Village administrator’s harassments to local villagers in Buthidaung

Buthidaung, Arakan State:  A village administrator of Buthidaung south has been giving arbitrary harassments to the local villagers accompanied by police and Sarapa (Military Intelligence), according to a village elder who denied to be named.  
“The village administrator is identified as U Maung Than Htay (35), son of U Hla Shwe, hailed from Pron Chaung village of Buthidaung south.”

“The village administrator is from Rakhine community, so he is free from guilty what to do anything against the Rohingya villagers, especially he has been extracting money from villagers by giving false and fabricated allegations to the villagers with the help of Sarapa and police.”

He extorts Kyat 200,000 to 400,000 from each of the villager by threatening with Sarapa or police. There is no law and order. The security forces or Rakhine authorities have been increasing harassments against the Rohingya community since June, this year, said another local leader of the village preferring not to be named. 

After giving allegation, the village administrator arrests the villagers by police or Sarapa and releases them after taking money. This is the normal function of village administrator. He becomes a rich man in the village tract.

He has to control ---Prying Taung village, Paron Chaung Muslim village, Shwe Tapyin, and Dudan villages of Pron Chaung village tract of Buthidaung Township.
When asked the village administration officer, “It is my duty to do this kind of works for authority, I don’t need to inform anybody.”
There is no military security force since November 20, but Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) is present and it does not give any trouble to the Rohingya villages, said a trader from the locality.

The villagers are not allowed to go out of the villages, so far and they did not able to grow their paddy fields fully, but half of the fields were being grown because of movement restriction.

These kinds of persecutions and harassments against the Rohingya people are to be seen very simple by the world community but in really, it is very, very harmful to the Rohingya villagers due to jobless and no earning sources since June this year.  Villagers have been contained in the villages, said a businessman.

Homeless and helpless: The Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state

Homeless Rohingya Refugee , homelesss - Getty Image

Andrew Buncombe
The Independent
December 05, 2012

Disowned by Burma, consigned to refugee camps and caught up in ethnic violence, they tell Andrew Buncombe why they will not give up the fight to win back their communities

What difference does a simple name make? For Mohammad Ali, a resident of this town's last Muslim neighbourhood, a ghetto cut off by barbed wire and military checkpoints, it matters to his very core. "Look here. It asks 'race' and then says 'Rohingya'," the 68-year-old says, touching his chest with one hand, while pointing with the other to a photocopied identity card dating from 1974. "We have been here for a long time. My father, my grandfather, they were born here."

For Shwe Maung, a member of a political party with links to the Buddhist clergy which wants to force Muslims from the state, the matter of a name is equally important. These people are not Rohingya Muslims, he angrily insists, but Bengalis. "They are trying to deceive the world," he adds. "They want the world to think they are natives of Rakhine."

Burma's western Rakhine state has for months been gripped by ethnic violence that has left scores dead and driven up to 100,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya Muslims, into refugee camps. The Buddhist community claims they are at risk of being "swallowed up by outsiders" who they say migrated from Bangladesh, while the Rohingyas, who say they have lived here for centuries, claim they are the victims of ethnic cleansing.

To glimpse the scale of what has happened while the world largely looked away, take the airport road towards the village of Bumay. From there, a rutted track leads to a series of tented camps in which thousands of Muslims are living, having been driven from their communities.

The largest is Borouda, home to 15,000 people. Many here fled here after their properties in Sittwe were attacked in June. Moniyan Khata, a 38-year-old woman, said their neighbourhood had been surrounded by Buddhists and police. "We had to hide in the lake," she said.

And why were they attacked? "We don't know," she replied. "They want our land, they want our properties. They want us to leave the country."

At another camp, Te Chaung, were those who fled more recent violence, both Rohingyas and Kaman Muslims who had escaped by sea from Kyauktaw, 50 miles away. Human Rights Watch released satellite images that revealed Muslim neighbourhoods there had been destroyed on the night of 22 October. Some who escaped spent six days at sea in fishing boats containing 100 people.

"I came in one boat, my husband in another and our children were in a different one," said Chu Kiri, 35, hugging her four children. "At the time I did not know if my husband and children were dead or alive. It was only when we reached here we met up."

