Update news of Maungdaw on August 14, 2012

Nasaka commits suicide in Maungdaw Township
Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) of Nasaka area No. 5 of Maungadw north, Arakan State committed suicide on August 13, at about 10:00 pm while sitting in a house of Rakhine village named Aukpruma, according to a Nasaka aide.

He was one of the members of a petrol group from the Nasaka camp. After patrolling a long time along the villages, they took rest at the house of U Hla Sein (45), son of U Aung San of Kasari Bill (Auk-prua) village. Before suicide, he and his colleagues were over drinking in the house. After that, suddenly a bullet was fired from his gun, but it hit his jaws and a few minutes later he was dead on the spot.
Hearing the sound of the firing, a group of Nasaka from nearby the camp rushed to the spot to see the incident. It is learnt that who committed suicide was very disappointed as the officers discriminate the soldiers.  Later, the dead body was brought to the Nasaka camp and buried there.
Maungdaw-Aley Than Kyaw higway opened
Maungdaw, Arakan State: Maungdaw – Aley Than Kyaw has been opened since August 11,by the concerned authority. But, a Nasaka out-post  is established nearby the black bridge, which is near Khadir Bill (Yaung Chaung)  and Pandaw Pyin ( Nolbonia)  to collect money from the Rohingya community who cross the bridge. The Nasaka collects Kyat 300 to 1,000 per each who cross the bridge according to people status, said a businessman from Maungdaw.
Prisoners extremely discriminated in Buthidaung Jail
At present, there are about 700 prisoners in Buthidaung jail. They are being kept in No. 2 hostel of the prison. All the prisoners who have brands including Maulanas (religious leaders) have to be clean shaved.  They are allowed to go out of the room one time per week to take bath. They are supplied only five cups of water to take bath. They are all naked when they get out from the room, though the 400 longies were donated to the prisoners by a philanthropist from Buthidaung. Their care takers are Rakhine youths so that they can discriminate the prisoners as they want.  The prisoners are fed only one time per day.  After sun set, the prisoners are fed chick peas for Iftari. These prisoners are arrested within two months since June 8. They are arrested with false and fabricated cases, said a man from Buthidaung on condition of anonymity.
Police and Hluntin extort money from Rohingya shopkeepers in Maungdaw
In Maungdaw town, the general administration officer recently ordered to the Rohingya shopkeepers to open their shops which are established along the road not in the Municipal market.  The police and Hluntin went to the shop and extorted money from the owners of the shops and sometimes looted goods from the shops without paying money.  If the matter is appraised to the higher concerned authorities, they do not take any heed.  U  Aye Tun Sein, the police officer of police station of Maungdaw Town checked all the Rohingya travelers from the Clock Tower junction of Maungdaw Town and looted all the goods that they have. When the villagers appraised the matter to the concerned authorities, they do not take any action against them, according to a shopkeeper from Maungdaw.
Forced labor still going on in Maungdaw
Rohingya community from Maungdaw and resident of Nurulllah and Bagona villages are forced to transport logs and Bamboos for rebuilding Natala villages –Kharay Myan and Kanpin Thaseez- while Rohingya are going to Bagona for visit or residents of said village went to market to buy foodstuffs of kitchen, said a Rohingya who pay forced labor yesterday.
The Maungdaw town Rohingyas who went to the Bagona village for visit relatives are forced to carry the logs and bamboo for Natala village. It is the ordered of Nasaka.
Looting and harassing Rohingya in Maungdaw
Rohingyas are facing harassment and looting their belonging while they are going to Maungdaw market from their villages, said a villager from Ward number 2.
“Hluntin personnel stationed at old cinema hall and Bomu village –along the connecting road of Myoma Kayoungdan village and Kanree village ( Ward number 2) are harassing and looting Rohingyas while they pass the station.”
“The Hluntin camp of these two stationed also stopped and checked Rohingyas when crossing the outpoat. At that time, some Rakhines were beating the Rohingya severely who were checking by hluntin. The Hluntin didn’t stop the Rakhine who were beating the Rohingyas.”
Some Rakhines are start thronging stone to the Rohingya rickshaw pullers when the Rohingya pass the Shesoe photograph shop from Ward number 4 of Sanpya village, since Sunday. The Rakhine may be getting support from police or Hlunti to do this, said a school teacher.

