(A) Continuation of Extortion by Nasaka upon Rohingya Community
On
3rd October, 2012, a Rohingya, U Farooq (F) U Kasim from Nayr Bil,
Maungdaw North, was invited for a dinner by one of his relatives very
near to his own home. After dinner, when he was having a conversation
with the family of the relative, a group of Nasaka personnel, sent by
Nasaka Sector (5) Commander Win Hlaing, entered the house mentioned
above. The visitor was immediately arrested showing no reason and taken
outside the compound. Eventually, the victim had to give Two Hundred
Thousand Kyats to the Nasaka for release. This is a normal phenomenon
applied by the Nasaka to extort money from Rohingya community.
(B) Arbitrary Accusation on Rohingya
On
7th October, 2012, at 01:00am, Sit Oo Zi, Htun Htun Naing and 8 more
Nasaka personnel from Nasaka Sector (5)-Nga Khu Yah, raided a house
owned by U Noor Mohammed (F) U Zahid Husson from Oo Kyein Kya (Bura
Shiddah Fara), Maungdaw north, in search of mobile. Till 02:30am, they
searched the house ins and outs and even they excavated the house
compound. Finally, they found a cable of MP3 charger. Listening to MP3
and such other entertaining apparatuses are the only way of recreation
for discriminated Rohingyas in Myanmar. Moreover, all sorts of chargers
and cables are officially legal and widely sold in all most every
electronic shop. Awful to hear that, one of the brothers of the raided
house owner was arrested for this legal charger. The arrestee was
identified as: Shorit Ullah (F) U Zahid Hussain. The Nasaka personnel
brought him to Sector (5) Base and the arrestee is still under arrest.
The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats from the
arrestee for release. The family is so poor that they are not in a
position to enable the demand.
Similar cases occurred
in the same village on the same night by the same Nasaka Personnel with
different villagers with fabricated reasons. At around 2:45am, a house
owned by Shofi Ullah (F) ? was raided. The house owner is a fisherman.
During the raid, other two fishermen from nearby were found at his house
sleeping overnight by informing the Village Administrator. Unfortunate
to them was that the Village Administrator did not give them the
official document for the overnight sleeping. When the victims could not
provide the Nasaka the documents for overnight sleeping, they were
arrested and brought to Sector (5) Base. Still the arrestees are under
arrest. The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats
from each miserable arrestee. So far, nobody knows about their fate if
they cannot fulfill the demand.
(C) Even No Burial Right for Rohingya killed by Nasaka
On
5th October, 2012, at 05:00pm, Arman Ullah (F) U Abdu Roshid from Gawdu
Tha Yah, Maungdaw south, was arrested on the way back to his village
from Ka Nyin Tan market, by the Nasaka Camp of Pan Daw Pyin (Nawl Bawn
Nya) bridge near Maungdaw downtown. The arrestee was murdered and the
corpse was thrown in the creek near the camp. The corpse has been
floating in the stream till 7th October, 2012. Although some villagers
have seen the corpse, no one dares to bring and bury the corpse since
the murder case was committed by the Nasaka.
(D) Gold Robbery by Military
On
4th October, 2012, a local car with passengers going from Bagone Nah to
Alel Than Kyaw was robbed by military temporarily camping in Threy Kone
Baung. The car Registered No. is 1-Ka/709 and that of the owner is U
Mustaque from Myo Thu Gyi village. It is a JEEP car and the driver is
Zahid Hussain (F) U Abdu Lawti from Ka Nyin Tan (Myoma), Maungdaw. A
woman Shom Jidah (F) U Mohammed Alom, 20 years, from Bagone Nah was one
of the passengers who was going back to her husband, Zynul (F) U Abdul
Hakim, in Byu Har Gone hamlet, Alel Than Kyaw, Maungdaw south. On the
way, the military made the car stopped at the camp at 3:30pm and
inhumanly tortured the passengers. When the military saw some jewelry
worn by the abovementioned woman, they robbed all the gold. The weight
of the robbed gold was about 1.5 tical, current estimated value in Kyat
is 1.1 million.
(E) Daily Cruelty upon Rohingya
On
5th October, 2012, at 09:00am, a Rohingya, Solimul Kalam (F) U Abul
Kalam from Nyaung Chaung (Kadir Bil), Maungdaw south, who mongers
clothes in Alel Than Kyaw market, was arrested by Sa Ra Pha (Military
Intelligence Department) in Alel Than Kyaw. The arrestee regularly stays
overnight at the house of Abdu Munaf (F) U Shom Shu, a medicine
shopkeeper in Alel Than Kyaw market. The arrestee was released at
11:30am after extorting one hundred and fifty Thousand Kyats via the
agent and informer Abdullah.
Complied by Rohingya Youth
RB News Desk.
Soldiers patrol through a neighborhood that was burnt during recent violence in Sittwe on June 14, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is looking to continue its assistance to the Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar who has been facing widespread threats to their security after violence erupted last summer in the country’s Western state.
1Malaysia Putera Club’s main Humanitarian Mission team, led by President Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, left for Myanmar on Saturday.
The 35-member team, which included volunteers and media personnel, departed from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal here and was sent off by Melaka chief minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.
Speaking before his departure, Abdul Azeez said they were assisted by Prime Minister Najib Razak to gain permission to enter the country based on Malaysia’s close ties with Myanmar.
An estimated 500 tons of food, medicine and other items had been sent ahead by ship earlier followed by 14 volunteers on surveillance mission on September 29.
The team was expected to return on October 11 and the Club’s next mission was scheduled for October 19, to Syria, he added.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian mission included singer Irwan Shah Abdullah, better known as DJ Dave, as the representative of the 1Malaysia Artistes Foundation.
Since mid-June, Bangladesh authorities have admitted to forcing back at least 1,300 Rohingya trying to flee to Bangladesh, though the actual number is likely substantially higher, Human Rights Watch said. Rohingya are escaping killings, looting, and other sectarian violence in Arakan State, as well as abuses by the Burmese authorities, including ethnically motivated attacks and mass arrests.
A United Nations senior official expressed serious concern about reports of human rights violations committed by security forces in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, after clashes between its Buddhist and Muslim communities reportedly killed at least 78 people and displaced thousands in July.
“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a news release.
“Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya [Muslim] community,” she added.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the state, located in the country’s west, was triggered when an ethnic Rakhine woman was raped and murdered on May 28. This was followed by the killing of 10 Muslims by an unidentified mob on June 3.
Pillay called for a prompt, independent investigation, noting that the crisis reflects the long-standing and systemic discrimination against the Rohingya Muslim community, who are not recognized by the Government and remain stateless.
“The government has a responsibility to prevent and punish violent acts, irrespective of which ethnic or religious group is responsible, without discrimination and in accordance with the rule of law,” Pillay said.
She also called on national leaders to speak out against discrimination, the exclusion of minorities and racist attitudes, and in support of equal rights for all in Myanmar. She also stressed that the UN was making an effort to assist and protect all communities in Rakhine state.
“Prejudice and violence against members of ethnic and religious minorities run the risk of dividing the country in its commendable national reconciliation efforts, undermine national solidarity, and upset prospects of peace-building,” Pillay said.
Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it is delivering aid to the more than 30,000 people that were affected by the violence.
“As we speak, additional tents are being airlifted from the Republic of Korea to meet urgent shelter needs on the ground,” a UNHCR spokesperson, Andrej Mahecic, told reporters in Geneva.
early 75,000 people living in temporary camps and shelters following inter-communal conflict in Burma’s Rakhine State in June face deteriorating living conditions, say local aid workers and residents. This file picture taken on June 12, 2012, shows a resident riding her bicycle past burned houses amid ongoing violence in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Burma. As of 25 September, the government estimated some 72,000 from the (mainly Muslim) Rohingya ethnic group and almost 3,000 people from the (mainly Buddhist) Rakhine ethnic group are displaced in the region, IRIN, a UN humanitarian news service, said in an article on its website on Thursday.
They are staying in 40 camps and temporary sites in Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships, from where they are still able to access schools and work, IRIN said.
Immediately after the outbreak of violence in June, aid agencies visited areas in four affected townships and identified sanitation and clean water as major needs. At the time, only about 30 per cent of the surveyed displaced persons had access to clean water, while six out of 10 people did not have any way to store it even if they secured some, said IRIN.
A number of camps had only one latrine serving 100 persons. Little has changed in recent months, said Mohammad Nawsim, the secretary of the Rohingya Human Rights Association (RHRA) based in Bangkok.
Nawsim said that many young and elderly Rohingya in the temporary camps along the road leading west out of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, are falling ill due to poor living conditions.
Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division based in Bangkok, told IRIN the displaced are “effectively restricted to camps by both the security forces and by the violent attacks they fear from the Rakhine [community].”
Most Muslims have shuttered their former businesses and left Sittwe after the authorities ordered their departure, said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya.
While supplies and relief are getting into the camps, delivery is still hampered, she said.
Based on her visits to the displaced in Sittwe with the NGO Refugees International at the end of September, she said: “Many of the staff of the NGOs are local workers and are afraid to go to the Muslim camps – not so much that they are afraid to be attacked by Muslims in the camps, but they are mostly afraid that if the Rakhine Buddhists see that they are assisting the Muslims, they will be attacked by their own community.”
According to a September 4 report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “humanitarian partners remain concerned that access is still limited to some affected areas and townships outside of Sittwe,” which includes aid groups working with Rohingya before the most recent bloodshed, which have now been forced to discontinue their services.
International aid workers report being unable to get travel authorization to work in affected northern townships in Rakhine State, including Maungdaw, which borders on Bangladesh and where almost 500 homes were burnt down in the violence, IRIN said.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Burma over the past three decades, the vast majority to Bangladesh in the 1990s.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Burma’s President Thein Sein discussed how to address the root causes of inter-communal tensions in Rakhine State, including through development efforts, on 29 September at the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The president said the government would address the needs.
The Burmese government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in mid-August to facilitate OIC partner organizations’ humanitarian assistance to displaced Rohingya. The head of international relief and development of Qatar Red Crescent Society, Khaled Diab, told IRIN his chapter will carry out relief work estimated at US$ 1.5 million among displaced Rohingya over the next six months – and possibly longer depending on funding – in health, shelter, water and sanitation.
A multi-agency Rakhine Response Plan estimated it will take some $32.5 million to cover basic emergency needs until the end of the year for an estimated 80,000 displaced.
“Most people in the camps believe they will never be able to go back to the town, even though the government says the camps are only temporary,” Arakan Project's Lewa said.
According to the UN database, which records international humanitarian aid, the Financial Tracking Service, and not-yet-recorded recent donor announcements, some $11 million has been pledged or contributed to humanitarian assistance in Rakhine State this year.
One Rohingya youth, Amanullah (16 years old) son of U Abdu Rashid who lives in West Gaudusara Village, Maungdaw South was killed by Border Security Forces (NaSaKa) on 3rdOctober, 2012.
Amanullah and his friend of Pandaw Pyin Village were severely tortured by the Border Security Forces whose camps is stationed two miles far from the Maungdaw Downtown, beside the Maungdaw- Alay Than Kyaw road.
The two youths were returning from the Maungdaw (Kayindan Quarter) to Pandaw Pyin, after their shopping. They were called by NaSaKa at 5:30 PM on that day while on the road. The friend of Amanullah from Pandaw Pyin was released alone after he was severely tortured.
But Amanullah was killed by the NaSaKa’s torturing and floated his dead body into the Magyi Myaing River. The dead body was founded today by villagers.
RB News Desk
Complied by Nyi Nyi Aung.
UNHCR has distributed relief supplies to tens of thousands of people in communities affected by the unrest in Rakhine state. Photo: UNHCR Myanmar 5 October 2012 – Four months after inter-communal violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) continues to rise, the United Nations refugee agency said today, adding that some 75,000 people are currently living in camps and many more are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“Movement is still restricted in parts of Rakhine state, preventing some villagers from going to work, accessing markets, food supplies, health services and education,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva. “Out of desperation, people are leaving villages to seek food and medical assistance at the IDP camps.”
In June, violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the state of Rakhine, located in western Myanmar, led to the country’s Government declaring a state of emergency there.
The figure of 75,000 people in need of humanitarian aid, provided by local authorities, is an increase on initial Government estimates of some 50,000 people displaced shortly after the unrest broke out in early June, according to UNHCR. It added that a resurgence of violence in early August resulted in more than 4,000 people having their homes burned down, affecting thousands more.
