Rohingya face new episode of mass starvation in Rathedaung
- 28/07/2016
- 0
By The Rohingya Post
Rakhine Action Plan live again with Intentional destructions of harvesting and WFP ration cuts breeding a new humanitarian crisis for the persecuted Rohingya of Rathedaung
RATHEDAUNG: A new wave of humanitarian crisis is engulfing thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Rathedaung township during the height of intense monsoon season.
Campaign in Rathedaung
The township is one of nine townships in Rakhine State heavily affected by the genocidal campaign against Rohingya orchestrated by the state agencies of former president, Thein Sein and the extremist elements of Rakhine people in 2012.
During the peak of campaign, a total of five Rohingya villages; Anokpyin (Anak Parang), Youngpin Gyi (Muzai), Parang Chaung (Soar Parang), Kudik Chaung and Senaik Parang, were burnt down and massacred a score of Rohingya along the way.
While Rohingya villagers from Parang Chaung, Kudik Chaung and Senaik Parang forced to moved into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps located in Chil Hali, thousands remain in Anokpyin and Youngpin Gyi villages.
The Rohingya ghetto of Youngpin Gyi village in Rathedaung
Anokpyin and Youngpin Gyi on Target
For 4 years since the initial genocidal campaign in 2012, Anokpyin and Youngpin Gyi are under guileful Rakhine Action Plan as they are located in the middle of strategical 24 Rakhine villages in Rathedaung township. The steadfastness of Rohingya villagers and the failure to completely remove them 2012 is a hugely disappointment for the action plan.
The abrupt humanitarian crisis is lit-up again after Rakhine politicians and extremists had meeting last week in Rathedaung where they decided to start removing Rohingya people from the villages by blocking aids, starving until Rohingya move to IDP camps, and seize lands and properties.
Anokpyin and Youngpin Gyi lost 36 houses in fire in June 19, 2012 and 56 houses in October 25, 2012 respectively. At present, Anokpyin hosts 2980 Rohingya in 615 households and Youngpin Gyi has 1797 in 328 households.
Stamped Through Terraced of Paddy Field
From 2013 to 2015, the villagers were provided with agricultural equipment and fertilizer for farming following the lost of children and older people through starvation, malnutrition and critical illnesses, and properties in fire and looting in the campaign.
The cessation of providing the agricultural equipment and fertilizer from the beginning of 2016, compel to the villagers to plough with small household equipment during this year harvesting season. In the first week of July when the paddy plants reach half-grown, a group of Rakhine extremists stamped through the terraced paddy fields and destroyed the main source of food for the villagers.
“We want you, Kalar (a derogatory terms used for Rohingya) to die starving and we don’t care if you complain to authority,” shouted the extremists when the Rohingya villagers tried to prevent the intentional destruction of harvesting.
The destruction of paddy field by Rakhine extremists
In June, more than 100 acres of Rohingya land forcibly seized by Rakhine and planted a Buddhist Flag on the land
The Buddhist Flag planted on the illegally seized Rohingya land
WFP walks in the Rakhine Action Plan
WFP, the United Nations World Food Programme was the principle aids provider to the entrapped Rohingya villagers since September 2012 when they declared the situation of the villages “critical”.
After nearly 4 years, the agency stopped providing rations to both villages in July 23. The decision leaves the villagers yet another critical episode of starvation and death. When asked, a WFP officer said they can only provide to the poor, and to which the villagers responded “the whole villagers live in improvised condition without job and complete restriction of movement outside the villagers. We all are poor and should be provided equally for the survival.”
The desperate children and women of Anokpyin in the critical condition without rations, education, healthcare and basic human rights
The news of ration cuts spreads to the neighbouring Rakhine villages satisfying the Rakhine hardliners who go another step in advising and warning not to sell rice to Rohingya.
Now WFP walks in the Rakhine Action Plan which primary aim is to remove Rohingya from villages through blockage of aids, starvation, restriction of movement and seizure of Rohingya lands and properties.
Anokpyin and Youngpin Gyi is in the verge of mass starvation and most properly deaths if not concrete urgent action is undertaken by the NLD’s government and the international agencies.