The trigger for the clashes this summer was the rape of a Buddhist woman by Muslim men. But tension has existed between the communities for decades.

The Buddhists of Rakhine, Burma's second-poorest state, have always felt neglected by the central authorities. They say their history as an independent kingdom, known as Arakan, has been overlooked. Such bitterness has been seized on by the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), a hardline group established to contest elections in 2010 and which holds 18 seats in the state assembly and 15 in the national parliament. While it says it supports democracy, the RNDP also backs a 1982 law passed by the junta which says the Rohingyas are not citizens, and says they should leave.

In their office on Sittwe's main street, members of the party's central committee claimed the Rohingyas were trying to increase their population. Asked where the Rohingyas should go, one member, Shwe Maung, swept his palms backwards, as if he were brushing away a fly. Asked if the party was racist, one member insisted: "We are not anti-Muslim."

While the RNDP says it is secular, it has links to the Buddhist clergy which has been vocal in its condemnation of the Rohingyas. Abbot Ariyawantha of the Sittwe's Shwe Zadi monastery, said he had advised the RNDP leadership on various issues. He repeated allegations the Muslims were deliberately increasing their numbers and that there was a "conspiracy to invade Arakan cities". The monk denied claims from Rohingya victims that monks took part in attacks or that the clergy had been involved in organising attacks.

Asked about the cause of the violence, he said: "People are angry because of the rape and because they are trying to take our land. It's our reaction to that behaviour."

Asked what should happen to the Rohingyas, he said: "We have to identify illegal immigrants and keep them in refugee camps. If at some time, a third country wants to accept them we would be happy."

But the Rohingyas insist they have lived in the region for centuries and say they want to stay. In Sittwe's Aung Mingalar quarter, Aye Maung, an English teacher, explained how the 7,000 residents were unable to leave and had lived under a cloud of anxiety since the summer. A curfew is in place.

Walking through its dirty streets, he pointed to where Muslim homes and schools had been set alight or bulldozed during the summer violence. On one side were the homes of a handful of Hindu families and Bollywood music could be heard playing. To ensure they were not mistaken for Muslims, the Hindus were flying Buddhist flags.

In a dark shack serving Chinese tea, Mr Maung organised a showing of hands for those who wanted independence, as opposed to Burmese citizenship. Without exception, the customers voted for the latter. "We want to be citizens of Burma. We don't want to leave Rakhine," said Mr Maung.

The conflict in Rakhine is complex and historic. Several thousand Buddhists are also in refugee camps after their homes were set on fire by Muslims. A number have been killed.

Aid organisations expect to be in for the long haul. Marcus Prior, a spokesman for the World Food Programme, said they were now providing emergency food supplies to 110,000 people. "We have asked for funding to see us through to the middle of next year," he said.

Christophe Reltien, Burma head of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department, said the Muslim population was growing faster than the non-Muslim population. He said the attacks against Muslims were not spontaneous. "We know in some areas it was well organised and not simply people going after a few houses," he said. "Messages were sent to the [Muslim] community that they should move."

The government of Thein Sein has established a committee to investigate the violence. The committee includes members of different religions, but no Rohingyas. Among its members are democracy activists who have spoken out against the Rohingyas.

Indeed, for observers the most disappointing role has been that played by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who – unlike Barack Obama, who has defended the Rohingyas – has refused to denounce the attacks and simply said violence was committed by both sides. At her National League for Democracy's office, her spokesman, Nyan Wyn, said the Rohingyas' future should be decided by the 1982 citizenship law. When it was suggested the Rohingyas had lived in Burma for centuries, he said: "That is not true. They were not here before 1824."

In Aung Mingalar, the Rohingyas believe Ms Suu Kyi has forgotten them. "She is keeping silent," said Mr Maung, the teacher. "Perhaps she wants more votes from Buddhists."

Burma camp for Rohingyas 'dire' - Valerie Amos

Rohingya refugee camps in Rakhine state (Photo - Partners Relief)

BBC News
December 05, 2012

The UN's top humanitarian official has said conditions for displaced Burmese Muslim Rohingyas are "dire", and called on Burma to improve them. 