The refugee agency, along with its humanitarian partners, has been advocating for greater humanitarian access and support for the most affected villages, including the towns of Sittwe, Kyauk Taw and Maungdaw.
“We hope that by delivering aid in places of origin, humanitarian agencies can help to prevent further displacement and make interventions that can facilitate the eventual return of IDPs,” Mr. Edwards said.
UNHCR is distributing relief supplies for some 54,000 people in IDP sites. The supplies include plastic sheets, sleeping mats, blankets, mosquito nets and kitchen sets.
The agency is also supporting the construction of emergency temporary shelters that can house about 10,500 people, and continues to support delivery of basic assistance such as food, water and sanitation to Government-run IDP camps until the situation stabilizes sufficiently for them to return home.
Mr. Edwards added that despite the rising numbers of IDPs, some people whose houses were not damaged have returned to the town of Sittwe. He added that a “fragile calm” has returned, but the situation remains tense.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has collected around US$25 million in funds during the second consultative meeting on humanitarian aid in Doha, Qatar on Friday for victims of the Rohingya-Rakhine conflict in Myanmar. The funds will be used for rehabilitation and reconstruction in the areas affected by the conflict.
Leaders of the humanitarian institution collected about $15 million, while the remaining $10 million was obtained from other OIC members who had committed their financial help before the meeting.
OIC deputy secretary-general Atta El-Manan Bakhit said he believed the funds would increase. “The large, rich countries haven't donated yet,” he said.
OIC members, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates pledged to give between $50 million and $100 million during the first consultative meeting in Malaysia last August.
Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) chairman Jusuf Kalla, who attended the second meeting, said in his presentation that the OIC members needed to focus and take a definite step to resolve the conflict and avoid long discussions over data and action plans.
“The longer we delay, the greater our challenge will be. The Rohingya and Rakhine people will also suffer for longer,” he said.
Kalla asked the forum to decide three things in resolving the conflict: finalizing the action plan, collecting funds and establishing the system and organization to execute the plan.
Members at the second consultative meeting eventually agreed to form a consortium to speed up the rehabilitation of areas affected by the conflict.
The OIC will also collaborate with the PMI to open a representative office in Myanmar after both organizations signed an agreement letter with the Myanmar government and Myanmar Red Cross to pave the way for volunteers in the mission.
According to the Myanmar government, victims need at least 8,000 homes -- each one costing $5,000. A further $50 million to $100 million in funds will also be needed to rebuild houses, educational and health facilities, sanitation and other infrastructure in areas such as Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe in Rakhine province.
Recent tensions between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine left at least a dozen civilians dead and hundreds of homes destroyed. Around 70 thousand people are still living in refugee camps. (cor)
Indonesian Red Cross Society chairman Yusuf Kalla has called on Qatari authorities to extend humanitarian assistance to the displaced Rohingya Muslim population in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. “Qatar has been providing humanitarian support for the Myanmar community in Bangladesh,” he pointed out.
Kalla was in Doha yesterday for the ‘Second Meeting on the Humanitarian Situation in the Rakhine State’ organised by the Organisation of the Islamic Co-operation (OIC) in collaboration with the Qatar Charity.
About 30 local, regional and international organisations took part in the meeting, the second of its kind after the Kuala Lumpur meeting last August, and discussed a strategic plan for humanitarian intervention in Rakhine State in addition to ways of strengthening co-ordination between organisations interested in the issue of the Rohingya Muslims.
“We are aware that Qatar has, through Qatar Charity, initiated many activities for the over 300,000 Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh and that the country is willing to give more support to those in need, especially in Africa and Asia. However, there is a need to focus more humanitarian supports on the Islamic world because there are presently around 80,000 refugees in Rakhine,” he noted.
“Qatar Charity is also providing support in terms of housing of up to 400,000 homes as well as hospital services for those affected by the Ache Tsunami, which killed around 200,000 people,” he said.
On whether Qatar should mediate in ongoing conflicts in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, the official said it will be a welcome idea but stressed it is important for Qatar or any other country willing to mediate, to understand the bane of the issues as well as the cultural differences of the warring groups before intervening.
“It is noteworthy that Qatar’s leading and successful roles in mediating to resolve a number of conflicts, within the Middle East and North Africa in the past, have given the country a proven track record, but it will not be a bad idea if the Qatari government take its time to study the situation within the Asean region critically in order to acquire knowledge of the people involved before attempting to mediate because the situation could be entirely different,” he cautioned.
However, on the role of Indonesia in supporting the refugees and ensuring peace and stability in the region, especially being a country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Kalla said: “Indonesia is providing support for other countries, especially within the OIC, on the issue of the refugees and this is the most important aspect for any humanitarian services to succeed.”
He mentioned that Indonesian Red Cross has worked with the OIC members by providing easy access and leeway to the refugees in Myanmar.
“We have been working with the OIC and the Myanmar government on conducting humanitarian work and many countries are presently asking to join the relief effort through the OIC,” he pointed out.
Rohingya people perennially leave their homes and families in Burma and Bangladesh where they face extreme discrimination and are denied citizenship. They often find they have little alternative but to try to travel illegally across the Andaman Sea to try to find work in Thailand, Malaysia or another third country. (PHOTO: Reuters)
Forty-three of the 85 Rohingya boatpeople who were sentenced to one year in prison for illegally entering Burma were on Wednesday released under a presidential pardon, with the remaining 42 due to be released on Thursday, according to sources in Mon State.
The 85 were sentenced in June and have been detained in Moulmein Prison since being arrested in May when their boat broke down while they were attempting to flee to Malaysia. The economic refugees were rescued in high seas by Mon fishermen and taken to the town of Ann Deim in Ye Township, Mon State. They were fed and sheltered by local villagers, but were subsequently arrested and detained for allegedly violating Burma’s immigration law.
Sources in Moulmein said that the 43 were pardoned by Burmese President Thein Sein, and were transported by truck to Pegu Division on Wednesday night.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, a Muslim religious leader in Pegu, Than Htike Aung, said that he had met the 43 released Rohingyas who were mostly young men between the ages of 17 and 50. He said they could not speak Burmese.
