Maungdaw: Village administrator in Gojondiya village of southern Maungdaw extorted money from innocent Rohingya farmers with the promise of building barriers for their farmlands, which are under salty water now

In the incident, since last 2 months up to 300 acre of farmlands of the villagers were under salty water, which prevented them from farming even in this rainy season, thus stopping their livelihoods.
When the situation was known to the village administrator Ibrahim S/O Jafar Ahmed (35), he promised to build barriers for every farm lands and extorted 20,000 Kyats from each house from the whole village, which is a home to 300 houses.

It’s been 2 months now no barriers have been built and villagers are in continuous limbo without farming. Poor farmers are in starving and tensed situation due to their cease of farming.
Money Extortion from helpless Rohingyas became a part of their daily persecution schedule, where authorities are held freely with their uniforms for persecution.

KYAUKTAW: Mough villagers attacked a Rohingya fisherman while passing by Mough village on his way to fishing on 11th July,2016, according to an eyewitness.

The victim is identified to be Najim Uddin S/O Abdur Rahim who hails from khazifara village of Kyauktaw Township.
In the incident the innocent fisherman was passing by the Mough village as the way to his fishing was blocked due to the rise of water level of the stream. Therefore, he had to use the road beside Mough Village.
When Mough villagers saw him passing by they used stones to attack, injuring him severely on his hands, legs, and chest.
Earlier in January, 2016 two Rohingya fisherman were also shot dead by BGP.
Attacks and Killing by Government authorities have been a common issue in the daily lives of Arkanese Rohingya, which are made unbearable with the collaboration of Moughs as well.

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you

No education for Rohingya children in Maungdaw

There are schools, teachers and students in Maungdaw, but no education system there, no teaching by teachers to Rohingya children in schools in rural areas since 2012 – occurred conflict between Rohingyas and Rakhine community, said Hamidul Rahaman, father of four students from Maungdaw. Mostly in the education department, the teachers are Rakhine community and didn’t go to schools for fearing of their security and getting their salary on time. Noone object for these. If the Rakhine teachers come to school in the morning, leaving in the noon, without teaching, only gossiping, making sweater, said Hamidul Rahaman. “The Rohingya community was not allow to join for job of teacher.” 

For instance, there are nearly 400-Rohingya children and appointed 9- teacher in the primary school of Khonzabill village, but all the teachers are Raknines and they do not teach the Rohingya children in appropriate way, according to Mohin, a well-wisher of Rohingya from Maungdaw.

Since 2012, after clashes between Rakhine and Rohingya, Rakhine teachers do not go to school in Rohingya village as they give reason that there is no security for them. But the authority concerned did not take any action to the teachers and they get their salary in time.

Everywhere, there are police, earlier Nasaka (present- BGP), army, Hloon Tin camps for security. Why did they say, there is no security for them? said Rakib, a businessman from the locality.

Nur Fiasel, a local village elder said, the Rakhine teachers attend at the school at 9:00 am and gossiping each other in the school and 2:00 pm, they leave school without giving any activites to the students.

In similar way, in other parts of Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, Rakhine teachers (males and females) do not go to schools in rural areas, especially in Rohingya villages and Rohingya students are deprived of education, he more added.

As a result, Rohingya villagers have to appoint two or three local teachers ( Rohingya who pass class ten) to the school (each one) to teach their children and all the expenses have been borne by the villagers.

Nearby towns, in schools of mixed students (Rakhine and Rohingya), Rekhine teachers regularly go to school and teach lessons to the students, a youth Petan Ali from Buthidaung said.

However, Rohingya villagers of Khonzabill village of Maungdaw Township appointed two local Rohingya teachers in their school to give lessons to their children, after holding a meeting on June 24.  They will collect money from the villagers, villagers said.

The education system, under the present NLD government is the same like ex-government. In short --- “the new bottle with old wine,” said an elder.

A Muslim prayer hall in Lone Khin village of Hpakant Township, Kachin State was burned down by a mob on Friday afternoon.