Valerie Amos made the comments after visiting camps in Rakhine state. 

More than 135,000 people displaced during six months of ethnic conflict are living in camps in the state, the vast majority of them Rohingyas. 

The BBC's Jonah Fisher says Rohingyas are living in much worse conditions than Rakhine Buddhists. 

He says a camp on the peninsula of Myebon, exclusively for Rakhine Buddhists, had smart tents, working sanitation and a regular delivery of food and medical supplies. 

But a short drive up the road - past the burnt-out squares that were once their homes - some 4,000 Rohingya Muslims live crammed together on a fetid pile of mud, surrounded by streams of water filled with sewage, our correspondent adds. 

There are Burmese guards on all sides to stop them leaving, he says.

"It's a dire situation and we have to do something about it," Baroness Amos told the BBC. 

"Unfortunately we as the United Nations are not able to get in and do the range of work we would like to do with those people, so the conditions are terrible." 

She said UN efforts had been hampered by administrative and visa problems, as well as by a lack of funding. 

The UN has received less than one-third of the $65m (£40m) it says it needs for Rakhine. 

Baroness Amos called for the international community to be more generous, but also said the Burmese authorities had to help with reconciliation. 

She said tensions in the area remained "extremely high". 

"The government also has a responsibility, they have to take the lead," she said. "They have to work to bring the communities together and that work has got to start now." 

Our correspondent says Rakhine Buddhists control all the land around the camp for Rohingyas, and that bringing help is almost impossible.

Updated: Breaking News: NaSaKa (Border Security Force) Torched Rohingyas’ Shops

M.S. Anwar

Maung Daw, Arakan- At 8:30PM this evening, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) from Camp Base-15 of Region (Nay-Myay)-7 arrested two innocent Rohingyas from the village of Baggona, Maung Daw and torched around 40 Rohingyas’ shops in the village. Therefore, Rohingyas lost around 60 Million Kyats as the shops were burnt down. 

“The head NaSaKa of Camp Base-15 of Region (Nay-Myay)-7 ordered his Junior NaSaKas not to arrest any Rohingya from the village. But by ignoring the senior’s order, this evening, some Junior NaSaKa arrested two innocent Rohingyas who were coming out of the mosques after prayer. The two Rohingyas are Fir Mohammed S/o Mohammed Yunus (age-33) and Mv Mohammed Naim S/o (age-50). When these two Rohingyas shouted in their inability to bear up the beating and torturing of these NaSaKas, Rohingyas from the village tried to save them. Then, subsequently, the NaSaKas opened fire at them. 

So as to avoid the questions why they fired at people and the punishments to be given for breaking the Head NaSaKa’s order, they (junior NaSaKas) set fire to the Rohingyas’ shops. They torched the shops to set up a plot that they had to start shooting at Rohingyas because they (Rohingyas) were trying to torch their shops to blame Rakhines for it. Now, Military and the head of the NaSaKa came to the village where the burning took place. We are anticipating that something bad will come up against us and we might be arrested, tortured and can even be killed for something we but they have done” said a Rohingya Elder from a nearby village. 

It is a usual tragedy that Rohigyas have been facing for months. They are paying the price for doing nothing. They are wronged and abused. Instead of having justice, they are facing the double victimization.

Arakan News Updates: the Desperate and Painful Condition of Rohingyas Growing Alarmingly

Detail see Case #3 (Photo - Mohammed Ayub)

Buthidaung, Arakan- On 1st December 2012, at Ye Seik Pyin Hamlet of Sindhi Frang (Sei Yein Pyin) village tract in Buthidaung, Rakhine extremists vandalized a hand of Buddha Statue with a view to persecuting and creating more violence against Rohingyas in the township. The following day, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) arrested seven innocent Rohingyas with the false accusation of this vandalism. It is feared that more Rohingyas might get arrested sooner or later. 