Than Htike Aung said that when the remaining 42 economic migrants arrive in Pegu, the local police intend to transfer them to Buthidaung near the Bangladeshi border.
He said that he and other representatives of the Muslim community in Pegu had brought food to the Rohingya boatpeople that morning, and had documented the returning refugees in case any of them go missing en route to the western border.
Rohingya people perennially leave their homes and families in Burma and Bangladesh where they face extreme discrimination and are denied citizenship.
The Muslim Rohingya often find they have little alternative but to try to travel illegally across the Andaman Sea to try to find work in Thailand, Malaysia or another third country.
They are frequently described by human rights groups as “one of the most persecuted people in the world.” The Rohingya issue drew international attention in 2009 when the Thai military was accused of intercepting boatloads of Rohingyas, sabotaging their vessels, and abandoning them at sea.
In the first of a two-part series, our reporters explore the root cause
of human trafficking through the story of the Rohingyas, a stateless
Muslim minority living in Burma and Bangladesh.
goodmorningbeautiful is a team of four Australians seeking
inspiration, justice and adventure through film and art. We do whatever
it takes to find stories from the edges of the world and share them with
the global audience.
goodmorningbeautiful was founded in Cambodia in 2006, and now has offices in Asia, Africa and Australia. NO PLACE IN THE WORLD PART (1)
(1)A Rohingya Vehicle attacked in Maungdaw South
- On 30th September, 2012, at 2:35pm, a Rohingya owned vehicle was attacked by a mob comprising of two military, 4 Nasaka and about 20 Bengali Rakhines in Kine Gyi hamlet (near Du-Thanda), Du Chi Ra Tan village tract, Maungdaw south. The car was leading to Maungdaw downtown from a trip from Inn Din that was paid on one day before. The car owner is Sayedul Amin from Ward-5, Maungdaw and the car Registered No. 1 Ka/441. There were 18 passengers, some of whom are from Inn Din area and some are from Maungdaw downtown, who do mini-business. On the way, another car (Nissan Hilux) being used by the said mob forcibly made the car stopped and all the passengers including the driver and spare were ordered to take off from the car. And all the victims were ordered to load on the mob’s car and drove to a Buddish temple in Kine Gyi. All the victims were inhumanly tortured and all the properties, goods and cash money that they had were looted by the mob and set them out. The panes of the aforementioned car were seriously demolished with the handle of the gun and some iron sticks. The victims were tortured so seriously that some of them cannot walk or speak properly till today. The estimated amount of cash money is over 2 million Kyats and the amount of goods and properties are unknown. This information was collected from the interview with the driver, Fozol Ahmed @ Halaya, son of Eliyas (55 years) from Ka Nyin Tan (Myoma), Maungdaw.
- (2)Looting, Torture and Robbery
- On 30th September, 2012, a mob consisting of 3 military, 2 Nasaka and over 10 Bengali Rakhines (Magh) raided Du-Thanda village, Maungdaw south, at 5:00pm and entered 14 houses and seriously beat Rohingya men and women found in the houses. The identified victims are:
1. Daw Shomjidah (F) U Nawzu Mia
2. Daw Fayruzah (F) U Nawzirr Ahmed
3. Daw Lyla (F) U Husson Ahmed
4. Daw Ohnmar Kulsum (F) U Abdu Karim
5. Daw Baidu (F) U Sultan
6. Daw Umbiyah Khatu (F) U Nawbi Hussain (she has delivered a baby only four days ago)
7. Daw Noor Harbar (F) U Fozol Karim
8. Daw Shaha Zhan (F) U Aman Ullah
9. Daw Hasina (F) Mv. U Abdu Karim
10. Daw Fatima (F) U Lalu
11. Daw Mabuba Begum (F) U Nawbi Husson
12. Daw Zahidah Begum (F) U Robiul Hasson
13. Daw Khawtizah (F) U Abdullah
14. Daw Shuna Mayrr (F) ?
The abovementioned mob had also taken away 23 cows and robbed 9 lakhs of cash money. The cow owners are identified as:
1. U Fozol Ahmed (F) U Sayed Ahmed (2) cows
2. U Shukkurr Ahmed (F) U Abul Kasim (1) cow
3. U Shakayr (F) U Ola Mia (8) cows
4. U Nawbi Husson (F) U Sulay (2) cows
5. U Aman Ullah (F) U Nawzir Ahmed (3) cows
6. Daw Zulay Kha (F) U Sultan (1) cow
7. U Aman Ullah (F) U Shuna Ali (3) cows
8. U Abdullah (F) U Abdul Hakim (2) cows
9. U Hamid (F) U Sulay (1) cow
The details of the robbed cash money are:
1. U Salim Ullah (F) U Kala Mia 2 lakhs
2. U Ajimullah (F) U Kala Mia 2 lakhs
3. Daw Dildar Begum (F) U Abdu Sawmoth 4 lakhs
4. U Ali Juharr (F) U Nawju Mia 1 lakh
(3)Rohingya Fishermen killed in Pauk Taw township
- On 30th September, 2012, 4 fishermen from Ward (3), Pauk Taw Township went to the nearby river in a registered boat. As the boat did not return back in a timely manner, the relatives of the said fishermen informed to the concerned authorities about the failure of boat return on the next day. When the relatives with the authorities searched for the boat along the river, they found the boat ashore. On the boat they found a fisherman dead with fire injuries. The dead fisherman was identified as U Shobbir Ahmed (F) U Basir Ahmed (35 years). The rest three fishermen were not found and no information about them was clued. They are:
1. U Basir Ahmed (F) U Fay Rhdan Ali 60 years
2. U Alom Bard Shah (F) U Sayed Ahmed 35 years
3. U Mohammed Rohim (F) U Bard Shah Mia 28 years
(4)Nasaka extorted money from Rohingyas in Maungdaw North
On 30th September, 2012, Nasaka Sector (5) Commander Win Hlaing and his personal assistant U Htun Htun Naing arrested the following Rohingyas from Auk Phyuu Ma (Hasari Bil), Maungdaw North and extorted money (Kyat) as per detailed below.
