Rohingya Villagers Tortured by Burmese Troops in Northern
Maungdaw
By Rohingya Eye and Rohingya
Mirror | December 14, 2016
Maungdaw — Many Rohingya
villagers were arrested and tortured by the Burmese troops in Northern Maungdaw
on Monday (Dec 12) for speaking to the (Burmese) Investigation Commission after
it had left the region, it has been reported.
Amidst the visit by the Investigation
Commission formed by the Burmese (Myanmar) President Htin Kyaw to the region,
the Burmese troops indulged in crimes against the Rohingya villagers such as
arbitrary arrests, tortures and rapes in several places.
At around 10:00 am on Monday,
the investigation commission visited the village of ‘YeKhaeChaungKhwaSone’
locally known as ‘BorGoziBil’ and spoke the villagers coming out in crowd. The
villagers told the commission how their homes were burnt down; they were
subjected to arbitrary arrests, tortures, extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearance; and the village women/girls were raped by the Burmese soldiers.
The commission members duly listened to them and left at around 12:00 noon.
Later, reports emerged that the
Burmese soldiers shot videos while the Rohingya villagers speaking to the
commission members at YeKhaeChaungKhwaSone and arrested six villagers — who
appeared in the video working as interpreters — immediately after the
commission had left.
The villagers arrested are
identified as:
(1) Zafar Hussein (72), s/o
Abdu Sattor
(2) Mohammed Salam (50), s/o
Nazir Hussein
(3) Abu Siddik (15), s/o Abul
Hair
(4) Bashir Ahmad (70), s/o
Hakim Ali
(5) Saddam (17), s/o Abul Hair
(6) Abul Hashim (53), s/o Nazir
Hussein
A woman at the village of
‘YeKhaeChaung KhwaSone’ told the commission how her fellow village women were
raped by the soldiers on November 12 and 13. She was summoned by the soldiers
later using the six arrestees as pawns and forced to say before camera that the
statement she gave to the commission was false.
They were severely tortured and
released at around 4:00 pm on December 12. Of them, 71-year-old Jafar Hussein and
50-year-old Mohammed Salam tortured by the soldiers are in critical condition
as they are denied from access to any medical treatments.
“I wonder why the soldiers are
still staging these fake video dramas when the Investigation Commission itself
is widely viewed as a commission formed by the President U Htin Kyaw to
whitewash their crimes. And the commission is led by the Vice President 1
General Myint Swe, too. Perhaps the military didn’t even wish the civilian
members of the commission to know how badly inhumanely they (the military)
treated the Rohingya villagers” said U Aye Myint, a human rights observer based
in Maungdaw.
At around 12:30 pm on Monday
after the visit to YeKhaeChaungKhwaSone, the commission visited the village of
‘DarGyiZar’ locally known as ‘ShudoGoziBil,’ where the village administrator, U
Tun Maung (who is known as an extremist Rakhine), interfered and prevented the
villagers from fully disclosing details of the military atrocities. So, in the
brief meeting, the villagers got time to submit the details of only 25 people
of the many villagers shot dead or slaughtered by the soldiers. It’s a village
which was almost entirely burnt down by the soldiers on November 13 as 362 out
of 407 houses were razed.
The commission did ask the
villagers about their needs and the villagers replied ‘we need to rebuild our
homes at our original places and want to live peacefully.’ The commission
promised the government would rebuild their homes and compensate for the lost
properties.
Ironically enough, while the
commission members were giving hopes to the villagers for their future, the
military, the Border Guard Police (BGP) and Rakhine extremists were
simultaneously plundering the neighboring Rohingya villages such as
KyaGaungTaung (Rabailla) and YeKhaeChaungKhwaSone — where the commission had
paid a visit to earlier in the morning — and committing rapes against the
village women.
Our correspondent in the region
reported that the Burmese soldiers dragged three girls from
YeKhaeChaungKhwaSone into the nearby forest after the commission had left the
village on around noon on December 12 and freed them only in the evening.
Two minor girls and a mother of
three children were also gang-raped by the soldiers at KyaGaungTaung on
December 12. (Read the report: Sexual Violence Committed by Military in
Northern Maungdaw)
Post the visit to the
DarGyiZar, the commission paid a visit to the village of KyetYoePyin locally
known as Kiyari Ferang.
As the Investigation Commission
has now left Maungdaw, the human rights activists around the globe expect them
to publish a report successfully whitewashing and concealing the serious crimes
against humanity committed by the Burmese soldiers.