“Rakhine terrorists themselves broke the hand of the Bhudda statue in order to create more chances to persecute Rohingyas. Expectedly, NaSaKa arrested seven Rohingyas for something which they have never involved in. Of them, four were released after the extortion of money and other were handed over to the Police. Their details are:

1. Mohammed Jamil S/o Moghul Ahmed (Released after the extortion of Kyat 5 Lakhs)
2. Imam Hussain S/o Mansoor (Released after the extortion of Kyat 75 Thousands) 
3. Zafar Ahmed S/o Ghani Meah (Released after the extortion of Kyat 75 Thousands) 
4. Mohammed Sadek S/o Jamal Hussain (Released after the extortion of 1.5 Lakhs) 
5. Kabir Ahmed S/o Mubarak Ali (Handed over to Police) 
6. Amir Hussain S/o Rashid Ahmed (Handed over to Police) 
7. Lalu S/o…? (Handed over to Police)” reported by a Local Rohingya from Buthidaung. 

Maung Daw, Arakan - 

Case #1 

At 4PM yesterday (i.e. on 3rd December 2012), while the judge of the Maung Daw Tsp Court was going on his way in his car recklessly driven by his drunkard son, a Rohingya teenager was almost hit by the mentioned car near to the Maung Daw Clock Tower. Subsequently, the judge immediately stopped and got off from the car and chased the boy to beat. The boy, fortunately, could manage to escape the horror scene leaving his bicycle behind. In his desperate to beat the boy, the judge ran his car over the bicycle and made it into pieces. He sent the pieces to the Police station and reportedly filed a case against the boy according to a Rohingya elder from Maung Daw. 

Is he a judge or barbarian? It is not to get forget that he has been one of the Rakhine extremist leaders who have been inciting hatred and violence against Rohingyas since June. 

Case #2 

In another case in Maung Daw, at 3:00PM on 4th December 2012, a Rohingya named Azizul Haque S/o Abu Sayed was arrested at Phyu Gyi Camp by NaSaKa (Border Security Force) accusing that he is under the blacklist of the recent violence. He was on his way to Bangladesh by legal means, using Border Trade Pass. The irony is that he was white-listed recently. He was just an ordinary shopkeeper who used to lead a simple life. He was handed over to Police and is awaiting his bad destiny like other arrested Rohingyas. 

Case #3 

A Rohingya was injured seriously as a NaSaKa (Border Security Force) member recklessly fired at him. 

This is how it happened! 

At 12:40 PM on 4th December 2012, he was going to Mayu Hilltract through the villages of Khawar Bil (Kyi Kan Pyin) and Aung Zaya (a NaTaLa Rakhine village) to get firewood. Meanwhile, he was attacked by some Rakhine terrorists. And NaSaKa member recklessly fired and a bullet hit the Rohingya’s leg. We are inquiring his details. 

Photo - Mohammed Ayub

Case #4 

Authority in Maung Daw is driving out Rohingya people in full swing so as to decrease their population. It has been already six months that Rohingyas have been killed, arrested, tortured, cut off their economic, foods and medicine lines and their women raped etc. So, now, authority in Maung Daw has declared that Rohingyas have a way to escape the persecution. That is Leaving the country is the only way to escape the dire situation. Therefore, authority (especially NaSaKa) is pushing out Rohingyas to the sea through HaisshuRata (Alay Than Kyaw) Sea Beach by collecting some tax. 

In FattarKilla (Mrauk-U), Arakan- At 6:30PM on 30th Novemeber 2012, in Rida Village, three Rohingyas namely Hafez Amjad Hussain (Age 22), Sondula Muktar Hussain (Age 55), and Mohammed Hakim (Age 60) went to a betel shop. Four army officers accompanied by Rakhine Village Administrator U Maung Than came to the shop and asked Hafez Amjad Hussain whether he was a Moulavi (Religious Scholar) or not. Upon saying “Yes,” he was brutally beaten till he became half-dead.

The Rohingya suffer Ethiopian-like starvation

Partners Relief & Development needs financial support and  additional NGOs to help their work
(Photo - Partners Relief)

Mission Network News
December 04, 2012

Burma (MNN) ― It's a situation that is being ignored by the international media and governments around the world.

According to a team member with Partners Relief & Development (PRAD), sectarian violence broke out in Arakan State, Western Burma in May 2012 between the Buddhist Rakhine people and the predominately-Muslim Rohingya.