1. Ra Shayd (F) U Sayed Husson 7 lakhs
2. Salim Ullah (F) U Luk Mun 2 lakhs
3. Mohammed Kasim (F) ? 1.5 lakhs
4. Mohammed Khan (F) U Obai Dul Haque 2 lakhs
In the same way, on 29th September, 2012, another Rohingya from Kyet Yoe Pyin, Maungdaw North, was arrested and extorted money by the same personnel.
1. Fay Ru Duss (F) U Asaw Dullah 9 lakhs
Again, on 1st October, 2012, at 10:00pm, the aforementioned Nasaka Sector personnel arrested two Rohingyas from Laik Aing hamlet, Nga Sar Kyeu (Na Sha Furu) village tract, Maungdaw north. The arresters were Htun Htun Naing, Sit Oo Zi and another two Nasakas. The arrestees were tortured seriously and released after taking cash money on 2nd October, 2012, at 4:00pm. The arrestees and extorted cash are as follow:
1. Mohammed Noor (F) U Shom Shu 10 lakhs
2. Noor Kobir (F) U Zaa Ru 2 lakhs
On 3rd October, 2012, exactly the same Nasaka personnel who arrested Rohingyas from Nga Sar Kyeu arrested two more Rohingyas from Kyet Yoe Pyin and extorted cash money from them as per following.
1. Dil Dar Hussain (F) U Abu Kalam 7.5 lakhs
2. Nu Ru (F) ? 1.5 lakhs
The same event occurred in Maungdaw downtown on 2nd October, 2012. Police personnel U Hla Myint and his informers Maa Bu (F) Mohammed Amin-Retired police and Mawji Ullah (F) Gura Mia- current temporary administrator for Myoma East Quarter (Ward-2) extorted money from a Rohingya [Abu Bakkar Siddik (F) U Lal Mia] with fabricated allegation. The extorted amount is Kyat one lakh and the victim’s business is selling bamboo near a bridge that spans Kan Yi and Maung Ni.
(5)Three Rohingyas attacked in Min Bya township
On 30th September, 2012, three Rohingyas from The Ra Oak hamlet, Pit Myaung village tract, Min Bya township, were attacked by a mob composed of Bengali Rakhines and Bengali Marama Gyi (Bawr Gua) while the victims were schooling cows in the village pasture. The attackers threw piercing iron quills to the victims. One of the attackers was identified by the victims. When the police arrested the identified attacker, who is a Bengali Marama Gyi (Bawr Gua), a group of Bengali Rakhines forced the police to release the arrestee. Finally, the police had to release the arrestee for his life safety as the number of mob participants was huge. When the injured victims were tried to evacuate in the town general hospital, a group of monks blocked the patient not to admit in hospital. Eventually, with a help of a group of Military, the victim reached to Sittway general hospital and now the patient is under treatment.
"Compiled by Rohingya Youths"
CHIANG MAI, 4 October 2012 (IRIN) - Nearly 75,000 people living in temporary camps and shelters following inter-communal conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in June face deteriorating living conditions, say local aid workers and residents.
“Right now [the displaced] are facing health problems from diarrhoea, fevers and colds. A lot of [them] are living together in small spaces,” said Mohammad Nawsim, secretary of the Rohingya Human Rights Association (RHRA) based in Bangkok. “Their condition is worse than animals.”
As of 25 September, the government estimated some 72,000 from the (mainly Muslim) Rohingya ethnic group and almost 3,000 people from the (mainly Buddhist) Rakhine ethnic group are displaced. They are staying in 40 camps and temporary sites in Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships, from where they are still able to access schools and work.
Immediately after the outbreak of violence in June, aid agencies visited areas in four affected townships and identified sanitation and clean water as major needs. At the time, only about 30 percent of the surveyed displaced persons had access to clean water, while six out of 10 people did not have any way to store it even if they secured some.
A number of camps had only one latrine serving 100 persons. Little has changed in recent months said Nawsim, noting that young and elderly Rohingya in the temporary camps along the road leading west out Sittwe (capital of Rakhine State) as well as Sittwe township are falling ill due to fetid living conditions.
Long-simmering ethnic and religious tensions between Rakhine State’s majority population from the Rakhine ethnic group and its minority Rohingya population erupted in early June after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by a group of Rohingya.
Fear
Meanwhile, Rohingya both in the camps and villages have reported arbitrary arrests and detention, said Nawsim, citing frequent phone calls with those in and around camps and shelters for the displaced.
“They send me messages and then I call them back but it's still very dangerous for them to have mobile phones because the soldiers will search them often. They used Bangladesh mobile phones. The phone only works for a while so when I get on the phone they will give me all details such as how many people are missing and which villages they come from.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division based in Bangkok, told IRIN the displaced are “effectively restricted to camps by both the security forces and by the violent attacks they fear from the Rakhine [community].”
Most Muslims have shuttered their former businesses and left Sittwe after the authorities ordered their departure, said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya.
While supplies and relief are getting into the camps, delivery is still hampered, she added.
Based on her visits to the displaced in Sittwe with the NGO Refugees International at the end of September, she said: “Many of the staff of the NGOs are local workers and are afraid to go to the Muslim camps - not so much that they are afraid to be attacked by Muslims in the camps, but they are mostly afraid that if the Rakhine Buddhists see that they are assisting the Muslims, they will be attacked by their own community.”
According to a 4 September report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “humanitarian partners remain concerned that access is still limited to some affected areas and townships outside of Sittwe,” which includes aid groups working with Rohingya before the most recent bloodshed which have now been forced to discontinue their services.
International aid workers report being unable to get travel authorization to work in affected northern townships in Rakhine State, including Maungdaw, which borders on Bangladesh and where almost 500 homes were burnt down in the violence.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Myanmar over the past three decades, the vast majority to Bangladesh in the 1990s.
International aid efforts
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Myanmar’s President Thein Sein discussed how to address the root causes of inter-communal tensions in Rakhine State, including through development efforts, on 29 September at the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The president said the government would address the needs.
The Burmese government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in mid-August to facilitate OIC partner organizations’ humanitarian assistance to displaced Rohingya. The head of international relief and development of Qatar Red Crescent Society, Khaled Diab, told IRIN his chapter will carry out relief work estimated at US$1.5 million among displaced Rohingya over the next six months - and possibly longer depending on funding - in health, shelter, water and sanitation.
A multi-agency Rakhine Response Plan estimates it will take some $32.5 million to cover basic emergency needs until the end of the year for an estimated 80,000 displaced.
