By The Stateless Rohingya

As build-up of security forces continue, Rohingya villagers in Northern Rakhine have seen a rise of intimation and terrorisation of Myanmar security forces and Buddhist settlers

RATHEDAUNG: On Tuesday, 15 August, a number of Myanmar military personnel accompanying Buddhist settlers stormed into Chut Pyin (locally known as Fringdaung) village of Rathedaung and aguishly tortured Rohingya farmers while they were removing grasses and sedges from paddy fields in the evening.

The incidence took place during the raid, and the villagers found themselves in the middle of the armed forces and the Rakhine Buddhists who beat the Rohingya farmers without hesitation. The eight Rohingya identified as the victims of raid are Adulatif (50, s/o Nur Ahmed), Abdullah (43, s/o Abul Hakim), Habiroon (39, s/o Baru), Rohim Ullah (39, s/o Abdul Salam), Younus (20, s/o Rohim Ullah), Ramzan (25, s/o Hafez Ahmed), Younus (21, s/o Siddique) and Mohammed Alam (13, Abdul Hamid).

On the following day, two teenage brothers Sayedul Rahman (20) and Abdul Rahman (15), sons of Roshan Ali were also inhumanely beaten by the armed forces.

Another two Rohingya – MD Kasim (55, s/o Abdu Boshir) and Kadir Huson (50, s/o Sultan Ahmed), were beaten with military boots and rifle butts in Thin Ga Net village leaving one of them in critical condition.

The villagers also claimed that a herd of their cattle of were forcefully taken away by the settlers who were supported by the armed forces in the looting.

There are a number of cases of ransacks during the military raids in Rohingya villages. It seems increasingly endemic in the region as a way of intimidation and terrorisation of Rohingya villagers.

On 8 August, a single Rohingya mother’s house in Baw Da Li of Kyun Pauk Pyu Su village tract was raided by a group of Border Guard Police (BGP) and Buddhist settlers. They robbed her ornaments from her body and valuable items, and butchered one of her goats leaving behind a half body of another in her compound.

A number of raids are also reportedly raided Kyee Kan Pyin, Doe Tan and other places in Maungdaw township today, damaging and looting livestock.

As Rohingya villagers are being suffocated with looting and destruction of livestock, the military continues to impose heavy restriction of movement across Rakhine State.

Noor Bashor, a Rohingya man who lives in Kyaung Taung, was not allowed to go and bury his mother who passed away in Chut Pyin on 16 August. Although the villages are nearly 2km apart, he was not denied of seeing his mother face for the last time.

Myanmar Armed Forces and Buddhist settlers are taking advantage of ‘clearance operations’ to build-up the huge presence of military in the region, and to intimidate and terrorise Rohingya villagers on daily basics, as the crime against humanity go unchecked and Aung San Suu Kyi led National League for Democracy (NLD) government continues to deny allegations and bar the U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate the severe human rights abuses being committed by the armed forces.