Security forces surround a Rohingya village for 10 hours in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A joint security forces – police, Hluntin and Burma border security force (Nasaka) – had surrounded a Rohingya village from midnight 1:00am till morning 11:00am today, according to a politician from Maungdaw.

“The security forces had surround the Nyaung Chang (Khadir Bill) village- situated near the three miles checked point – at about 1:00 am midnight and blocked every points where all the villagers are not able to escape the village. The security forces kept all Rohingya villagers who are living in the farms and not allow to go to the village.”
The Nasaka Director Col. Aung Naing Oo, the district police officer Kaun Hla San and the officer in charge of Hluntin arrived at nyaung Chang early morning  and checked all the Rohingya villagers who were kept by security forces at night and released all the villagers, said a villager from Nyaung Chang.
“The security forces entered the village and checked one by one the houses of Rohingya villager till 11:00am. But, the security forces didn’t arrest any Rohingya villagers from the village.”
The security forces are looking some 18 Rohingya villagers, but they didn’t found them in the village and the security forces asked the villagers – children and female- about any strangers in the village, according to an official.
“The authority searched the village as there are some people who are aliens.”
“The villagers – children and female- become afraid while the security forces searched the homes inside the village.”
An elder from Maungdaw said, there is a so-called arrest warrant issued by Maungdaw court which was not published to the public and whenever police want to extort money from Rohingya, the police mention the so-called arrest warrant. But, there was not happened like this, it is look a operation to us.
“We fear that Rohingya community might the face the similar situation sooner or later.”

Authority forces to register as Bengali

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  The authority – Burma border security force (Nasaka) –is forcing Rohingya community to register as Bengali, with registration process which includes taking digital fingerprints and photographs since early this month, according to a village admin officer from Maungdaw.

“The Nasaka called the Rohingya villagers under their area, to register by forced to accept Bengali as their ethnicity which is not accepting by Rohingya community.”
The Nasaka personnel from Headquarters summoned Gyikanpin ( Kawarbil)  villagers to it office where the Nasaka forced the Rohingya to signature on a blank paper where the Nasaka mentioned  Bengali as ethnic on December 27. But, the Rohingya villagers didn’t signature on it, according to an elder from Gyikanpin village.
“It is the order of high authority, you must follow it, and otherwise you will fire for it,” said a Nasaka officer. “If you will not signature on this paper, you are not belong to this land.”
Similarly, Nasaka officer Win Hlaing and Tun Tun Naing are forcing Rohingya community from Ngarkhura village to register as Bengali under digital fingerprints and photographs registration process on December 22, according to a teacher from Ngarkhura village.
“When the Nasaka officers ordered to village admin officer to bring Rohingya villagers to their office, the Rohingya refused to go to the office and to register as per the Nasaka willing.”
It is the order of higher authority. If you don’t follow the order, will be arrested and prosecuted, the officer told the villagers.
But, the Rohingya community didn’t follow the order to register as per Nasaka plan. The Nasaka started again to made harassment the Rohingya while going to the Ngarkhura market where the Nasaka and village admin official called Rohingya community who were going to market to their office where the Nasaka and village admin official forcefully taking digital fingerprints and photographs for registration process, said an elder from the village.
“Now, the villagers are not going to the market to avoid from forcefully taking digital fingerprints and photographs for registration process. The market has no people and Rohingya become again helpless for their survival.”

Armies collect paddy in Rathedaung Township

Rathedaung, Arakan State:  Armies from Rathedaung Township have been collecting paddy from Rohingya villagers since December third week from their hired arable lands to Rohingya villagers after seizing from them, a village farmer said preferring not to be named.
“The armies collected 13 Tangs (one Tang = 35 kg) per acre from the villagers. The arable lands were owned by Rohingya villagers, but these were seized by armies earlier for their purposes and again hired to the Rohingya farmers year by year at the rate of 13 Tans per acre.”
This year, in 2012, Rohingya farmers fully did not able to grow paddy in their hired arable lands from the armies because of violence in June between Rakhine and Rohingya communities. But, army forcibly collected paddy for those arable lands in which they were not able to grow paddy during violence, said another villager from the locality.
The armies seized 200 acres of arable lands only from the Tha Pay Taw village tract of Rathedaung Township. In similar way, the armies moreover seized arable lands from other Rohingya village tracts of eastern Rathedaung Township.
The villagers are facing difficulties, as they have no paddy to pay army, so they have to buy paddy from outside to fulfill the demand of armies, said a local youth.
At present, Rohingya villagers are not free from movement restriction in Rathedaung Township. They have to get permission from Village Administration Officer (VAO) after paying Kyat 200 per head and also have to inform to local Nasaka camp to go to market. But all the villagers are not allowed to go to market, only for shopkeepers, said a villager elder on condition of anonymity.

