At least 7 people were arrested recently including a village headman over the blatant allegation of helping the 4 victims that had earlier escaped from detention in Auk-Neyak (Razarbill), Rathedaung Township, according to reliable sources.

The arrested victims were identified as 1. Mohd Amin s/o U Bosho 40 (Headman of the village)

Ismail s/o U zakari 35

Ismail Minor son 16

Futikka s/o Abdu salam 20

Aman Ullah s/o Filali 44

Rahmat Ulah s/o Filali 45

Mv Nabi Hussain s/o U Taher 32 (An Imam of the Mosque)

All hail from Auk-Neyak (Razarbill village of Rathedaung Township and all the villagers are in fear of arrest and inhuman torture.

On February 8 2015, 7 innocent Rohingyas were arrested from same village over the allegations of refusing to participate in the census re-enumeration process, while many other villagers were also tortured then.

Of them, two persons were released and one of them named Boni Amin son of Ayub 22 was jailed for five years.

Other four people — Mv. Yousuf Jalal son of Sayed Ahmed 52, Mv Mohd Ali son of Hafez Ahmed 42, Iman Hussain son of Furuk Ahmed 42, Abdu Salam son of Sultan 48, were severely tortured in the Custody till 22nd March 2015.

They came to know they will be jailed on 24th March 2015 by the source of the BGP commander. Hence, they managed to escape from the detention to avoid the arbitrary jail term on 22nd March midnight. Having had many troubles on the way, they finally reached to Bangladesh according to the latest information received.

On the other hand, 7 BGP personnel were held guilty for the escape of the detainees and subsequently ordered to be suspended. But the BGP pleaded for one-month-time before taking action against them and said they would arrest the detainees that had fled.

Now, in the village, some of the puppets of the authority provided a list of some innocent villagers to the authority alleging them helping the escapees with food and still in touch with them.

But the escaped victims have reached Bangladesh; our sources confirmed talking to them by telephone. Therefore, the Border Guard Police is baselessly alleging the innocent people of giving shelter to them and subsequently torturing them.

The fearful villagers would like to request all the concerned authority and individuals to helping them though true information of the escapees to the authority and to stop further harassment on the innocent villagers.

ROHINGYA DENIED RIGHT TO VOTE – NEW BRIEFING ON ‘WHITE CARD’ WITHDRAWAL

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK today publishes a new briefing paper the escalation of repression of the Rohingya by President Thein Sein by withdrawing their right to vote.

The briefing paper: ‘The Rohingya, the Citizenship Law, temporary registration, and implementation of the Rakhine State Action Plan’, is available at http://brouk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Briefing-Paper-on-White-Card.pdf.

On February 11th 2015, President Thein Sein announced that all Temporary Registration Certificates, known as ‘White Cards’, would expire on 31st March 2015, and had to be returned to the authorities by 31st May.

At a stroke, this move has disenfranchised around a million people, mostly ethnic Rohingya, from the upcoming general election due in Burma in November 2015. It also prevents the Rohingya from taking part in a possible referendum on Burma’s constitution, which could take place this year.

The response from the international community to this further attack on the rights of the Rohingya was almost complete silence.

Having stripped the Rohingya of one of the few rights they did have, the ability to vote, President Thein Sein now intends to fully apply the 1982 Citizenship Law on the Rohingya. All Rohingya will now be processed under this law. But the provisions of this law mean that the vast majority, some experts predict well above ninety-percent, will not be able to meet the citizenship requirements of the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. The intention of the Burmese government is then to place all these Rohingya into what amount to giant concentration camps, and then seek countries for them to be deported to.

The briefing paper also highlights the failure of the British government to take practical action to try to prevent further repression.

Although the British government has provided financial support for aid to internally displaced Rohingya, senior UN officials still describe the situation in the camps as the worst they have ever seen. Despite this, the British government is not supporting calls for higher level international pressure to persuade the Burmese government to allow unhindered international humanitarian access to the camps, such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon personally taking the lead in negotiating humanitarian access.

The British government is refusing to support calls for a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations and government policies against the Rohingya. Instead it says it is calling on the Burmese government to conduct its own investigations, even though they are aware that the Burmese government will not do so.

“It appears that no matter how serious the human rights violations against the Rohingya are, and what new policies President Thein Sein brings in to repress the Rohingya and try to drive the Rohingya out of Burma, it has no impact at all on the British government’s policy of supporting the Burmese government,” said Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.

For more information please contact Tun Khin on +44 (0) 7888714866.

An accidental fire destroyed around 28 Rohingya homes and two religious buildings in Buthidaung Township around 3:30PM today, eyewitnesses said.  

The incident of the blaze took place in a Rohingya village called ‘Darpaing Sara’ in northern Buthidaung Township.

The two religious buildings include one Mosque and a Religious School. The villagers are said to have lost millions worth properties in the fire. Besides, three cattle got burned alive as the people were unable to find ways to save them due to the extreme blaze.

“The fire brigade, as usual, didn’t arrive in time as the fire happened to have occurred in our village and caught our homes” said a villager.  

The fire is said to have started from the kitchen of a poor man’s home as he was cooking some vegetables.

Later, Buthidaung Authority arrested the man responsible for the cause of the fire.