Two Killed and Dozens Arrested in Raids in
Northern Buthidaung
RVision TV News | January 7, 2017
Buthidaung — Two Rohingya civilians have been tortured to
death and scores arrested in a series of sporadic raids by the Myanmar armed
forces on the villages across northern Buthidaung, local sources say.
Many other villagers were severely tortured including the
two people that died from tortures and many more were arrested during a
day-long siege of the village the village of ‘Maung Gyi Taung’ locally known as
‘Shaab Bazaar’ on Wednesday (Jan 4). The two people tortured to death are
identified as Abdullah (22), s/o Mohammed Amin and Jahanghir (23), s/o
Amiruddin.
Dozens of women in the village were reported to have been
molested during the siege on Jannuary 4, 2017. Reportedly, three other women
have also gone missing from the village since then.
At least 300 people were beaten and arrested, of whom 245
people were released later after extortion of ransom, during a series of raids
on a number of Rohingya villages — such as Maung Gyi Taung, Darpaing Sayar, Nga
Chin Tauk and Mee Chaung Zay — in northern Buthidaung between January 4 and
January 6 .
Of more than 50 civilians still detained, the Myanmar State
Counsellor Office Information Committee declared four people as militants
through its official Facebook justifying the military offensives and continuing
its media propaganda. The villagers labelled as militants are from Maung Gyi
Taung village and identified as: 1) Mohammed Tarek, 2) Kamaru, 3) Dil Mohammed
and 4) Mohammed Ullah.
A joint force of 150 Myanmar military and Border Guard
Police (BGP) launched raids on the village also known as ‘Shaab Bazaar’ on
Wednesday (January 4) and on its adjacent villages on the following days on
pretext of searching the weapons stolen from the arsenal of the BGP Headquarter
in Maungdaw on October 9, 2016.
Update: On 7th January 2017, the Myanmar military demanded
30 Rohingya women from the figureheads in MaungGyiTaung village in northern
Buthidaung to use them as sex slaves the village administrator and his son were
The figureheads, in the absence of the village administrator
of MaungGyiTaung, refused to fulfill the military’s barbaric demand. So, they
were tortured. The village administrator, Mr. Ibrahim, and his son, Mohammed
Shah, have been arrested by the military earlier.
Most men in the village have fled in fear of arbitrary
arrests. So, the military are now seizing ‘Family Registration Lists’ and
‘Post-Handover ‘White Card’ Receipts’ from the Rohingya families in the
village.
Read earlier report: Military
Raid Rohingya Village in Northern Buthidaung
Editor’s Note: It’s proving to be difficult to receive
information from the villagers located in the remote areas in northern most
Buthidaung, where transportation and telecommunication systems are very poor.
However, from the reports we have received so far, we can safely conclude that
the Myanmar armed forces are committing worse or similar atrocity crimes that
they have committed earlier in ‘Koetankauk’ Village of Rathedaung Township and
in Northern Maungdaw region.