Army arrests over 15 woodcutters in Maungdaw south

Maungdaw,Arakan State: More than 15 Rohingya woodcutters were arrested by a group of military on December 25, evening, said a villager.
"A group of military accompanied by some Rakhine youths arrested the Rohingya woodcutter while they were returning their home after collecting firewood."
A woodcutter said that some woodcutters from Khonzabill and Udaung village went to forest for collecting firewood on December 25, morning at about 8:00am. Of them, two are identified as Islam 50, of Udaung village and  Hashim, 25, son of Md. Noor hailed from Khonzabil.
On their way, they were arrested by military from the forest in the evening, he more added.
After arrest, they were severely beaten up on the spot. Later, they were brought to the military camp of Sommona.
In the camp, they were also severely tortured after taking off their shirts,sources said.
However, they were released after taking kyat 10,000 to 15,000, said a relative.

Rohingya Trucked North: Checkpoint Exposes 127 in Minivan Convoy

Rohingya arrested in southern Thailand await return to the Burma border

(Photo - 77 Nation Channel)

Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison 

Phuket Wan

December 27, 2012 

PHUKET: A total of 127 Rohingya have been arrested in southern Thailand and trucked back to the Thailand-Burma border. 

Those held were in five minivans in a convoy bound for the Malaysian border crossing at Padang Besar in Songkhla province.

On December 24 a police-Army checkpoint in Satun province pulled over two of the vans, which each contained 22 men and boys. 

The drivers of another three minivans fled after dropping off their passengers, who totalled 83. 

The youngest of those arrested was a boy aged 10. Most of the captured Rohingya were teenagers or young men. 

Hundreds are fleeing the Burmese state of Rakhine where thousands of homes have been torched since June in a simmering racial conflict between local residents and the Muslim Rohingya.

About 170 are reported to have been killed in the conflict, which has left thousands of Rohingya confined in displaced persons camps. 

Many prefer to take their chances by paying people smugglers and fleeing by sea, with Malaysia as the target for most.

How the Rohingya arrested on December 24 got to Songkhla province in southern Thailand is not known. Part of their journey was probably made by sea. 

Brokers on the Thai-Malaysia border are known to systematically transfer Rohingya south from camps hidden in plantations in Thailand with the connivance of officials in both countries.

The arrest of the 127 may have come because the officers at the checkpoint are not part of the system or rival brokers have perhaps fallen out. 

The arrests were made by officers from Khuankalong police station in Satun, where Lieutenant Sompong Meechoo said local police were not part of any smuggling group. 

''The Rohingya will be trucked straight back to Ranong,'' he said, referring to the Thai-Burma border port hundreds of kilometres to the north where the arrested men and boys could possibly have stopped off on their journey. 

Because the arrested Rohingya are inevitably all men and boys, some reports speculate that they could be heading to join the insurgency in Thailand's south.

Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command has checked out these reports over several years but never found evidence to justify them.

Isoc tallies 2817 Rohingya arrested or ''helped on'' in Thailand in October and November. 

Other experts in the deep south conflict say there has never been an instance where a single Rohingya has been killed or injured in incriminating circumstances in eight years of conflict. 

Chris Lewa, director of the advocacy group Arakan Project, said: ''Rohingya only transit through Thailand on their way to Malaysia, helped on by Thai authorities. 

''There has never been any evidence of Rohingya involvement in the deep South insurgency. 

''Why should countries in the region repeatedly make these kinds of assumptions just because they are Muslims?''

