How Violence Being Triggered Against Minority Rohingya In Rathedaung
RB News
August 5, 2017
RATHEDAUNG: At around 4:00pm on July 11, the Border Guard Police
(BGP) from the ‘Zaydi Pyin’ camp arbitrarily arrested one Rohingya youth named ‘Mohammed
Noor (son of) Fokir Ahmed from the village and inhumanely tortured him at night in detention. He
was transferred to the ‘Nyaung Chaung’ BGP Regional Command detention the next
day, where they (the BGP) continued to brutally torture him for two more days.
On July 14, he was transferred back to the ‘Zaydi Pyin’
BGP Camp to prosecute him under the section ‘17/1 –Unlawful Association Act’ as
the ‘Zaydi Pyin’ region falls under ‘Sittwe (Akyab) District Jurisdiction.
At around 3:00am on July 13, the BGP along with the
Rakhine extremists conducted raids on the village of ‘Firing Daung’ officially
called ‘Chaung Rwa’ and most of the men fled homes in fear of the arrests. 8
youths asleep got arrested and taken to the ‘Zaydi Pyin’ BGP detention.
They too were brutally tortured and 5 of them were
however released later. And the remaining three youths along with the one
arrested from ‘Zaydi Pyin’ on July 11 were all charged under the Section 17/1
and are being prosecuted in completely one-sided trials.
Along the way, the authorities have issued arbitrary arrest
warrants against more than 35 people especially targeting youths and educated ones
now on the run to escape arrests; and hence, been systematically escalating
tensions in Rathedaung region.
___________
On July 27, two Thak (Chakma) men and one Rakhine youth
from the Rakhine hamlet of ‘Chaung Rwa (Firin Daung)’ went into the nearby ‘Mayu’
Mountain in search of Snails and vegetables. The two Thaks returned home, while
the Rakhine youth named ‘Than Htay’ didn’t.
In the name of searching for the missing Rakhine
youth, hundreds of Rakhine men armed with spears, swords and machetes from all
over Rathedaung, Sittwe (Akyab) and Punna Gyun Townships amassed in Rathedaung
on July 28. In the process, the Rakhine extremist crowd attacked nearby
Rohingya villages.
The BGP and the Military searched for the missing man
for two days but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, on July 30, the armed
forces came up with an absurd claim that they found camps and weapons such as
swords and spears used by the terrorists (referring to the Rohingya rebels
operating in Maungdaw) in the mountain, while searching for the missing person.
Under this pretext, the Myanmar armed forces along with the Rakhine extremists
armed with spears and swords attacked the ‘Pan Gaing (Sou Ferang)’ IDP (internally
displaced people) camp at the village of ‘Attet Nan Yar,’ which is located
nearby the mountain range.
They began to beat children, harass women and arrested
one man at the IDP camp. At 4:00pm of the day again, when the BGP and the
Rakhine extremists launched raids on the IDP camps again, the people resisted
them leading to a chaotic situation. The military interfered and the BGP and
the Rakhine extremists retreated.
__________
Earlier on July 29 night, the Rakhine extremists
killed three Rohingya farmers, a father and his two sons, at a mountain base
nearby the hamlet of ‘Nilaambor’ of ‘Attet Nan Yar’ village. Their bodies were
thrown away and found nearby the ‘Zaydi Pyin’ river-end on July 31 morning.
[Read the full report: HERE]
The Border Guard Police (BGP) took the pictures of the
dead bodies in the afternoon and pushed its propaganda through the Official Facebook
Page of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s State Counsellor Information Committee. The BGP
returned dead bodies to their relatives having forced them (the relatives) to
sign on blank papers.
Since August 1, the state-backed Rakhine extremists,
having decided over a meeting held earlier, have begun to blockade the Rohingya
people at the village of ‘Zaydi Pyin’ totally cutting their access to the outer
world.
On August 4, the Myanmar armed forces along with the
Rakhine extremists conducted raids on the village of ‘Auk Nan Yar (Razar Bil).
During a series of rampant shooting on the Rohingya villagers as the people tried to resist, five people were
severely injured and four other people were arrested in the raid. [Read the
report:
HERE] But the Myanmar state-controlled media have, as usual, twisted the truth and told the world that the Rohingya villagers attacked the Myanmar police. UNFORTUNATELY, some reputed international media have only amplified the Myanmar state officials' quotes without bothering to find out the truths.
[Account narrated by a local man, an eyewitness to the most of
the incidences; Reported by MT Rafique; Edited by M.S. Anwar]
