A whole internally displaced Rohingya family suffering from Tuberculosis (TB) has been languishing without any medical treatments in Sittwe for more than a year.

At first, Aamir Hussein, 65, the head of the displaced family in ‘Thakkay Pyin (Sakki Fara) IDP (internally displaced people) camp, was infected by the TB, one of the widespread infectious diseases in the IDP  camps in Sittwe. Later, as he has been lack of proper medical treatment, the disease has spread to his daughter and two granddaughters; and the rest of his family members.

A year ago, around 35 Rohingya TB patients were admitted to ‘Thakkay Pyin’ clinic. The clinic took X-Rays and Saliva Tests on them upon the admissions.

However, the doctors in the clinic, whom are of Rakhine ethnic origin, citing the medical reports, said that only a few of them were infected by TB, while no signs of TB were found in the other patients including Aamir Hussein. But an ailing Aamir Hussein went to ‘Dar Paing’ clinic to see the doctor. The doctor (who is also a Rakhine) there, too, said that no TB disease was found.

Suffering from the severe disease, the unconvinced Aamir Hussein has given a few more rounds up and down to both clinics afterwards. Every time, he’s been told that no TB was found in him.

Now, after his whole family including his daughter and two of his granddaughters have been infected by the TB, he was told to have been found TB in him.

Unfortunately, there are no medical means available for them to cure the disease. It seems that the hopeless and miserable family, especially the old Aamir Hussein, has been awaiting a sad and slow demise.

His daughter and two granddaughters miserably suffering from TB are:

Husn Ara, 30 (daughter)

Tasmine Ara, 5 (granddaughter)

Yasmine Ara, 2 (granddaughter)

More than 140,000 Rohingyas have been internally displaced by the state-government-backed genocidal violence in June 2012 and afterwards. They have been isolated and ghettoed in the squalid concentration camps known as IDP camps in the outskirts of Sittwe and Pauktaw Townships.

And after the expulsion of the foreign medicos and humanitarian workers by the state-government-backed rioting Rakhine mob in March 2014, no international humanitarian agencies and medical workers have got full access to these ill-fortunate displaced Rohingyas.

The Burmese military has been subjecting the local Rohingyas in northern Maungdaw Township as forced labours for a few days now, according to the reliable reports.

The military from ‘Battalion 352’ in northern Maungdaw has been forcing the locals to carry woods from a few villages such as ‘Ye Nouk Nga Thar and Thaman Thar’ to their camp.

It has been reported that when the locals refuse to follow the military’s orders, they beat the innocent people and also extort money from them. On October 25, the military stopped the following four people on their way to ‘Thaman Thar Market’ and subjected them to put the woods on their vans.

They are:

• Noor Kamal Ajmal Hussein from ‘Nat Chaung-Laung Bouk’ village
• Khalid Hussein Rashid Ahmed from ‘Thet Kaing Nya-Laung Bouk’ village
• Rahmat Hussein Abdu Salam from ‘Thet Kaing Nya-Laung Bouk’ village
• Fau’izullah Noor Alam from ‘Thet Kaing Nya-Laung Bouk’ village

Initially, the four people hesitated to follow the military’s order to be their forced labours. Therefore, the military including the captain beat them up in gang. And they subjected them as forced labours.

Even after that, the military extorted Kyat 20,000 from each of them as fines for hesitating to follow their orders, according to an eyewitness.

The Burmese Border Guard Police (BGP) has demanded ransom from the sanctuary committee of a mosque in southern Maungdaw for repairing the mosque’s ‘tower for call to prayer.’

The tower for call to prayer (Aadhan) of the Mosque in ‘Inn Din’ village in southern Maungdaw was damaged by the Cyclone Komen in the region few months ago. Therefore, the Rohingya Muslim sanctuary committee of the mosque has repaired the merely 5-feet-tall tower by replacing the damaged tower-post with a new one.

Therefore, Captain Lin Lin Naing the in-charge of the camp of the Border Guard Police in ‘Inn Din’ village, summoned the sanctuary committee of the mosque to his camp on October 13. And he demanded Kyat 1 Million from the committee accusing them of repairing the whole mosque.

The BGP Captain threatened the committee members that he would send them to prison if they fail to fulfil his demand. Hence, the committee members are really worried now, according to a local Rohingya in the region.

The President Thein Sein gave instructions to repair any sanctuary structures damaged by the cyclone during his visit to the township post the natural disaster in early August. However, the authorities at lower level have begun to threaten the Mosque Committees and to demand money for the repairs of the mosques and other religious buildings. And when the committees were to fulfil their demands, they have ordered to destroy the sanctuary buildings.

Read Earlier Reports Here:

Township Administrator Threaten Sanctuary Committees in Buthidaung

Myanmar’s Authorities Demolish Mosques and Religious School

Myanmar’s armed forces have been conducting raids in Rohingya villages in Kyauktaw Township since Sunday for two reportedly missing Rakhine men, the local sources report.

The armed forces, the Kyauktaw Police and the Military, along with some local Rakhines have accused the local Rohingyas of killing the two missing Rakhine men hail from the downtown of Kyauktaw while they had gone out to look for and catch frogs in the nearby Rohingya villages.

