Maungdaw high level officers meet Rohingyas

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Maungdaw high level officers held a meeting inviting villagers on October 19, according to a village businessman on condition of anonymity.
“Rohingya villagers of Alethankyaw village tract of Maungdaw south were summoned to attend a meeting yesterday. But, some villagers participated in the meeting as they did not interest the meeting.  So, the concerned authority sent security forces to the village and herded all Rohingya villagers they found on the road and in the village to the meeting room.”

The high level officers of Maungdaw are;- Col. Maung Maung Oo, the Nasaka Director; U Aung Myint Soe, the District Administration  officer; U Kaun Hla San, the District police officer; U Kyi San, the Township Administration officer and Township police officer.
“No one can bring or use any stick, sword, chopper, dagger, catapult and spear while going on the street or inside the houses,” said the District Police officer told the villager in the meeting.
“We will take action according to the law and punish.”
You have to live together with Rakhine people and must send your children to school. You must follow the law and order which was issued by authority, according to U Aung Myint Soe at the meeting.
The Nasaka Director said in the meeting, “You have lived in Burma for generations, but under the 1982 Citizenship Law, you have to apply according to gain the citizenship.”
A Rohingya raised up the question why authorities are arresting the innocent Rohingyas who are not committed any crimes, in the meeting, the officer answered that it was because Rakhines gave complaints about those people and there are more villagers in the list to be arrested, said another villager.
Rohingya Muslims always intend to peacefully coexist with Rakhines as they have lived for many years but not in the condition the authorities described. Rohingya Muslims need equal citizenship as Rakhines. We, Rohingyas are not aliens but citizens of the country. We, Rohingyas are the natives of Arakan, said a Rohingya leader from the locality.
A trader from Maungdaw Town said,” It is a new threat to the Rohingya community to demoralize the Rohingyas.”

Hacked the arm off in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A group of Natala villager – Rakhines – hacked the right arm off from a Rohingya  in Tha Yae Kone Tan ( Thar Khun Baw) village today, according to an elder from the village.
“Yaysu, 22, son of Adul Aziz – the Rohingya – went for grass cutting for his cattle in the morning in the field near the Rohingya village, the western side of Maungdaw – Alay Than Kyaw highway road where 10 Rakhines from east side of highway road came  with lethal  weapons and attacked on him.”
“Yaysu was cutting the grass while the Rakhine group attacked on him, the group hacked the right arm off from Yaysu where Yaysu scream out which made near the villagers rushed to the spot and save the Rohingya but, the right arm was kept by Rakhines, the Natala villagers.”
The information was spread out near the villages and the villagers gather on the highway road, but, the Natala villagers informed to the authority that Rohingyas are attacking the village. The authorities – Distriect admin officer, Township admin officer and Nasaka Director- rushed to the village where they saw Rohingya villagers standing on the highway road to complain the event- hacked the arm off- to the authority, according to an officer from security force.
“We are always attacked by Natala villagers while going grazing the cattle and collecting fire wood from the forest. Our cattle are stealing from the grazing ground day by day. We complained to the security force which station near the village but no action was taken against the Natala villagers. We need our cattle, justice and want to stay peaceful life in our villages,” said an elder to the officers who came from Maungdaw.
“The Nasaka Director told the Rohingya villagers to go back to their villages, but the Rohingyas were not going back to villages and stayed on the road where the villagers demand to return their 65 cattle which was stolen today.”
Later, the authority returned 62 cattle to the Rohingya villagers, which was brought from Natala village. But, the Rohingya villagers still missing more cattle which was stolen from Rohingyas’ villages since June riot, said a farmer from the village.

Myanmar Muslims trapped in a ghetto

Muslim Rohingyas stand outside a school sheltering Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in the village of Theik Kayk Pyim, located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. — AFP

SITTWE — Barbed wire and armed troops guard the Muslim quarter of a violence-wracked city in western Myanmar, a virtual prison for the families that have inhabited its narrow streets for generations.

The security forces outside the ghetto in the Rakhine state capital Sittwe are not there to stop its residents leaving — although few dare to anyway — but to protect them from Buddhist mobs after an outburst of sectarian hatred.

In the nearby city center, life has regained some semblance of normality since the authorities imposed a state of emergency in June in response to Buddhist-Muslim clashes that left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless.

But inside the tense enclave of Aung Mingalar, hundreds of families from the Rohingya Muslim minority group say they are living in fear for their lives.

“Rakhines will attack us today,” one man told AFP at Friday prayers last week.

The same evening groups of Rakhine Buddhists — who have also accused the Rohingya of attacks on their communities — gathered outside the barriers, prompting troops to fire warning shots and sparking panic inside.

On three separate days earlier in the week, hundreds of ethnic Rakhines — sometimes led by Buddhist monks — had marched near the perimeter demanding the “relocation” of Aung Mingalar.

Their shouts were clearly audible by people within the ghetto, who could only imagine what was happening outside.

“In my opinion, living in the Sahara desert in Africa would be better than living in this situation,” said 28-year-old Mohamed Said, tears welling in his eyes.

“We cannot suffer anymore. We have lost everything but our lives. We are human beings as well,” a crying Said said.

Between 3,000 and 8,000 people are thought to live in an area of roughly 0.5 sq km, where no traffic circulates and almost all shops have been shuttered.

Supplies of food — mainly rice — are provided by the authorities and some benevolent Buddhist locals, forced to deliver aid discreetly for fear of fanning local resentments. But there is not enough to eat.

Some Rohingya have dared to breach the barriers — which vary from bamboo and barbed wire to simple security cordons — hiding their faces under hoods to prevent people identifying them.

But most people have not ventured outside in four months.

“This bamboo fence is like a psychological barrier, symbolizing the fear that separates the two worlds,” said Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, which campaigns for Rohingya rights.

Calls are growing for the Muslim quarter to be moved.

“If the Aung Mingalar quarter stays in the city centre, the problem will get worse,” said Nya Na, a leader of a monk association.

“I don’t want the two communities to fight. It is risky for them to stay.”

The stateless Rohingya have long been considered by the United Nations to be one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet.

The segregation recalls South African apartheid in the 1980s, “but worse” because the Rohingya are unable to leave their camps, Lewa said.

“Freedom of movement was always an issue for the Rohingya, but it is an extreme restriction now,” said Sarnata Reynolds, of aid group Refugees International.

“Unofficially there seems to be widespread agreement that the camps will likely be there for three years or more, and that it might be the beginning of a permanent segregation.” —