Rohingya Villagers form Rohingya Villagers form Laung Don
Village Tract of Maungdaw plead for urgent protection after Myanmar military’s
raid on 23 January 2017.
All properties of Rohingyas in Sin Thay Pyin Middle and
East Villages were looted by the military and Rakhines during “Clearance
Operation” on 26-30 November 2016. Recently, WFP and UNHCR provided rice, oil,
biscuits, and other cooking materials to 120 households in Sin Thay Pyin of
Maungdaw.
Military raided the village of Sin Thay Pyin again at 11
AM, on 22 January 2017. While Military were entering the village, Amir Husein
was inside his home.
“I saw they caught a Rohingya and beating him. My family
ran away in fear of torture. When I returned home in the evening, I saw
biscuits, rice and oil provided by WFP were missing. My neighbor told me the
Rakhines who accompanied with military in the morning took all those things”.
Amir reported to this blogger.
Neighbour of Amir, Rashid Ullah said “Soldiers and five
Rakhines entered my home. I was watching them from a distance place. Later, I
saw the Rakhines were carrying biscuits, rice and oil provided by WFP from my
home. Those Rakhines are Buddhist migrants from Bangladesh settled on
Rohingyas’ lands by the State in 1990s and named (NaTaLa) by Ex-general Khin
Nyunt, in Zedi Pyin Village of Maungdaw.”
According to Rashid, Myanmar army and Rakhines looted
biscuits, rice and oil from 12 different Rohingyas’ homes on 22 January. In
Laung Don Village Tract, there are three security check-points; Fawki Taung
check-point, Karang Chaung check-point, and Kayin Chaung Bridge Check-point.
Security forces in these check-points torture every Rohingya who passes by
them. Rafique aged 25 and Muhammad Alam aged 28 were severely beaten while
returning homes from fishing on 23 January 2017.
Aman Ullah from Sin Thay Pyin pleaded for urgent
protection. He said “Military has been persecuting. We have no basic rights,
and protection. Our lives are not secure here”.
Myanmar’s deputy defence chief urged the World to give
his government “time and space” to solve Rohingya issue. Since October,
Myanmar’s army has carried out “clearance operations” in the north of the
western Rakhine State to root out insurgents accused of deadly raids on police
border posts.
As a result, more than 65,000 Rohingyas have fled to
neighbouring Bangladesh, alleging rape, murder and torture at the hands of
security forces. Myanmar has long faced international criticism over its
treatment of the Rohingyas.
“The government ignores to restore rights of Rohingya
people and continues abuses against us. We have been in the IDP camps since
2012. During Thein Sein administration, Township Administrator and Immigration
Department forced us to accept National Verification Cards instead of issuing
Scrutiny Cards like other ethnics of Myanmar promising us resettle our own
places where our homes were burnt down in 2012.
We don’t feel secure in these camps. We need urgent
protection to save our lives.” said Maung Maung Tin, an internally displaced
person in MyeBon IDP camp.
The new civilian government of Myanmar has increased
persecutions on the Rohingya community in Maungdaw and Buthidaung in the name
“Clearance Operation”. A Rohingya teacher who doesn’t want to be identified
said “Myanmar changed its name “civilian government” without amending its
discriminatory State’s Policy.
In 1990s, it wiped out Rohingyas from Southern Arakan. In
2012, they successfully kept all Rohingyas in central Arakan into the ghettos
and they have been eliminating Rohingyas in Northern Arakan since 10 October
2016. International Community should urgently protect us.”
An Imam from Tin May of Buthidaung expressed his feeling
that the commander of army battalion-232 had persecuted since last November.
“As army wants to remove our village, they firstly accused us “terrorists and
attackers”, arbitrarily arrest innocent people and extort money from them. They
forced us to pay 6 million kyats on false allegation of destroying Buddhist statue
on 23 January.
Our situation became ten times worse than Thein Sein
government. We urgently need protection to save our lives” said 28 years old
Abdu Shukkur.
After the recent violence, although the UN, the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other agencies have condemned
military atrocity of Myanmar, instead of restoring rights of Rohingyas, it sent
a delegation accompanied by some Rohingyas to Indonesia to deceive the World.
The international actors, especially the UN Security
Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should react
actively and immediately on this issue. Village Tract of Maungdaw plead for
urgent protection after Myanmar military’s raid on 23 January 2017.