During the raids in ‘Napuu Paing’ village, a Rohingya said to the armed forces “I met with them last night. I even treated them with ‘Betel Leaves and Nuts’ to chew.” Upon that, they police arrested him and took him away on pretext of further investigation on him. Since then, it has been unknown where he has been detained and in which condition he has been till now.

After the arrest, they continued conducting raids in other Rohinya villages on October 11.

Yesterday, the police, the military and some Rakhine extremists carried out raids in ‘Pithi Paikthay’ village and ‘Ni Taung’ village under the allegation that the villagers have killed the two Rakhines and buried in the Muslim cemeteries. Therefore, they dug out the graves to look for their corpses.

No clues such dead bodies or killings of the two Rakhine men by the Rohingyas have been found yet.

However, they have been continuing the raids in Rohingya villages without any concrete evidences that the Rohingyas committed the killings.

“It’s a pure allegation against us. Perhaps they want to create a problem and trigger violence against us. That’s why they are plotting it.

We are very worried,” said a local Rohingya in Kyauktaw.

Rohingya shops on fire in sittwe Arakan

 The Burmese Border Guard Police (BGP) beat and humiliate local Rohingyas in Maungdaw Township; and extort money from them on daily basis, according to the reliable sources. 

The gang of the BGP is based in ‘Thiho Kyun’ village and led by their Sergeant Min Zaw notorious as ‘Money Extortion Machine.’ He and his subordinates arbitrarily beat and harass the local Rohingyas in ‘Thiho Kyun’ village for ransom.

“On October 2 around 8:00PM, Sergeant Min Zaw and other three BGP personnel broke into the resident of Daw Salimah Khatun in ‘Thiho Kyun’ village. They arrested her visiting son-in-law on allegation that he failed to achieve a ‘Guest-Stay Permit’ (permission that a Rohingya needs to apply if when they visit and stay in other village).

After, he demanded Kyat 4 Million from her to release. Else, he threatened he would file him and send him to prison by accusing him of having connections with *RSO.

Subsequently afterwards, he entered the resident of ‘U Shamshu’ and searched his home. Since he was not present at home at the time, he pulled the shirt of his wife present at the scene and threw two punches at her.

And, he scolded all the family members of the households using racist slurs and left,” said a worried Rohingya in the village.

Besides, he arrested U Aamir Hamza, a community health worker, and took him to the BGP Camp while he was rounding the Thiho Kyun village around 8:30PM on October 3. Although nothing illegal was found with him, he demanded Kyat 6 Million ransom accusing him of possessing Yaba Tablets (WY). The next morning, he released him (Aamir Hamza) on the condition that he would need to pay Kyat 1.1 Million and withheld his (Aamir Hamza’s) motorcycle.

However, Aamir Hamza chose to lodge a complaint against him to the head-quarter of Border Guard Police (BGP) Administration. Although the commander of the BGP at ‘4-Mile-Area’ Camp transferred him (the BGP Sergeant) to another camp on October 5, he extorted Kyat 200,000 from Aamir Hamza to return his motorbike, according to a report by a local source.

*RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organization) = the former Rohingya armed resistance wing, now non-existent! Burmese authorities frequently use this ‘RSO’ tag to oppress innocent people!

The village administrator of a village in northern Maungdaw has been continuously oppressing the innocent Rohingya villages for a long time.

The village is called ‘Re Nouk Nga Thar’ village in northern Maungdaw Township and is administered by a Dinet Rakhine extremist named ‘U Maung Mya.’ He was selected as the administrator/head of the village with 200 Rohingya households and 40 Dianet Rakhine Households since 2008.

Since then, he has become highly connected with the officials in the Maungdaw Township administration and the Maungdaw District Administration. Therefore, he abuses his power, mistreat the Rohingyas and brutally over them.

When the villagers complain to the township administration against the oppression by the Rakhine extremist village administrator, the authorities do not take any action against him. But rather, the township administration informs him the names of the people that lodged the complaints against him and he oppresses the complainants even more.

Therefore, the oppressed villagers become preys of double victimization.

He was a poor man before he was made the administrator/head of the village. However, he now owns two Bungalows, One Shop-Row, a Cinema Theatre, a domestic animal farm, a Car, a Motorcycle, a Fruit Farm, Acres of lands and many more. He has earned all these properties not by working hard by through Money Extortions from the Rohingya villagers and seizing their properties using his power.

For instance, on September 22, he accused a Relgious Scholar named Mv Abu Taher, 45, of stealing fruits from his farm and summoned him to his home. He tortured him through various means. And extorted Kyat 80,000 from him by threatening to hand him over to the police and subsequently send to prison.

Many more atrocities he is committing against the innocent people are yet to be reported.

 The internally displaced Rohingyas in Pauktaw Township refused the shelter homes offered by the Myanmar authorities demanding restorations to their original homes and lands.

U Kyan Aye, the head of Pauktaw Township Administration, visited the ‘Sintet Maw (Sandama)’ IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps in Pauktaw Township around 3:00PM on Monday. During the meeting with the internally displaced Kamans and Rohingyas (IDP) in the camps, he said that there’s an instruction from the higher officials to build a single-storey house separately, one unit for every family at the place where they are currently living.