Despite recent assertions from the Burma government that the situation was back to normal, violence continues to occur, and thousands of people have been displaced. The UNHCR has said that about 80,000 people have been displaced in and around the Sittwe and Maungdaw by the violence. More recent reports from Partners staff on the ground in Arakan State suggest that the number is actually much higher. Some suggest that it may be as high as 200,000.

Why are they attacking each other? That team member, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, says, "The Rakhine people consider the Rohingya illegal immigrants living in their land, even though many of the Rahingya have lived there for many generations and have no other home."

While they have hated one other for decades, the most recent violence took place after a Rakhine girl was assaulted. "The Rakhine retaliated, violence broke out, Rohingya villages were burned to the ground, and people were brutality murdered."

The government stepped in and separated the Rohingya into camps outside the city. "The problem is that in order for the Rohingya to be moved to the camp, they have to sign a statement declaring that they are an illegal immigrant. So, the Rohingya are unwilling to do that."

The PRAD staff member says, "The people who are not willing to sign those statements are fending for themselves and setting up shelters along the road; and the population is swelling. It's becoming a humanitarian crisis, and we are seeing small children and infants dying on a regular basis."

"The crowd of those needing care is growing every day and pressing in upon us. We need help. More teams need to come. More governments of the world need to speak loudly against what is happening here. More donations are necessary to provide any relief," observes a PRAD staff member who is currently in Sittwe, Burma.

The staff member says PRAD has been there serving for about a month. "During that time, we have not seen any other NGOs or groups come and work alongside us, or even on their own."

He says it's unlike any relief situation he's ever worked in. "The biggest difference is the total absence of hope. There's a real hopelessness in this situation. It's not like a natural disaster where the situation can return back to normal very soon."

He suggests this situation reminds him of the famine in Ethiopia.

PRAD hopes that they're Christian foundations and testimony can change that. "We are trying to be a light in a very dark place. We need a lot of prayer, we need financial support to keep doing what we're doing, and we need other groups and other individuals to come alongside us and help in this effort."

PRAD is calling on international aid organizations and governments to quickly engage in the humanitarian work needed in Arakan State. If more aid doesn't arrive soon, there will be widespread deaths, especially among children.

Five Than-Pa-li villagers of Min-Bya were being arrested as a Rakhine Buddhist murderer

Yesterday, there was a personal clash between two Rakhine Buddhist villagers after having heavily drunk in Thay-Kay village of Min-Bya Township. One was being sustained severe injuries and he was being hospitalized in Min-Bya township hospital according to the ground.
  

But to divert the case which was taken place between the two fellows Rakhine, the same fanatic Rakhine villagers have imposed social pressure upon the one who was being hospitalized not to point out the real attacker with whom he has quarreled and sustained injury but to point out Rohingya Muslims as culprits from Than-Pa-Li village instead. 

Date on 22/11/2012, during the series of Muslim villages were being burned down by organized Rakhine mob, Than-Pa-Li village was also one of them and (227) houses of (333) houses were burnt into ashes by the Rakhine mob. During the torching, 35 years old young male Rohingya and a 60 years old lady were stabbed to dead by Rakhine.

Afterward, a state level criminal investigation team has arrived to the village (Than-Pa-li) to examine thoroughly the bloodshed taken place and exposed the dead bodies from their graves to examine for their further proof and asked the villagers about likely intruders into the village for the attack on Rohingya Muslims.

The Muslim villagers have pointed out the realized ones who are in fact Rakhine attackers from the nearby village of Thay-Kan.

Because of the past connection, Rakhine having been the animosity against Muslims, right now, Rakhine fanatic are cooperatively shaping the culprits of the quarrel between two drunken Rakhine as to be of innocent Muslims from the village of Than-Pa-li -- which was severely damaged by the torching and the lives of the people have been totally devastating since then. As more, as Rohingya villagers from any of their villages could not exit from their villages and could not move from one village to another and how Muslims can make clashes with Rakhine after going to their village at this critical and deadly situation.

According to the complaint made by the injured one to the police station, the police from the station have hurriedly gone to the village and arrested some five innocent Muslim villagers without thoroughly considering into the real subject matter.