Authority again extends curfew in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Maungdaw township high level authority again extended curfew which was end today in Maungdaw, according to an officer from Maungdaw.

“Today-December 8- is the last day to withdraw the curfew from Maungdaw, but U Kyi San –the Township administration officer- announced the curfew will continuous without time limited.”
“The Township administration officer also announced that the situation in Maungdaw is not under control and trying to keep Law and order.”
The curfew will damage the lives of Rohingya community in Maungdaw, as the security force will show the curfew to extort or harass Rohingya. It will not happen any thing for Rakhine community, said an elder from Maungdaw.
“The curfew is only a cause to harass Rohingya community by authority in Maungdaw and to make disappointment and compile the Rohingyas to left their birth land. The authority will not allow Rohingya to work for their survival with restriction of movement which will damage the lives of Rohingyas. For these reason, Rohingya will leave their home land to Bangladesh which the authority dream it.”
“It will not happen as the Rohingya will not leave their home land as they are living in this land since long time.”
The President Thein Sein  tries to keep times for solving the Arakan riots , showing the government has no fund to solve the problem between Rohingya and Rakhine and asking money from international community, but didn’t allow the aids worker to work in the field. The government is just trying to get money from international community. The government didn’t supply aids to Rohingyas IDPs where foods and every things need for people are available for Rakhine community which was stated recently by BBC reporter, said a politician from Maungdaw.

Hundreds of Rohingya Held Captive as Three Boats Land on Thai Islands

PHUKET: Three boats laden with Rohingya men and boys have been apprehended off the Andaman coast of Thailand today, according to reports.

Two of the boats came ashore at Ko Chang, an island near Thailand's border with Burma that bears the same name as a tourist destination in the Gulf of Thailand. 

The third boat landed at Ko Sinhi, an island 18 kilometres from Ranong, a large Thai border port.

The first boat at Ko Chang landed at 7am with 170 people - an unusually high number - on board.

A second boat landed at 9.40am and the third vessel reached Ko Sinhi at 11am.

It's not known how many people were on board the second and third vessels. 

All three groups were apprehended by the Royal Thai Navy, usually reliable sources have told Phuketwan.

The current whereabouts of the people on the boats in not known. 

Boats have been leaving ports in Bangladesh or Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar), scene of deadly clashes since June, at the rate of at least one a day since late October. 

Why the boats have landed in Thailand so far north of Malaysia, the usual destination for the Muslim-minority boatpeople, is not known. 

Thailand has been employing a ''help on'' policy, intercepting Rohingya vessels if they come too close to the Thai coast and supplying food and water on condition that the passengers sail on, past Thailand.

Deadly battles between Rohingya and Rakhine locals have killed at least 170 people and razed thousands of homes since a rape and murder lit simmering animosity in May. 

With thousands of Rohingya forced to live in displaced persons camps where conditions are primitive and where children are said to be malnourished, many are trying to flee by water. 

A boatload of 112 men and boys was apprehended when they came ashore at Thai Muang, a short drive north of Phuket, on November 10. 

The passengers included included 56 teenagers - the youngest aged just 14. Another 46 people on board were under 26.

Officials in Thailand described them as ''Burmese'' to stifle any suggestion that as Rohingya, they could be categoriesed as refugees. 

Phuketwan obtained a list of the names of the men and was able to confirm that they were Rohingya. 

All of them were trucked north from Thai Muang the same day, probably to be delivered in Ranong to people smugglers. Because they are stateless non-citizens, Burma does not take them back. 

The increased flow of boats leaving Burma is likely to continue until the ''sailing season'' ends with the arrival of the monsoon in April.

Trapped by Traffickers: Fleeing Rohingya Held Captive on the Thai Border

PHUKET: Rohingya fleeing ethnic cleansing and starvation in Burma are driving a surge in business for people traffickers on the Thai border with Malaysia.

The would-be refugees, who arrive by boat, are imprisoned in primitive conditions until someone pays for their passage across the border into Malaysia.