The Rohingya are protective of their womenfolk, who seldom venture far from home. However, having a boy of 10 among the latest batch of arrests indicates some are becoming more desperate to flee Burma. 

Hundreds of Rohingya are believed to be voyaging past the Andaman coast and the holiday island of Phuket this relatively tranquil October-April ''sailing season.''

Those apprehended on land north of Phuket are usually trucked quickly back to Ranong, often described as Burmese to reduce complications. 

As stateless non-citizens, the Rohingya are not wanted back in Burma so they are usually delivered to people smugglers. 

The smugglers demand extra payments and those who cannot meet the terms are usually put to work in fish factories or indentured to trawlers.

Earlier this month, Singapore refused to allow a Vietnamese cargo ship to dock with 40 Rohingya who survived a sinking in which 200 are thought to have drowned. 

All of Burma's Asean neighbors continue to turn a blind eye to the tacit ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya now underway in Burma.

Protect Rohingya human rights, including their right to a nationality: UN

The U.N. General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution by the 193-member world body on December 24, urges Burmese government action to improve the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority “and to protect all their human rights, including their right to a nationality.”

The resolution noted substantial efforts by Burmese’s government towards political reform, democratization, national reconciliation and improvements in human rights. But it said there were still “systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The General Assembly urged the government "to accelerate its efforts to address discrimination, human rights violations, violence, displacement and economic deprivation affecting various ethnic minorities," singling out the Rohingyas and Kachin.
The U.N. General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming positive changes in Burma, but expressing serious concern at an upsurge of sectarian violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Arakan state.
The European Union-sponsored resolution was adopted by consensus, with the assembly president banging his gavel.
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said earlier this month after the resolution's approval by the assembly's human rights committee that she was "particularly pleased by the constructive approach by the government of Myanmar in working closely on the text with the EU."
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said earlier this month that for nearly six months, the U.N. has not able to provide assistance to the IDPs in Arakan State where Rohingyas were keeping in the camps which condition is dire.
The Rohingyas in the western state of Arakan, are in citizenship limbo, and the Burmese government refuses to do anything about the situation, despite the international community’s calls for Burma to give the Rohingyas legal status.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Burma since it achieved independence in 1948.
Buddhist extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Arakan where hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks. Burmese Army forces allegedly provided the extremist Buddhists containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee. Burmese’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority, according to Human rights reports.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremist Buddhists.

Couple arrested for marriage after 14 years in Mangdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A couple was arrested by Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) at Maungdaw north on December 21, over the allegation that he had married without permission from the concerned authority after 14 years later, according to a friend of the victim.
“The victims are identified as Shoffi Ullah (37), and his wife Ms Jubaida Khatun (30). Both of them belong to Maung Nama Aley Wra (village) of Maungdaw north.  Mohammad Sidique is the father of Shoffi Ullah.”
Fourteen years (14- year) ago, in   1998, Shofi Ullah had  tied the knot with Ms Juabaida Khatun after getting necessary documents from concerned authority of Village Peace and Development Council ( VPDC) Chairman. At that time, it was not necessary to get marriage permission from local Nasaka authority and the local VPDC Chairman’s permission was accepted for the marriage, said a local trader preferring not to be named. 
On that day, at night, a section of Nasaka went to the victim’s house and arrested Shoffi Ullah along with his wife Jubaida Khatun over the allegation that they had got married without permission from the concerned authority. The Nasaka was from Aung Mingala Nasaka camp of Maungdaw north.  After arrest, they were brought to Nasaka camp where they were detained. The arrestees showed the documents to the Nasaka about their marriage, but, the Nasaka rejected it, a local leader from the locality said on condition of anonymity.
The next day, on December 22, in the evening, they were released after taking Kyat 300,000 by Nasaka officer Myo Than, the local leader added.
“It is a deliberate action against the couple to get money,” said a close relative of the victims.
“It is a meaning less action against the Rohingya community by using their power. Arakan State becomes a lawless land only for Rohingya people,” said a local elder.
When contacted to the Nasaka camp, after getting a telephone number from a Nasaka aide, but the Nasaka did not response the call.