Why are they burning
Rohingya houses?
By
@mir_sidiquee
Most of the Rohingya
villages in Rakhine state are being completely burnt to ashes since 25th August
2016. For about burning of Rohingya villages can read here in my twitter: https://twitter.com/mir_sidiquee
Last week HRW
released a satellite report of burnt Rohingya villages but Myanmar government
has denied then said “their houses were burned by themselves before leaving.”
Same allegation was made by the country’s de facto leader and Nobel laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (#SuuKyi) many time and her officials too.
Setting fire to the
Rohingya houses are not started recently, it was going since years; not only by
Myanmar’s security forces but also by Rakhine Buddhists communities are
continued since 2012. In 2013 & 2014, Rakhine Buddhists have been used a
kind of chemical, China made plastic dolls like kites to burn Rohingya houses.
Rohingyas were unable to complain any one, if complained laughed and fined on
Rohingyas by authorities.
Since 25/8/2017,
unwillingly Myanmar security posts were attacked by the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA), Myanmar Army has torched about 6000 homes are burned to
ashes in Rathedaung township, almost 50% of Rohingya homes are burned to ashes
in Maungdaw township and same in Buthidaung township too. In all these three
townships more than 178 village tracts are emptied and mostly burned to ashes.
Rights advocates
have said that security forces and local extremist Buddhists could have
committed these crimes as part of the Myanmar Army’s clearance operations in
northern Rakhine State, which followed coordinated attacks on police outposts
by the ARSA on Aug 25. In contrast, the Government Information Committee has
said that Muslim militants burned these homes before leaving the villages, as
the inhabitants seek refuge in Bangladesh.
Many faked photos
and stories have gone viral depicting Arakanese and Mro Buddhists and Hindus are
being killed or injured by Muslim militants, and describing their fear of them.
For about fake picture U Zaw Htay & associates are also posting many fake
pictures into twitter and other social media to instigate the Rohingya issue.
Rohingya Muslims are
fleeing not only for the fear of security forces but also Buddhist nationalists
and Rakhine local armed who are openly roaming with arms and killing Muslims
along the region.
Amid these tensions,
the burning of homes has continued almost all villages of Rathedaung, Maungdaw
and Buthidaung townships. The Irrawaddy reporters and a group of journalists on
a government-organized reporting trip witnessed that houses in at least two new
villages, including Gawdu Thara had been torched.
The presence of
non-Muslim Rakhine Buddhist local residents armed with swords and sticks seen
at the blaze of an abandoned village on Sept 7 in in Gawdu Thara, Maungdaw
Township triggered suspicion as to why were they were there. When asked, they
answered in Burmese that they “came to look at what happened in the village,”
and said no more.
The journalists
witnessed a few of them taking household items from the smoldering homes. Some
held knives and slingshots as they walked between the houses.
A Rakhine Buddhist
man who carried away some looted household items in a cart—a mat, buckets, and
kitchen utensils—told The Irrawaddy team that they “took them from those
abandoned Rohingya Muslims’ homes,” it is enough to be witnessed as they have admitted
the crimes including started the fire.
Further down the
village road, the group of journalists saw houses freshly set alight, a jug of
gasoline left on the road and matches nearby but no one could see there.
The team of police
accompanying with the journalists appeared at ease in this situation and did
not interrogate or detain the looters. The security forces should have
questioned them about their presence at the scene and about the burning homes.
If they were suspicious, the police should have proceeded according to
protocol. But those things didn’t happen.
These actions raise
doubt about the authorities’ framing of the situation in Rakhine State. After
live streamed reports and photos of the burning of Gawdu Thara went viral, the
government said, hours later, that local administrative officials were
investigating the incident.
If the government
did not act according to the rule of law concerning those people looting from
the abandoned homes, or the arson, the whole narrative could change, affecting
Myanmar’s image.
After just over two
weeks of military clearance operations following ARSA attacks on police
outposts, the UN has reported that 270,000 Muslims have fled across the border
to Bangladesh; around 30,000 Arakanese Buddhists and Hindus remain internally
displaced. Maungdaw Township remains under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, and many
shops in the town itself have closed.
Using
Hindus in political Drama
Rohingya villages in
Rakhine State are being completely burnt to ashes since 25th August
2016. A week ago, Human Rights Watch reported with satellite images that all
houses in two Rohingya villages had been completely burnt.
But, soon after HRW
released that report, Myanmar government officials said that the Rohingyas had
been burning their own homes before fleeing the villages. Earlier this week a
senior government official presented some photos which, he said, were the
evidences in support of the government’s claim. Those photos showed that 5 or 6
men and women were setting alight the Rohingya houses. Two women were wearing
plastic table covers as hijabs and two masked men were wearing Muslim caps.
However, in at least two photos we could see the faces of one man and one
woman.
Next day, Mizzima
News (Burmese: www.mizzimaburmese.com) reported with related photos that one
man and one man- who were among those torching the Muslim houses- were Hindu
and they were there in a nearby Hindu IDP camp in Rakhine. The Mizzima report
made it clear that some people or officials apparently made those Hindu
migrants set fire to the Rohingya households.
Mizzima reported
that the Hindu man and woman, who torched the Rohingya houses, were spotted by
its reporters in a nearby Hindu IDP camp. But, the Buddhist nationalists sought
to counter the Mizzima report by writing in the social media that the two were
Rohingya Muslims and Mizzima photographer shot the related photos at a Rohingya
IDP camp. In the IDP camp the Hindu man and women were spotted wearing exactly
the same set of clothing which they had worn while torching the houses.
In his report and a
tweet BBC correspondent Jonathan Head said two days ago that he found Rakhine
youths setting fire to Rohingya houses in a village, in the presence of police.
The main
objectives behind ongoing operation against Rohingyas
According to
experts, the main objective behind ongoing operation against Rohingyas are:
1:- To reduce the
Rohingya Muslims from last 3 Muslim townships.
2:- To be weakened
the Rohingyas mentally and physically by destroying Rohingya’s properties,
seasonal products, burning homes and looting valuables for the budget of
anti-Rohingya movement.
3:- Rohingya
problems has always entitled as a legitimate case in the views of the world but
Myanmar government is trying to link them with international terrorist network;
to be tarnished the Rohingyas from the global peoples, to withdraw their
concerning with Rohingya issue.
4:- It is too heard
for S.Gen Min Aung Hlaing that the final report of Rakhine commission was not
as he wanted instead commission demanded to be restored the basic human rights
of Rohingyas. He and Myanmar government doesn’t want to implement the demand.
Therefore they have created the deadly operation, to change attention of the
world into new dispute.
5:- Myanmar's
strategies in early time for Rohingyas were to be oppressed by law, to kill as
much as they can , to drive out by any cost, to keep in ghettos, but this time stepped to use agencies,
lobbying internationally as well as using local actors such as armed Rakhine
extremists to drag Rohingyas into graves.
5- To make innocent
civilians appear as criminals in the sight of world and media by employing
unknown groups and activists to implement their agendas, not only 25-8-2017
violent acts but also it is a part of organized propagandas.
7- Advanced step
toward process of creating enmity between Rohingya Muslim and Bangladeshi
authority and general public who are continuously supporting Rohingya over
almost a century, ( Indicating here incident that occurred between Ansar force
and Unknown Claimed Rohingya Militant ) in a refugee camp.
The
author @mir_sidiquee, is an elevated person of conflict-torn area, easily can
get information through unexpected sources, is Selfless Human Rights Activists
in exile.