Recently, the people smugglers' fees have risen to the equivalent of 50,000 baht or even 60,000 baht per person. Brokers have been chasing ''investors'' in a widening circle, even on Phuket or in Bangkok.

If the fee is not met, Rohingya are usually indentured to work on fishing trawlers for up to 12 months to pay off their broker bond the hard way. 

Virtually all authorities on both sides of the Thailand-Malaysia border take a cut from the fee. The broker usually only pockets 10,000 baht per person as profit. 

A rapidly increasing number of Muslim-minority Rohingya are fleeing Rakhine state, where so-called community violence since June has led to at least 170 deaths and the torching of thousands of houses. 

Dispossessed Rohingya are being penned in rough camps, where conditions have shocked United Nations visitors and where many young children are reported to be on the verge of starvation.

At least one boat a day now leaves the region, its passengers consisting of men and teenage boys hoping for sanctuary and a fresh start in Muslim-majority Malaysia. 

The tacitly-sanctioned ethnic cleansing has brought a dramatic increase in the number of departures. But the penning of the Rohinya in tens of thousands in Burma means they have been unable to make even an impoverished living for months. 

So when the telephone call inevitably comes from a trafficker asking for the fee to facilitate the final step of an illegal passage to Malaysia, more families are these days unable to raise the money. 

Hundreds of Rohingya are reported to spend time in captivity in the Thai province of Satun, awaiting the chance to make a crossing to Malaysia once the broker's fee is delivered. 

However, with fewer people able to pay up, more Rohingya are believed to be forced to work on trawlers in conditions that amount to slavery at sea. 

Survivors have told of being kept at work on the Andaman Ocean for as long as 12 months without a break, with supply tenders replenishing food and taking off loads of fish. 

''People who arrive in Satun expecting to have to pay a fee are usually only kept under armed guard for a night or two,'' an informed contact told Phuketwan. 

''They then cross the border, either by boat or simply walking through jungle trails, depending on where they are being kept prisoner. Most of the taffickers operate from plantations.

''Once in Malaysia, the Rohingya will usually be picked up by car and deposited at the door of relatives, whether in Kuala Lumpur or some other place.

''But those who can't raise the entrance money have a problem.''

With increasing numbers taking to boats and with cash short among Rakhine Rohingya, more teenagers and young men are thought to now be forced into slavery at sea. Others become guards or act as agents for the traffickers.

As a result of the boom in supply and the lack of money, brokers have been hastening to clear the bottleneck.

''We have been contacted,'' a Rohingya source on Phuket told Phuketwan last week. ''We don't have any relatives involved.

''But the traffickers are determined to find the money any way they can to make room for the next boatload.''

In the past, non-Rohingya Muslim groups on Phuket have raised money to free young men who otherwise would have been sent to sea.

Although the system is iniquitous, Rohingya and NGOs accept it as better than the alternative: a hopeless future for many in Rakhine state, where the message of race-hate against the despised Rohingya is now openly reinforced by officials at every level. 

All the Asean countries bordering the Andaman Sea along with India are part of a conspiracy to keep their sordid part in the Rohingya tragedy low-key. 

Burma's neighbors no longer openly report the arrival of Rohingya. 

At least seven boatloads are said to have arrived on the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi in recent weeks, with others likely to have landed north and south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket. 

Those who land far enough south of Phuket are reported to be transported to Satun and delivered to people smugglers. 

Those who are captured north of Phuket are returned to Ranong, a port on the border with Burma, where they too are transferred to traffickers. 

As stateless people without citizenship and unwanted in Burma, the Rohingya are seldom transported back to Rakhine. 

Most often, those apprehended in Thailand north of Phuket are recorded as ''Burmese'' to prevent alarming NGOs or the media. 

The surge of Rohingya in the border bottleneck is expected to grow between now and April when the monsoon season makes the perilous voyage - which can be deadly at any time - too dangerous even for desperate people.