“Most people in the camps believe they will never be able to go back to the town, even though the government says the camps are only temporary,” Arakan Project's Lewa said.
Aid groups working in Rakhine State are meeting in Myanmar’s capital - most recently on 22-23 September - to review longer-term issues of relief, rehabilitation and rule of law in the state.
According to the UN database which records international humanitarian aid, the Financial Tracking Service, and not-yet-recorded recent donor announcements, some $11 million has been pledged or contributed to humanitarian assistance in Rakhine State this year.
Global Movement of Moderates chairman Tan Sri Razali Ismail has called on the Myanmar government to consider giving citizenship to the Rohingya community. Razali, who was formerly the United Nations’ special envoy to Myanmar, talks to the New Straits Times on the role of Malaysia and the international community in forming solutions to the plight of the Rohingya.
Q :. You took part in the recent Perdana Global Peace Foundation Conference on the Plight of the Rohingyas, in which they came up with 16 resolutions to be handed to various parties including to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak), the Myanmar government, and the United Nations. What is the progress on the resolutions?
A : I’m not an executive council member of the PGPF so I can’t speak on the progress of the resolutions. But they should be preparing the submissions right now, firstly to give to the government of Malaysia, because I do think it’s clear that many Malaysians do feel very strongly about the fate of the Rohingyas.
To me, however, it is not enough to simply send the letter to Najib. The impact would be more worthwhile if you can actually get him to meet and discuss the issues. Otherwise, it would just get lost among every other letters sent to his office.
If that’s not possible, then the letter should at least be sent to Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman. But as I said earlier, they should try very hard to get the PM in person for at least half an hour, so that a few proposals for solutions can be put on the table to see whether they’re feasible.
Q : What can Najib do on an international level to help move this effort forward?
A :Najib will not want to ruffle or upset Myanmar by making unrealistic, impractical demands. We have such a good relationship with Myanmar, built over many decades. We do not want to be part of a group that constantly pressures them over something that is not easy for them to resolve.
In the context of Asean, we want the democratisation process to take hold irreversibly, so we don’t want anything that might slow that process down. We want all of Myanmar to benefit from development, from economic growth and new infrastructure.
That said, the situation in Myanmar affects many countries in Southeast Asia and Asean countries do have a responsibility towards those who have escaped Myanmar as refugees, including the Rohingyas.
Asean leaders should recognise that the situation in Myanmar is complicated and will take a very long time to resolve.
Here in Malaysia, we have some 30,000 Rohingya refugees. There is a lot of support for the community but it can be improved. I think we should begin to treat them better. Their children need to be given the right to go to school, they should be given the right to find temporary work, to be given access to medical and health services, and the right not to be harassed by enforcement authorities.
These are people who are very close friends of us, who have connection as fellow Muslims. Many here support the Rohingyas. But support by words alone is not enough. If you want to help the Rohingya, help them here.
Q : What is the situation in Myanmar right now? Are their leaders receptive to the idea of granting citizenship to the Rohingyas?
A :The key problem right now isn’t the leaders, but getting the people of Myanmar themselves to accept the Rohingya as one of them.
It’s not easy for the Myanmar leadership, including (human rights activist) Aung San Suu Kyi, to think of specific solutions because, if you asked the other ethnic groups there, unfortunately, you would find that many of them do not believe the Rohingya are Myanmar citizens.
In some ways, it is similar to Malaysia’s experience during independence. When Malaysia decided to accept the Chinese and Indian immigrants as citizens, we accepted everyone - to the extent that the new citizens made up 20 per cent of the population. So it does not matter if the Rohingyas are not indigenous to the country - they should be recognised as belonging to Myanmar.
But even if the Myanmar president Thein Sein wants to do something now, it will be a very unpopular move. Plus, it would have to be carried out in the context of the other ethnic groups and larger issues such as economic development. The Myanmar government has their own priorities to consider.
Q : The Myanmar government has agreed to set up a commission of inquiry to look at the causes behind the violent clashes between Rohingya community and ethnic Rakhine Buddists last June. Will this help?
A : The commission of inquiry is focusing only on the events that led to the clashes so I don’t think it will change anything. It is just delaying time.
That said, I cannot imagine that the Myanmar government will never give citizenship to the Rohingya. I’m sure it is possible to make the people in Myanmar understand in time, that some process to give the Rohingya citizenship must be attempted in the name of human rights and democracy.
Q : What role does the international community have to play? At the recent UN general assembly, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said that Myanmar should tread carefully in resolving this issue.
A : Yes, it’s becoming more difficult for Thein Sein to keep quiet every time this subject comes up now. I think the UN should continue badgering and cajoling the Myanmar government to take the right steps.
That said, I would counsel that the process should be carried out exclusively by the Myanmar government. Right now, they are looking towards the West and Asean for help (in their development process). But there’s a tendency for some countries, in the West especially, to go too far to the point of being intrusive.
As much as other countries are involved, the Myanmar may look to the UN for technical expertise if it’s really necessary. Ootherwise, it’s a process that require a very difficult political decision, that is best carried out by Myanmar on their own.
Q :. At the PGPF conference, former prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad brought up the idea that the United States should put pressure on the Myanmar government to recognise the Rohingyas. Some of the panelists also advocated a process where other countries can call on Myanmar to set a certain level of democratic reform in exchange for foreign investment. Do you agree?
A : Myanmar, at the moment, has all the potentials to develop rapidly. So it’s important for them to make the right decisions on questions like what kind of infrastructure do they need? What kind of schools? How do they achieve a proper balance in terms of their ethnic make-up?
Many countries are knocking on Myanmar’s door - China, especially, is a large presence. They have many options in terms of attracting foreign investment. They can choose what kind of assistance they need.
So I think that rather than impose conditions, especially unrealistic conditions, on them to meet, it’s more important to guide Myanmar into making the right decisions for them to develop.
Q : What do you think of calls from certain quarters to set up a separate state for the Rohingya?
A : Personally, I do not think such calls help. That will only scare the Myanmar government further from any attempt at a real resolution.
I’m very partial towards Myanmar but they need to accept the hard truth that the Rohingya have been there for such a long time that they deserve to be recognized as citizens.
