Maungdaw — At the village of Kyikanpyin in Northern Maungdaw, 16 Rohingya men including some teenagers were arbitrarily arrested by the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) during a raid jointly conducted with the military in the early morning on Thursday (Dec 29), it has been reported.

About 150 BGP and Military personnel besieged the Kyikanyin village locally known as Hawar Bil at about 4:00 am and indiscriminately arrested anyone encountered during the joint raid. All of the 16 men arrested are innocent people, according to the locals.

Reportedly, the administrator of Kyikanpyin, U Phyo Zaw Tun (a natala Rakhine extremist living at Aung Zeyar village), conspired with the BGP to launch a raid on the village to arrest the villagers whom he personally loathes.

“Earlier, people used to be alert of the raids and arrests by the military and the BGP. Off late, people have begun to try to live a normal life.

“And UNHCR and WFP provided some aids to the villagers of Kyikanpyin a few days ago. The UNHCR was also to provide aids to the villagers of Wa Peik (WaBek) on Thursday. So, some villagers stayed back in the village at night with the hope of having UNHCR aids on the next day.

“Taking advantage of the both situations, the BGP and the military acting on the arrest-list of aubmitted by the village administrator timingly launched a raid on the village and arbitrarily arrested 16 innocent people”, said U Aye Myint, a human rights observer, based in Maungdaw.

The people arrested on Thursday are:
(From the West hamlet of Kyikanpyin,)

1) Ibadullah (20), s/o Hassan
2) Faisal (19), s/o Abdu Salam
3) A 17-year-old son of Jalal Ahmed
4) Anwar Sadek (17), s/o Abdul Majid
5) Kabir (17), s/o Daw Mamtaaz
(These four are from the West hamlet of Kyikanpyin.)

(From middle hamlet of Kyikanpyin,)
1) Mohammed Salam, 47
2) Karimullah (16), s/o Zakir Ahmed
3) Aamir Safa (17), s/o Salimullah

(From Wapeik hamlet of Kyikanpyin,)
1) Noor Islam (25), s/o Hamid Hussein
2) Mohammed Johar (21), s/o Sheikh Ahmed
3) Sayed Ahmed (40), s/o Fazal Ahmed
4) Hassan (31), s/o Rashid Ahmed
5) Safar Alam (20), s/o Shomsul Alam
6) Iman Hussein, 50
7) Rafique (?), s/o Khalu
8) Mohammed Alam (?), s/o Daw Habiya Khatun

The people arrested are reported to have been being interrogated in the BGP Headquarter. The villagers are still hopeful that they will eventually be released as they feel that they are very much innocent.

The Myanmar military began a full-on offensives on the Rohingya community at large in northern Maungdaw on the pretext of ‘Region Clearance Operation’ as the aftermaths of the raids by a rebel group — born out of decades-long persecutions which has now been identified as Harakat Al Yakin or the Faith Movement — on three Border Guard Police posts in Maungdaw on October 9, 2016. Since then, at least 1,000 civilians have been arrested, tortured and subjected to arbitrary detentions/long-term imprisonments without fair trials.

The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) continues to demolish Rohingya homes daily across Maungdaw district since mid December 2016, reliable reports emerge from Maungdaw.

After burning thousands of Rohingya homes in northern Maungdaw since October 9, the BGP began to demolish homes in northern Maungdaw, which later spread to other parts of Maungdaw district including southern Maungdaw and Buthidaung Township. 

 

The BGP, reportedly acting on the order by the Rakhine State Chief Minister and the Commander in-Chief of the BGP, have recently demolished homes in the following villages (besides the reports on the demolition of homes we have earlier).

 

[Also read: Rohingya Homes Demolished in Southern Maungdaw

                  More Rohingya Homes Demolished across Maungdaw Township

                  Man Shot at Head for Refusing to Demolish his Home]

. 

In Northern Maungdaw,

 

I) In LonDoong village on December 27,

1) 11 houses and 4 shops were destroyed at Kyun Gaung hamlet of LonDoong

2) 15 houses were destroyed at ‘Kyaik Chaung’ hamlet of LonDoong (some 40-year old homes were also destroyed.)

3) 25 houses were destroyed at ‘Sinthae Pyin’ hamlet of Londoong

4) 8 houses and 3 shops were destroyed at ‘Zaydi Pyin’ hamlet of LonDoong

15) 15 houses were destroyed at ‘Mya Zin’ hamlet of LonDoong.

 

II) In ‘Sabbay Gone’ village on December 27,

1) 8 houses were destroyed. 

 

III) In ‘Taung Pyo Lat Ya’ on December 26,

1) 3 houses were destroyed.

 

IV) In ‘Thayet Oak’ village on December 25,

1) 6 houses were destroyed.

 

V) In ‘Kyauk Pyin Seik’ village on December 26,

1) 25 houses and 15 shops were ordered to be destroyed.
. 

In Southern Maungdaw,

 

I) In the village of ‘Padin’ on December 26,

1) 11 houses and 6 shops

 

II) In the village of  ‘Du Nyaung Pin Gyi’ on December 26,
1) 5 houses were destroyed. 

 

After continuously demolishing homes in the rural areas, the BGP has handed further lists of homes to be destroyed over to the administrators of the respective Rohingya villages in the outskirts of the downtown of Maungdaw.

 

Hundreds of Rohingya homes have been demolished in the Buthidaung Township in the recent weeks. 

 .

The houses and shops being destroyed in the rural villages are not modern buildings that require officials’ permission(s) but traditional country-type structures built of bamboos and woods and covered with ‘Nipa Palm Leaves.’ These widespread destructions of homes are now seen among the locals as yet another attempt of cleansing their (i.e. Rohingya) population through systematic displacement of the people.
The order to demolish homes had only been imposed on the Rohingya community, not on the Rakhine Buddhist community.