However, the displaced Kamans and Rohingyas in the camps originally from ‘Kyauk Phyu’ Township, responded saying “we are ready to accept anything if the government is restoring us to our original lands and homes in Kyauk Phyu. We’ll never agree to any proposal no matter if the government is planning to build flats or buildings here.”

Afterwards, U Kyan Aye asked the displaced people to sing on the paper by mentioning that they (the IDP) were refusing the offer of the shelter homes. Around 70 people have signed the letter of rejection.

Having the signatures of the people on the paper, the U Kyan Aye, left at around 5:00PM of the day. Before leaving, he said that he would submit the letter to the higher authorities.

None of the IDP (Kyauk Phyu Township) has been threatened or arrested by the authorities for the refusal of the offer yet. However, they (the IDP that signed on the letter) are worried that they will be troubled by the authorities sooner or later.

On September 24, U Kyan Aye, the head of Pauktaw Township Administration, paid a similar visit to the ‘Sintet Maw (Sandama)’ IDP camps and held a meeting with the camp committee regarding the issue.

The Muslim people, both Kamans and Rohingyas, fled from their hometown ‘Kyauk Phyu’ for ‘Sintet Maw in Pauktaw Township’ after their homes and villages have been burnt down and razed by the state-sponsored Rakhine (Magh) terrorists in October 2012. Attempt to make them permanently live in the IDP camps and to not return them their original homes and lands is a plan by the government to render them homeless and landless.

Myanmar’s Township Administrative Authorities in Buthidaung Township demolished a mosque and a religious school being repaired after they had been damaged by the Cyclone ‘Komen’ last Thursday. 

The President Thein Sein gave instructions to repair any sanctuary structures damaged by the cyclone during his visit to the township post the natural disaster. However, U Than Shwe, the township administrator of Buthidaung, has ordered the Islamic sanctuary committees to stop repairing the sanctuary structures or pay him humongous amount of bribes for the repairs. [Please Read the Earlier Report: Township Administrator Threaten Sanctuary Committees in Buthidaung]

The administrator U Than Shwe, a Rakhine extremist, has threatened some sanctuary committees in the township and extorted Kyat 1 Million to 2 Million for repairing mosques and other sanctuary structures. He then demanded Kyat 10 Million each from the Sanctuary Committees in ‘Alay Chaung (Ali Yong)’ village and ‘Attwin Nget Thay’ village respectively. None of the committees was able to pay such humongous amount of ransom money.

Hence, last Wednesday, he summoned the committee members of Alay Chaung’ village to his office and ordered them to demolish the mosque erected. However, the committee members responded “we won’t be able to demolish a Mosque once it is erected. It is not permitted in the religion of Islam.”

The next day, U Than Shwe ordered the administrator of Alay Chaung village to hire workers to demolish the mosque. And then, the mosque was subsequently demolished.

“The mosque was fully destroyed during the cyclone. Hence, it was being rebuilt and re-erected. It was not fully built but only the roof was covered with Tin. The tin roof was taken down by the hired workers,” said a villager in Alay Chaung.

Similarly, the administrator of ‘Kin Taung’ village, upon the instruction of U Than Shwe, demolished the roof of the Tafiz Religious School which was under re-construction after it had been damaged by the storm. The reason behind the demolition is that the School Committee has refused Kyat 10 Million bribes for the repair works.

Restriction on Freedom of Religion and Belief is one of the many fundamental human rights violations being committed against Rohingyas by the Myanmar’s ultranationalist governments throughout decades.

 A gang of drunken Myanmar’s Security Forces known as Hlun Htein attempted to rape a 21-year-old Rohingya girl in Sittwe (Akyab) Township last night. 

The gang of security police forces, being high on alcohol, broke into the residence of Mr. Khalu @ Yusuf at around 1:30AM on October 1. Three of them, then, dragged his daughter, Ms. Kharisa, out of the house as another security force shut her mouth tightly. Tearing off her clothes, they began to attempt to rape her in gang.

Meanwhile, she struggled and managed to take the hand off her mouth and screamed for help loudly. Her father came out of the house and shouted for help to his neighbors. As his neighbors arrived at the place in crowd to rescue the girl, the Security Forces ran away.

15 minutes later, 14 Security Forces arrived at the place of the incident to arrest the victim, Ms. Kharisa, and her father. However, they could not arrest them because the villagers confronted the criminal security forces. When many more villagers started to gather, they left the place for their camp.

Two people were injured during the confrontations with the Security Forces that attempted to rape the girl in gang. The security police forces serve under the Battalion-36 which is very close to the place of the crime and the Sittwe University.

“The police forces daily abuse, beat and rob Rohingyas passing by their camp. Sometimes, they pretend to be normal civilian Rakhines (Maghs) and some other times, as Security Police Forces in uninform to torture and rob the Rohingya passers-by.

Although the locals often complain to their commander Major Wunna Zaw, no action is taken against the brutal and barbaric security forces. Hence, they are committing crimes against Rohingyas with impunity,” said a local Rohingya in Sittwe.