Even while I was there, I was always aware of the people that had suffered from the military, and the Rohingya were among them. These groups became what the UN termed as internally displaced persons (IDPs), and it was an issue that I was always aware about. Back then, we could never get concrete answers but now, mass displacement of people within the country is something that cannot be allowed to continue.
It is very crucial for this issue to be solved sooner rather than later because people exploit situations like this for money. The longer this issue remains unresolved, the more possibilities there are for people to do terrible things, such as human trafficking.
Doha is to host tomorrow the second meeting of the humanitarian organisations on the situation of Myanmar Muslims.
The meeting will be organised by the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC ) and Qatar Charity with about 30 regional and international organisations attending the event.
The event follows the first consultative meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, earlier last month.
Ambassador Atta al-Mannan Bakhait, the Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at OIC said in a press release issued here yesterday that the Doha meeting is the first of its kind in the Arab region since such organisations have not met under one umbrealla to discuss the gravely deteriorating situation in Myanmar.
For his part, Qatar Charity’s executive chairman Yusuf Ahmed al-Kuwari highlighted in a press statement yesterday the importance of co-ordination among those organisations interested in the issue of Rohingya Muslims and the need to take practical steps in this respect.
The co-ordinated joint action between all the concerned organisations working in the rescue operation in Myanmar, whether Islamic or international, would further boost the support needed for the Rohingya Muslims urgently, said al-Kuwari in his statement.
The OIC and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) provided recommendations related to the situation in Myanmar after they held a meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
The meeting asked the international community to support and mobilise efforts in Myanmar in accordance with humanitarian principles like impartiality, neutrality, and independence.
It called for the creation of a special fund for reconstruction and rehabilitation in the region of Arakan under the auspices of the OIC, and an international media campaign, including social media, to share information about the protracted violence in Myanmar and humanitarian consequences for the minority groups in the country.
It called for the setting up of a private group of leading international advocate for peace, sustainable solutions to the unrest in Myanmar and humanitarian consequences for minorities in the country.
It noted that some 69,000 people in Myanmar (also known as Burma) have been displaced by recent clashes in Rakhine State in Western Burma, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). About 46% of the displaced people are children.
More than 5,000 buildings were destroyed. The conditions are dire: Fires have been burning for weeks and a state of emergency has been declared.
According to government reports, the majority of those fleeing are Muslims. The UN reports that some 800,000 Muslims of Rohingya ethnicity live in Myanmar in the northern Rakhine State.
They are regarded as some of the most persecuted people in the world, and face regular food shortages. As clashes continue in their home area, their desperate situation has turned even more horrid.
Some who have fled the recent violence have crossed over into neighbouring Bangladesh. But as the violence continues and more refugees attempt to escape, many are being turned away and any existing refugee camps are being capped.
Arakan News ,Min Bya, 3-10-2012 ,Three Rohingya boys whose names and details have been mentioned in Rohingya Blogger News on 29-9-2012. The boys were shot by eleven Rakhine and four Baruwa extremists on 29-9-2012 in Min Bya while they are watching their cattle in the pasture nearby the village, Thayet Aouk (Nuwar Para).
One suspected Baruwa culprit was arrested by polices on 30-9-2012, but dozens of R.N.D.P members and Rakhine extremists attacked to release the culprit. Finally extremists obtained success as their desire.
In the first day, Rohingya villagers informed to police and military to see the casualty and to assist for admission to hospital. Securities arrived on 30-9-2012 and allowed to carry Min Bya hospital. But hundreds of R.N.D.P members and Rakhines obstructed and refused for the treatment in the hospital. In that occasion one of the monks advised to Rakhines that the injured Muslims must get proper treatment but Rakhines denied and replied to monk that we are obeying your guidance which you ordered us. Then they were forcefully turned the injured boys to nearby village, Tharmale.
There, military surgeon treated briefly and urged to go Akyab hospital by motor boat. Relatives arranged one boat which owner is a Muslim. Rakhines crowded and tried to kill the boat owner. Then securities urged again to arrange a motor car to go Akyab escorting securities. Thus they arranged a car and started trip to Akyab on 2-10-2012, but Rakhine extremists blocked them while they were crossing Mrauk-U Township and then forcefully turned them to Min Bya.
For these extreme and insecure conditions, the injured Rohingya boys became helpless and hopeless in their village and counting seconds and minutes to die. Who will do to stop these kinds of atrocities which have been happening in everyday in every where of Rakhine State?
Nyi Nyi Aung
Rohingya Activist, RB News Desk
If you were going to compile a list of this year’s international ‘feel-good’ news stories (and I realise it is a bit early be doing that sort of thing), you might well be tempted to put the on-going reform process in Burma at – or near to the top.
The Burmese president, Thein Sein, was compared with Mikhail Gorbachev on his recent visit to the US. While the leader of the opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi – also travelling in America – has been greeted with well-meaning mobs of well-wishers and an avalanche of praise in the newspapers.
However, if you caught some our coverage from north-west Burma over the last few months, you will know that this is not just the regular ‘military-junta gradually hands over power to the people’ story. Burma is more complicated than that – not least because of a series of deeply entrenched ethnic and religious conflicts.
We saw it for ourselves, on two separate trips to Rakhine State, where the ethnic Buddhist majority and a sizable Muslim minority called the Rohingya are struggling to co-exist. After an allegation of rape in May, rival gangs burnt homes and settled scores. Sixty thousand Rohingya were burnt out of their homes and were later moved into a series of rough and ready rural camps by the authorities.
These ‘internal refugees’ are now receiving enough aid and assistance to keep themselves alive. However, the same cannot be said for Rohingya who retained their homes – and there are close to a million of them in Burma. In the name of internal security and stability, the local government has forbidden them from leaving their villages – but without the ability to travel, villagers cannot work and earn money.
As a result, they are struggling to feed themselves and their children. We went to one Rohingya village called Barzah, located on the outskirts of the region’s largest city, Sittwe. We were welcomed by a man called Maung Hla Sein and he told us that they were hungry – ‘they’ the 6,000 people who were living there.
It wasn’t something he really needed to say because we could see it for ourselves – tired, baggy eyed children wandering listlessly around a scruffy, water-logged site. Some had protruding bellies – their skin stretched tightly over bony frames.