No Eid for persecuted Rohingya Muslims

The Stop the Ethnic Cleansing Rohingya in Myanmar International Action Committee urged the United Nations (UN) to intervene in the situation in Myanmar through a petition handed

With the Eid around the corner, the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Burma appears to have taken a turn for the worst, according to sources who contacted the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (MAPIM).

The umbrella group's secretary general Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid said Muslims were currently subjected to several restrictions, including from performing prayer at mosques in Arakan, especially in the town areas.

“Prayers are allowed at mosques in the rural areas, that too only for the Zuhr (noon) and Asr (afternoon) prayers, while Friday prayer is not at all allowed," said Azmi .

According to his sources, not more than 10 Muslims are allowed to hold congregational prayer.

At the Maungdaw district, there are some 178 mosques and prayer halls while not more than 20 mosques are located in the urban areas. The south of this district has seen some of the worst attacks against Rohingya Muslims and their properties.

The dire situation and the lack of food also meant that many Muslims have been forced to skip fasting during Ramadan.

“The Rohingya's suffering during this Ramadan is critical. Clearly, there is no Eid for them," added Azmi.

MAPIM has been sending humanitarian aid to the thousands of Rohingya refugees affected by the recent spate of racist attacks against them.

The group said it had recently despatched five containers of food, and is still awaiting green light from Burmese port authorities to enter Arakan.

Visiting Myanmar’s Threatened Rohingyas | Robert Mackey (New York Times)

Despite official obstacles barring most observers and aid workers from western Myanmar, two months after dozens were killed in sectarian clashes and tens of thousands of Muslims were forced from their homes into “resettlement camps,” a television crew from Britain’s Channel 4 News managed to report from the region on Tuesday.

As my colleague Thomas Fuller reported in June, Myanmar declared a state of emergency that month after violence between the Buddhist majority and a minority Muslim population known as Rohingyas swept Rakhine State, along the border with Bangladesh. The rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in May led to revenge attacks on the Rohingyas, who were blamed for the crime. In the following weeks, up to 60,000 Rohingyas were driven from their homes and a whole section of the regional capital Sittwe was burned to the ground.

The British crew managed to film at a camp for displaced Rohingyas outside Sittwe, and also interviewed Buddhists in the town who claimed, implausibly, that the Muslims had set their own homes on fire. The Buddhists also complained to the reporters that the United Nations and international aid groups are biased in favor of the Muslims.

A team from the UK's Channel 4 News gained access to Sittwe, which has been off limits to reporters for months.

They filmed an area once home to 10,000 that had been reduced to rubble.

Days of violence in Rakhine state began in late May when a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered by three Muslims. A mob later killed 10 Muslims.

Sectarian clashes spread across the state, with houses of both Buddhists and Muslims being burnt down.

Most Rohingya Muslims have been moved out of Sittwe into temporary camp.The Burmese government declared a state of emergency following the outbreak of violence and has since prevented foreign media from visiting the region

However, the Channel 4 News team filmed the area of Sittwe known as Narzi, which it reported was once home to an estimated 10,000.

Local Rakhine Buddhists were picking through the debris of the houses, which had once been the Rohingya area of the city.

One man told reporters that the Muslims had set fire to their own homes in an attempt to burn down the whole community.

The UNHCR has said that about 80,000 people have been displaced in and around the Sittwe and Maungdaw by the violence.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said that forces sent to quash the unrest were reported to be targeting Muslims.She has called for an independent investigation.There is long-standing tension between Rakhine people, who are Buddhist and make up the majority of the state's population, and Muslims.

According to Moshahida Sultana Ritu, an economist at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh who wrote a New York Times opinion piece on the crisis in July, fears of an influx of refugees “have aroused anti-Rohingya sentiment among some Bangladeshis, and initially Bangladesh’s government tried to force the refugees back without assisting them.”

Ms. Sultana Ritu also said Myanmar’s government used its security forces “to burn houses, kill men and evict Rohingyas from their villages.” The attack on the Rohingyas, the professor said, “is not sectarian violence; it is state-supported ethnic cleansing.”