The Burmese military brutally raped 8 Rohingya women at ‘Oo Kye Kyar (Bura Shiddafara) village in northern Maungdaw during a raid on Wednesday (October 19) morning, a local source confirms.

Besides, the military looted money, gold and other ornaments from many women taking advantage of the situation that the (Rohingya) men went into hiding to escape arbitrary arrests, tortures and killings (by the military).

“They conducted raid on each and every house. During the raids, they brutally raped 8 Rohingya women. Some rape victims are still in miserable conditions as they can’t get medical treatment.

“On the other hand, in some houses, the military forced women to take off their ornaments and give away to them. In some other houses, they just brutally pulled away earrings from the ears of the women and chains from their necks,” said a local resident of the village.

The victims of the rapes are:

• Z…… (Daughter of) ? ……, 35
• F…… (Daughter of) N……, 15
• H…… (Daughter of) A……, 18
• N…… (Daughter of) A……, 20
• T…… (Daughter of) R……, 35
• N……. (Daughter of) Z……., 35
• A…… (Daughter of) N……., 15
• R…… (Daughter of) G……., 35

Two more women are feared to have been raped by the military, which is yet to be confirmed.

“On pretext of ‘Cleansing Region, the Burmese military is continuously committing atrocities, rapes and other serious crimes against the innocent Rohingya civilians”, said the above-mentioned resident of ‘Oo Kye Kyar’, “is Raping innocent women of the ethnic minorities really required in the military operations of Burmese regime?”

The Burmese Border Guard Police (BGP) uprooted an entire Rohingya hamlet at KyiKanPyin (Hawar Bil) village in Maungdaw Township today.

The hamlet known as ‘the Middle Hamlet’ comprises around 300 households with over 2,000 people and is the biggest hamlet in KyiKanPyin village. The locals in the hamlet were ordered by the BGP yesterday to leave their homes by today, which is now leading to a mass exodus to different neighbouring villages.

“An officer named Colonel Thura Sann Lwin has been recently appointed as new commander for the BGP Headquarter in KyiKanPyin. He yesterday ordered us through our village administrator to leave our homes by today. As so, the BGP forces started raiding our hamlet and driving us out from our homes around 11 AM today,” said a local who was also driven out of his home.

It has been learnt that the local residents are not even allowed to come back to their homes even to take and pack up their properties and belongings forgotten and left while they were being hastily driven out once after they had left their homes.

Worse, the authorities are not providing them any other places or homes to stay at after expelling them from their original homes.

“They don’t even allow us to go back to our homes and pack up our stuffs. They are not relocating us but expelling us from our own homes by force,” a local woman exclaimed while fleeing.

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“Where will we stay after we leave our homes? Have there been places arranged for us?” asked a village elder to the BGP Commander this morning.

He (the Commander) replied by saying “I don’t know. There are such places arranged for you. Leave wherever you can. I am just following the order from the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT.”

Meanwhile, people are hopelessly fleeing to the neighborhoods without knowing where to stay at and where to eat. And It’s heart-wrenching to see their miserable plights.

Since October 9, more than 20,000 Rohingya civilians have been displaced by the continuous Burmese military assaults in northern Maungdaw region. The journalists and the humanitarians are also blocked from getting access to the whole region leading to a humanitarian catastrophe.