The recent situation of Maungdaw and Rathidaung Townships

The concerned authorities brought many Rakhine poor villagers from different parts of northern Arakan to Maungdaw and are kept under the Nasaka camps of Maungdaw south to show them as Rakhine refugees to UN delegation that will come next to survey the situation of Maungdaw.

The police personnel from Maungdaw loot goods from Rohingyas villagers who were returning to their home after buying goods from Rakhines’ shops. Some elder Rakhine, monks and police told the shopkeepers not to sell any goods to Rohingyas.
It is not a communal riot between Rakhines and Rohingyas. It is really a pre-planned government responsible attack along with some a group Rakhine racists against the Rohingya community.
Special court in Maungdaw
Recently army and Nasaka arrested Rohingyas from various villages from Maungdaw are being trialed at special court in Maungdaw police station where the court sentenced to imprisonment on the spot and sent the Rohingya to Buthidaung Jail. The court used Act 148/506 on arrested Rohingya. In Buthidaung jail has 168 Rohingya with this Act. In the jail, the authority registered the Rohingyas with photograph.
The army, Nasaka and police are arresting Rohingya community, mostly young, educated and well to do family persons without finding any fault. Then, the authority tortured the arrested persons first in the police station after arrest.
As a result, the villagers have been passing nights out of villages without any sleep for fear of arrest. The villagers are mostly stay in jungles or paddy fields to avoid arrest. Taking this advantage, army and Nasaka assault the Rohingya females. They loot all the food items and destroy from the villages. So, the villagers are facing shortage of food and children will die in future, if there is no foods supply to Rohingya community in Maungdaw.
The Rohingya community is staying in the open sky in this monsoon season as their houses have been destroyed and burned down by army, police and Nasaka. So the community need settler to stay in this monsoon season. The tropical diseases are spreading all the villages and need medical team to help them.  Diabetic and heart disease patients are facing short of medicines as they are not able to buy any medicines due to all the shops are being closed and their lives are at risk.
Arrest
Ms.Soe Mya Mya, 30, (an NGO worker) and her sister, daughter of late Dr. Yah Yah from Ward number 2,  Maungdaw, were arrested by police today morning, reason is unknown.
Reaza Waddin from Habib village and Anam Ullah from Shwezarr village were arrested by Nasaka from Bomu village at noon today while they were going to their relatives’ houses for help. All the arrestees belong to Maungdaw.
25 Rohingyas – educated and leaders- from Anukpyin Village of Rathidung Township were arrested by police with Township administration officer on June 21 and brought them to Rathidaung police station.
Besides, all the children over 10- year old from Anukpyin village of Rathidaung township were brought to primary school in the said village by  police with Township administration officer on June 22 and kept them there as a house arrest, but they  have not been provided  any food even drinking water. The arrested children were tortured by the authority, of them four children asked drinking water where the Township administration officer provided them a bottle of urine of him in the place of drinking water.
Killing and wounded
Ms. Nurfatema, daughter of Idris from Bagonena Village of Maungdaw Township was shot to death by army and Nasaka on June 22 at broad daylight. Another daughter of Idris named, Nur Begum was tortured till her death.
Hashim Ullah and Idris from Tharaykuntan (Barsawra) village, were slaughtered by Rakhines, while they were goingt o their village from hiding place in evening on June 22, after crossing a Rakhine village near their village.
Some of dead bodies are floating in a stream named Mawrinyam sawra nearby Shilkhli village of Nasaka area number 8, Maungdaw south today. The villagers of Shilkhli believe that the dead bodies are those people who were arrested by army three days ago.
One, Rickshaw puller named Kala Meah was dragged from in front of his house and killed by a group of Rakhine youths at Maungdaw football ground while he was preparing to work for his family survival toady at about 3:00pm.
150 Rohingyas were killed and 157 wounded while Rakhines along with police offcer of Kudaung police station of Rathidaung Township attacked to the Anaukpyin village–a Rohingya village of 5,000 Rohingya residents—on June 21 on daytime where the Rohingya villagers defensed against Rakhines around 2 hours and 30 minutes.On information, a group of army rushed to the spot and the situation was under control of army.
Kudaung Police officer shot to death two Rohingya villagers from Anauckpyin village by his service pistol, but they left all the dead bodies in the village. The next day, the Township administration officer of Rathidaung, police officer of Rathidaung and police officer of Kudaung and its team went to the village where they arrested 25 villagers and taking away the two Rohingya dead bodies. But the dead bodies were returned to the villagers after taking the bullets.

Fresh violence flares in Myanmar's Rakhine State

A fire damaged a large building housing displaced Muslims in Rakhine state, as gunfire rang out in the downtown area. At least 50 people have been killed since the sectarian violence broke out last month.
The Associated Press
Homes burn, gunfire heard in western Myanmar

A large building used to house displaced Muslims was badly damaged by fire Sunday in the capital of Myanmar's troubled Rakhine State, while witnesses heard gunfire in the downtown area.

Mra Tha Zin, a Buddhist woman living near the scene of the trouble in the Maw Leik quarter of Sittwe, said police and military units converged on the area.

She said the fire and shooting panicked many residents.

Myanmar's President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Rakhine state on June 10.

At least 50 people have been killed in fighting in the state since May 28, when a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered in Kyauk Ni Maw village, allegedly by three members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, who were arrested.

On Monday, a court found the three men guilty and sentenced them to death, although one had committed suicide in his jail cell on June 10.

The rape-murder sparked a series of clashes across Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh, displacing up to 30,000 people.

