods and typhoons. Scientists also warn that rising sea levels from global warming could force millions of Bangladeshis from their homes.
<b>India already has millions of its own citizens living in desperate poverty, despite an economy growing at more than 8 per cent annually. Its population is approaching 1.2 billion and what little is left of its once-vast wilderness is being chewed up rapidly. </b>