We met a man called Farlie, who said he lost his job at a mosque when it was burnt down in the violence. His two daughters, Lalabu and Zaybarnisar were sick and starving. It was clear to me that without immediate assistance they would die. Yet Farlie could not take his daughters to the hospital in Sittwe because he and his daughters are Rohingya and they are not allowed to leave the village.
Maung Hla Sein said the local government had brought the villagers rice on five occasions over the last month – the equivalent of 10 cups of rice per person over the entire 30 day period he said – and clearly, it was not anywhere near enough. Yet these food shortages were, in my view, totally preventable. Barzah is located several hundred metres from Sittwe’s main air terminal. If the government wanted, it could simply dismantle the barbed-wire fence separating the village from the airfield and drive the aid right in.
While international aid agencies, including the UN, are providing regular food shipments to the refugee camps around Sittwe, they have very little knowledge of conditions in Rohingya villages – because the local government will not let their representatives in.
The softly spoken head of the UN in Burma, Ramesh Shrestha was uncharacteristically blunt when I asked him if he knew what was going on in these communities: “No, no,” he said. “It is a problem yes, because unless we have a clear picture of the whole situation you can’t devise a solution. We can’t propose a solution because we don’t know what is going on.”
Instead, aid workers and journalists who want information about these communities must rely on a combination of official pronouncements and rumour. We heard one troubling rumour about a Rohingya village located within a larger town called Chauk Taw. We’d been told that it had been rung with barbed wire and guarded by troops. Yet it lies within a restricted zone near the Bangladeshi border – a difficult place for foreign journalists to operate – so we sent a local contact to go for us.
You can see the pictures we obtained from Chauk Taw in my video report above. Villagers also gave us a carefully prepared 11 page document. It is entitled “Expressing the wishes and grievances of Rohingya from Chauk Taw Township.” Within the document, there is a list of those people killed and injured since the since the initial outbreak of violence in early June. Another passage describes restrictions on citizenship, marriage, travel and education that Rohingya have long faced in Burma.
The following passage was written about the current crisis:
“Since June, 6, 2012, we Rohingya cannot go to the main market. We also can’t trade in our shops in the market and we can’t work outside of market. The students can’t go to the school. We do not have access to medical care if needed. The farmers cannot grow rice in their files on time for harvest. We can’t also go from one village to the other. Because of the above restrictions and suppression, we are facing famine.”
“We are facing famine…”, which brings me back to that odd and saintly couple: Burma’s President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yes, they are steering their nation towards a more prosperous and democratic future. Yet on the subject of the Rohingya, they have failed to lead.
When asked about the issue in the US, Aung San Suu Kyi said” “You must not forget that there have been human rights violations on both sides of the communal divide. It’s not a matter of condemning one community or the other. I condemn all human rights violations.”
Her careful comments are designed to neutral – but they are not. The two sides in this conflict are not ‘equal’ – and the behaviour of both communities is not ‘morally equivalent’. Regardless of where you stand on the ‘citizenship question’ for Rohingya in Burma, there are severely malnourished children in Barzah who are not eating because their parents can’t leave the village. A few miles up the beach however, local Buddhists drink beer and play guitars.
The analysts and commentators remind us that Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer a political dissident – but a politician with an eye on the presidency in 2015. But what is the point of showering her with awards and accolades if she no longer stands up for the downtrodden and oppressed – why hold her up as an icon if she now longer meets the standards she herself has set?
SITTWE, Myanmar // There are no Muslim faithful in most of this crumbling town's main mosques anymore, no Muslim students at its university.
They're gone from the market, missing from the port, too terrified to walk on just about any street in the centre of the town.
Three-and-a-half months after some of the bloodiest clashes in a generation between Myanmar's ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslims known as Rohingya left the western town of Sittwe in flames, nobody is quite sure when, or even if, the Rohingya will be allowed to resume the lives they once lived here.
The conflict has fundamentally altered the demographic landscape of this coastal state capital, giving way to a disturbing policy of government-backed segregation that contrasts starkly with the democratic reforms Myanmar's leadership has promised the world since half a century of military rule ended last year.
While the Rakhine can move freely, some 75,000 Rohingya have effectively been confined to a series of rural displaced camps outside Sittwe and a single central district they dare not leave for fear of being attacked.
For the town's Muslim population, it is a life of exclusion that is separate, and anything but equal.
"We're living like prisoners here," said Thant Sin, a Rohingya shopkeeper who has been holed up since June in the last Rohingya-dominated quarter of central Sittwe that wasn't burnt down.
Too afraid to leave, the 47-year-old cannot work anyway. The blue wooden doors of his shuttered pharmaceutical stall sit abandoned inside the town's main market - an area only Rakhine are now allowed to enter.
The crisis in western Myanmar goes back decades and is rooted in a highly controversial dispute over where the region's Muslim inhabitants are really from. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are widely denigrated here as foreigners - intruders who came from neighbouring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.
The United Nations estimates their number at 800,000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and so, like Bangladesh, denies them citizenship. Human-rights groups say racism also plays a role. Many Rohingya, who speak a distinct Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.
In late May, tensions boiled over after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman, allegedly by three Rohingya, in a town south of Sittwe. By mid-June, skirmishes between rival mobs carrying swords, spears and iron rods erupted across the region. Conservative estimates put the death toll at about 100 across the state, with 5,000 homes burnt along with dozens of mosques and monasteries.
Sittwe suffered more damage than most, and today blackened tracts of rubble-strewn land filled with knotted tree stumps are scattered everywhere. The largest, called Narzi, was home to 10,000 Muslims.
The Human Rights Watch agency accused security forces of colluding with Rakhine mobs at the height of the mayhem, opening fire on Rohingya even as they struggled to douse the flames of their burning homes.
Speaking to a delegation of visiting US diplomats earlier this month, Lt Gen Thein Htay, the border affairs minister, described Sittwe's new status quo. Drawing his finger across a town map, he said there are now "lines that cannot be crossed" by either side, or else "there will be aggression ... there will be disputes".
He added: "It's not what we want, but this is the reality we face."
While police and soldiers are protecting mosques and guarding Rohingya in camps, there is much they cannot control. One group of 300 local Buddhist leaders, for example, issued pamphlets urging the Rakhine not to do business with the Rohingya or even talk to them. It is the only way, they say, to avert violence.
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