The Rohingya have lived in Rakhine State for generations. In 1982, the Myanmar government passed legislation that defined them as immigrants from Bangladesh, making them stateless, and confiscated their property and businesses.

The 800,000 Rohingyas who remain in the state have for decades been subject to persecution and discrimination that have forced an estimated 1 million to flee abroad.

Rohingya—’Exiled to Nowhere’

Constantine’s book combines words and stark images to provide a portrait of the Rohingya, a stateless people who straddle the Burma-Bangladesh border.

The recent conflict in Arakan State has returned the predicament of the stateless Rohingya to the international spotlight just as a new photo-book explores their fraught history.

Multi-award winning American photographer Greg Constantine has produced a compelling and revealing collection of photographs combined with personal stories and interviews of individuals describing their blighted lives.

“Exiled to Nowhere” describes the lives of Rohingya Muslims who occupy a geographic region which straddles both southern Bangladesh and Burma’s northwestern Arakan State.

Denied citizenship by both countries, the Rohingya are described by the UN as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities” and regularly face a catalogue of human rights abuses as well as restrictions on movement, marriage and reproduction.

Violent clashes erupted in Arakan State after a lynch mob killed 10 Muslims on June 3 in apparent in retaliation for the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman on May 28. A total of 50 people have been killed, 54 other people injured, with 78 riots breaking out and 2,230 buildings destroyed by fire in the 18 days through to June 21.

Working over a period from 2006 to 2012, Constantine made eight trips to visit the Rohingya people in southern Bangladesh. While Constantine gained access to the Rohingya through Bangladesh, the words of the people he encountered focus upon life within Burma.

“Since we don’t have nationality in Burma, we can’t live in peace. In Burma they say we are from Bangladesh. When we come to Bangladesh, they say we are from Burma. People view us as if we don’t exist,” a Rohingha Muslim is quoted as saying.

Constantine remains faithful to the classic time-tested photo-documentary form of black and white images to provide a sensitive and comprehensive portrait of the plight of this largely overlooked minority group.

Despite recent moves towards democracy in Burma, this work illustrates quite clearly how mainstream Burmese society continues to marginalize these perceived outsiders.

“Now, after decades of oppression and endemic discrimination against the Rohingya, I believe there is an opportunity to work for a real change,” Tomas Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, is quoted by Constantine. “The new government faces many and complex issues, but the cause of the Rohingyas must be a priority. We have to work for this.”

The words of Rohingya themselves are used to describe a life almost beyond comprehension as they struggle with being denied citizenship as defined by the current Burmese Constitution.

Add to this severe restrictions on their right to own property, marry and even have children—all designed to make life for the Rohingya exceedingly difficult, if not impossible—and you begin to grasp the depth of the hardships they face.

“Rohingya people who are born in Myanmar don’t have rights,” another refugee is quoted as saying. “Even a bird has rights. A bird can build a nest, give birth, bring food to their children and raise them until they are ready to fly. We don’t have basic rights like this.”

MYANMAR: UN ready to assist Rakhine displaced

The United Nations is ready to assist thousands of people displaced by recent ethnic and sectarian violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, and a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights has visited the region to assess the situation.

“The government has indicated that food, shelter and medical assistance are urgently required,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ashok Nigam told IRIN from Yangon, the former capital, on 15 June. “The UN and its humanitarian partners stand ready to support, as long as security to staff can be guaranteed during operations.”

The Rakhine State Minister said dozens of people had been killed, and close to 32,000 were now displaced and staying in 37 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the local Burmese media reported. However, aid workers say the situation remains volatile and it is difficult to verify those figures.

On 13 June, Myanmar’s Border Affairs Minister, Maj-Gen Thein Htay, accompanied by Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, visited Maungtaw, the capital of Rakhine State, where they met with residents whose homes had been destroyed.

More than 1,500 homes were reportedly burned in the violence after the alleged rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman by a group of Rohingya Muslim men on 28 May, followed by an attack on a bus on 3 June, in which 10 Muslims died.

In an effort to quell the violence, Burmese President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Rakhine on 10 June.

“The underlying tensions that stem from discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities pose a threat to Myanmar’s democratic transition and stability. I urge all sides to exercise restraint, respect the law and refrain from violence,” Quintana said.

“It is critical that the government intensify its efforts to defuse tension and restore security to prevent the violence from spreading further,” he said, calling on the authorities to lift the state of emergency as soon as order was re-established.

Discrimination against the Muslim community, particularly the Rohingyas in Rakhine State, was the root cause of the violence, the Special Rapporteur noted, stressing the need for the authorities to take steps to address long-standing issues of deprivation of citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights for the Rohingya.

Human Rights Watch has consistently described the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar as “deplorable”.

Under Burmese law, Rakhine’s 800,000 Rohingya are stateless and are not included in the country’s official list of 135 ethnic groups.

Hundreds of thousands have fled persecution to neighbouring Bangladesh over the past three decades, mostly in the 1990s.

“Policing action should be carried out impartially, in line with human rights standards, and with respect for the principles of legality, proportionality and non-discrimination,” Quintana said.

President Thein Sein called on various segments of Burmese society to jointly maintain peace and stability, and Quintana noted that this obligation also extended to all state security forces because they were responsible for restoring order.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the issue, some Burmese have taken to the internet to express their dissatisfaction with how the situation has been portrayed in the international media.

The Special Rapporteur emphasized that “Responsible media reporting is also imperative to prevent violence from escalating.”