Myanmar Police And Extremists Launch An Attack Like Duchiradan In Buthidaung

RB News 

April 30, 2014

Buthidaung, Arakan – The situation of Aley Chaung village in Buthidaung Township of Arakan State is similar to Duchiradan where the mass killing took place in January 2014. Although the result of the attack wasn’t the same the attack was the same as Duchiradan, according to locals.

On April 28th in the early morning two Rohingya siblings from La Tha hamlet of Aley Chaung village in Buthidaung Township were waiting for a motorbike taxi to go to Buthidaung downtown. While they were waiting, a motorbike came from the southern side of their hamlet. They tried to stop the motorbike by shouting to get on. Unfortunately the motorbike owner is a Rakhine and was very angry for having to stop his motorbike. The Rohingya siblings were harshly beaten by him. 

After the incident the Rakhine man went to Buthidaung Myoma police station and misinformed that the Kalar (derogatory term for Muslims in Myanmar by Burmese) were trying to kill Rakhine on the road. As the police in Buthidaung are always looking for an opportunity to torture the Rohingyas, this false information became a good reason to raid Rohingya hosues. About 40 police from Buthidaung police station went to Aley Chaung and raided many Rohingya houses. The police beat many innocent Rohingyas and arrested 21 People including breast-feeding mothers, women, men and the Village Administrator Malek Hussein. 

According to locals, the police are torturing the Rohingya arrestees in various means including raping the women. 

On April 29th at midnight the police from Buthidaung police station collaborated with local Rakhine extremists and raided many houses. They went to every house in abovementioned hamlet. They tortured the people, looted the properties and assaulted the women. As a result, many Rohingyas fled from their houses to keep themselves from harm. Two villagers seriously wounded and they are believed to soon die. One of victim is just 13 years old. 

What happened in Aley Chaung was as same as Duchiradan incident. The local Rohingyas criticized that it is happening because they denied them when the Deputy Minister for Ministry of Immigration tried to convince them to accept leaving ethnicity column as blank. 

Police forces in Arakan are mostly Rakhines and they never take any action against killing Rohingyas by Rakhine extremists. They do however take serious action against Rohingyas even if they use a wrong word with a Rakhine. 

Peace and tranquility has been interrupted in the region because the authorities are mostly Rakhines and they always are thinking how to torture and oppress the Rohingya. So the life of Rohingyas is unsecured all the time.