Monitors and aid
workers worry that violence that has until now been largely confined to the
Rohingya-majority northern part of Rakhine, bordering Bangladesh, could erupt
in an area where the two communities live side-by-side in much larger numbers.
Residents, aid
workers and monitors told Reuters that Muslims in the village of Zay Di Pyin
had been blocked from going to work or fetching food and water for the last
three weeks, although a small number had been allowed through the blockade to
buy provisions on Tuesday.
Police said Rakhine
Buddhist villagers were restricting the amount of food the Rohingya could buy,
but denied their movement around the village and access to work had been
blocked.
"I think they
are just afraid and aren't going out," said Myanmar police headquarters
spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe.
The government said
it was working to improve security in the area.
The stand-off has
raised fears of a repeat of the communal violence that broke out in the Rakhine
state capital Sittwe in 2012, leading to the killing of nearly 200 people and
displacement of some 140,000 - most of them Rohingya.
"The concern in
Zay Di Pyin is that this could escalate into violence between the two
communities," said Chris Lewa of Arakan Project, a Rohingya monitoring
group.
Rakhine has long
been riven between ethnic Rahkine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. Around 1.1
million Rohingya live in the state, but are denied citizenship and face severe
travel restrictions, with many Buddhists across Myanmar regarding them as
illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
More than 87,000
Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Rohingya insurgents killed nine police
in northwest Rakhine in October. That prompted a military crackdown beset by
allegations of rape, killings and arson by the security forces.
PENNED IN
In Zay Di Pyin, a
large, mixed village of some 5,000 people with a mosque and a Buddhist
monastery, Rakhine residents have penned about 700 Rohingya inside their
neighborhood by blocking entry points with a fence since late July, preventing
access to a market and a pond used as a source of drinking water, according to
two Muslim residents and monitors.
Local people said
tensions had spiked in late July, when a Rakhine Buddhist man from a nearby
village went missing. Three Rohingya residents were found killed in the area in
the same period.
"They accused
us of killing the missing Rakhine person and blocked us from going out because
of that," a Rohingya man told Reuters by telephone, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
A second Rohingya
man inside the blockaded area told Reuters the residents were being stopped
from going to work at the local river jetty, where many carry loads for a
living. They were also prevented from praying at the village mosque, which is
outside the blocked area, he said.
Rakhine villagers,
some armed with swords and sticks, had set up makeshift checkpoints at six
points around the Rohingya quarter, the men told Reuters. Both of them said
there has been no major violent incidents so far.
Police spokesman
Colonel Myo Thu Soe said authorities had received a complaint about the
blockade last week and had brokered a meeting on Friday, at which it was agreed
15 Rohingya residents would be allowed to leave their neighborhood to fetch
food twice a week.
Myanmar leader Aung
San Suu Kyi's spokesman Zaw Htay said the issue was resolved on Friday and that
the "villagers can go out", adding that the government was planning
to provide security for them. He did not give more details.
One of the Rohingya
men confirmed that 15 people had been allowed to go out to buy food for the
community on Tuesday, but said they were still not permitted to move around
freely.
"They said that 15 people will be able to leave twice a week - but we can't work so I don't know how we'll be able to afford food," said the man.
WILL THE FOOD LAST?
Zay Di Pyin is
located in the ethnically mixed Rathedaung district, some 65 km (40 miles)
north of Sittwe.
In another incident
that has added to tensions in the area, residents in the neighboring village of
Auk Nan Yar, where the Rohingya are the majority, said they were being
prevented from leaving their village by security forces.
It follows a
confrontation in early August between hundreds of Muslims and security forces
who were trying to arrest six Rohingya men accused of raising money for
militants. In a separate incident on that day seven Buddhists were killed in a
different part of northern Rakhine.
In the week
following the incidents, Suu Kyi convened a high-level security meeting in the
capital Naypyitaw and declared a curfew in the area, while the army sent some
500 soldiers to reinforce around Aug. 10.
Police said the
military was conducting a "clearance operation" in the nearby Mayu
mountain range, where the government suspects Rohingya insurgents have been
training.
"The nearby
villagers were warned to be careful when they go out to the mountains in order
to avoid getting arrested by mistake," said spokesman Myo Thu Soe.
Two villagers from
Auk Nan Yar told Reuters that they too were now unable to get to a market to
buy food or to work.
"Now we're
sharing the food we have left with each other in the village," said one of
the villagers. "We don't know how long the food will last."
Source: https://reut.rs/2g1olai