Burmese
Troops Block Rohingya Movements as Kofi Annan Visits Maungdaw
Maungdaw – The Burmese military has blocked the Rohingya
movements in Northern Maungdaw as the ex-UN Secretary General and Rakhine
Inquiry Commission Advisor, Kofi Annan, is in the region for a day-visit to
inquire into the military’s ongoing mass atrocities in the region.
The move to block the movements of the Rohingya people is
aimed to conceal the actual scenes of the horrible crimes (committed in the
region) from Kofi Annan by preventing him from getting into direct contacts
with the victims.
Since Friday (December 2), the military have scaled up their
presences in the strategic locations all around northern Maungdaw threatening
the local Rohingyas not to meet Kofi Anan.
Kofi Anan arrived at Kyikanpyin BGP headquarter in Maungdaw
at around 9:30 pm today. After that, he visited KyetYoePyin (Kiyari Ferang)
village and observed the remnants of the village market that had been burnt
down (by Burmese troops).
“We were unable to meet Kofi Annan to explain our plight as
there are military at every important point. He observed the situation of the
razed village’s market and headed towards the south,” a Rohingya from
KyetYoePyin told us on phone.
Last night, the military left the village of ‘Myau Taung’ —
where they had kept hundreds of Rohingya women as hostages without any foods
for two days (Read Report HERE) — for DarGyiZar village and took positions at
strategic locations.
The military left (the siege of) the Myau Taung for DarGyiZar
last night. And then, they removed all the displaced people from their camps
along the road so that Kofi Annan doesn’t see them.
Yesterday afternoon, the officials of the Maungdaw Township
Administration and the Police arrived at DarGyiZar village and ordered the
people to tell Kofi Annan as they asked them to say.
“The township administrator said ‘if Kofi Annan comes and
asks about your situation, tell him the authorities didn’t torture you, your
homes were burnt down by the militants, not by the military and the government
arranged these tents for you to live in meanwhile.’ After that, they went to
the villages of YeKhae Chaung Khwatsone and Thu Oo Hla and ordered the
villagers to say the same things.
They threatened that if we don’t have say as they order us
to, they would torture us even more after he leaves”, said a Rohingya displaced
by the military’s violence in northern Maungdaw
Earlier, the military held hundreds of women including
children as hostages at Myau Taung for two days. The men fled to the nearest
hide-outs in fear of arbitrary arrests, tortures and being labeled as
militants. There was nobody in the village.
Therefore, the Rakhine extremist Buddhists raided ‘Myau
Taung’ plundered their valuables, properties, foods; livestock’s and even
cooking pots. When the villagers returned to their homes after the military
left for DarGyiZar at night, they found nothing to eat and no pot to cook
anything with, our sources reported.