Nearly 30 Muslim families in the village have fled since the outbreak of the riot.
According to residents of the village, the Muslim community had received an ultimatum from local Buddhist nationalists to demolish by Thursday what they claimed was an illegal extension to the Muslim prayer hall.
However, residents have claimed that the disputed structure was in fact an abandoned storeroom that had been used by the Ministry of Construction while building a bridge connecting the village some months ago.
After local Muslims dismantled the structure, the Buddhist nationalists then demanded that they demolish the actual prayer hall, claiming it had been constructed illegally.
“The Muslim community refused to demolish their prayer hall. Their religious leader said they would only do so if the government declared it illegal,” one of the local residents told the Irrawaddy. “That’s why the mob came to burn it.”
“When three fire engines came to put out the fire, they were obstructed by the mob,” he said.
He added that the mob was mostly made up of outsiders, numbering several hundred.
The police and army have now blocked the bridge on the road to Lone Khin village from Hpakant town.
A duty officer at the Mohnyin District police station confirmed the incident but refused to give detailed information because “the case is now under investigation.”
“We have no idea who was behind the incident. At the moment, state and district-level security forces are on the scene,” the officer said.
The incident comes after anti-Muslim rioting far away from Hpakant in Pegu Division’s Thuye Thamain village in Waw Township on June 23, which resulted in the destruction of a mosque, a Muslim cemetery, and a house and storeroom belonging to a Muslim family. Authorities chose not to take action against any of the perpetrators there.

Buthidaung: A Mough stuff of a relief program along with village administrator extorted money from Rohingyas, which were asked to distribute freely by MHDO and WFP in the holy month Ramandan.

A Relief program under the name of Islamic Reflex Myanmar was carried out by MHDO and WFP in Buthidaung, where every Rohingya family were given 25 kg of rice, 2 liters of oil, 5 kg of beans and 3 kg of sugar.
In distributing the Relief a Mough stuff of MHDO with the help of village administrator started extorting 2-3 thousand kyats from every family.

Names and amount extorted from each village are:
Ali Chaung : 3000 kyats per family from 6000 houses
Daddru Chaung and Sarakkuni : 2000 Kyats per family
Soufarang : 3000 kyats per family
Money Extortion on false cases and on illegal pretext have been a part of joint operation carried out by Mough extremists and Government Authorities since the military rule, where no sigh of justice and changes are expected even in the rule of new government.

Kuala Lumpur – A Rakhine (Magh) staff working as an Interpreter at an ACTS (A Call-To-Serve) Free Medical Clinic at Batu Arang in Rawang city of Selangor state has been racially discriminating against Rohingya Refugee patients and misinterpreting their statements.

The interpreter going by the name ‘Ms. Loreal’ is a Rakhine woman pretending as a Chin Ethnic Refugee and has been working at the clinic for three years. They are said to be a member of a Rakhine group with four to five members targeting Rohingya refugees visiting to the Clinic and sometimes on the referrals of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

“There are some Rohingya refugees referred to the clinic by the UNHCR. There are some that visit the clinic on their own. However, the interpreting Rakhine woman misinterprets the patients say which renders them without having proper medical services. But she does help her own Rakhine people to have maximum medical services at the clinic.

Sometimes, there are some International Visitors that visit the clinic to observe the situations. But the Rakhine woman always misinterprets and distorts what the patients.

When they ask the Rohingya patients questions like ‘what your ethnic identity is, where you are from or why you came here,’ they answer like ‘Rohingya, from Arakan state of Myanmar or because of the violence’ respectively. However, the woman always misinterprets their answers into English something like ‘Bengali, from Bangladesh or illegally entered Myanmar and lived there or left the country because of economic reasons etc.’

This is nothing but politicizing and racializing the free humanitarian services provided the medical clinic. This is nothing but working against the ethical standards of the clinic where she and her COs has been working for so long,” says a victim who recently visited the clinic in Batu Arang, Rawang, Selangor.

However, the visiting Rohingya refugee patients have very good words to say for the doctors in the clinic and the Director of the ACTS, Rosemary Chong.

“The doctors in the clinic treat us very well. And Ma’am Rosemary is also very kind. Sometimes, she gives advices her stuffs not to treat the Rohingya refugees badly saying that because of the Rohingya refugees, the locals treat other refugees very well.

So, we have nothing bad to say against the free medical services but against those staffs with bad working behaviors and ethical standards. We want our voices heard by the world through this media platform,” he continued.

The clinic in the report is called ‘ACTS PERCH 1’ located nearby a Police Station at: D1530, Jalan Simpah Utara, Batu Arang, 48100 Rawang, State of Selangor DE.

Similar misconducts against the visiting refugee patients or their caretakers by the Receptionists/Interpreting Staffs of ACTS’ Brickfields KL Branch have also been reported.