FIVE ROHINGYAS MUSLIM REFUGEES SHOT IN SITTWE (AKYAB), MYANMAR

Jakarta, 18 Muharram 1434/02 December 2012 (MINA) – At 4:20 PM today, five internally displaced Rohingyas at Thay-Chaung Refugee Camp were gunshot by Police. These Rohingya Muslim refugees have been taking refuge there since the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing against them started in June 2012.

A Rohingya Elder from Sittwe said “the Police, all of sudden and without informing in advance, came to the Thay-Chaung Refugee Camp and started to force internally displaced Rohingyas (Rohingya Muslim refugees) to shift to Say Thar Ma (Sandama) Camp located in a remote, isolated and deserted area.

In the area, it is very difficult to get access to clean water, food and medical facilities and transportation is also very bad, according to a Rohingya Muslim in South Maungdaw named A. Alam who was quoted in Rohingya Blogger that was received by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), Sunday.

When Muslim refugees had refused to move there fearing the desperate situation of the place, it led to heating disputes and arguments between Police and the refugees.

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Police, without any hesitation opened fired at them. Five Rohingyas were seriously injured. Of them, a person called Shafi Rahman bin Khala Meah (28) from Narzi quarter Block 3 is in critical condition fighting for his life in State General Hospital as the bullet remains deep inside his chest.

The other four injured people are:

1. Ziabul Haque S/o Hamid Hussein (25) from Narzi Quarter Block 1

2. Mawnura Begum D/o Mohammed Rafique (23) from Narzi Quarter Block 3

3. Salim S/o Bodi Rahman (22) from Narzi Quarter Block 4

4. Anwar Begum D/o Ahmed Hussein (20) from Narzi Quarter Block 11.

Elsewhere in Arakan, “Hla Maung Rahmatullah bin Fawzil, a Rohingya figurehead from the village of Khadir Bil (Nyaung Chaung) of Maung Daw Tsp, was killed by NaTaLa Rakhine Buddhist extremists from a nearby village.

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He is the head of 100 households in the village and a Fire-Brigade Staff in Maung Daw. Besides, he works as security guard in the big yard owned by the judge of Maung Daw Tsp. His body was cut into five pieces” said Rahim from Maung Daw.

Besides, it was also reported that the chairman of this village and his other three companions were sentenced to 10-year-imprisonment. They were arrested on 1st July 2012 for not handing over some 100 Rohingyas Muslims, from the village, to be killed in lock-ups by the authority.

So, they are carrying out nothing but a slow GENOCIDE against Rohingyas Muslims and Kamans through various means.

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In Sittwe, there are 80,000 refugees. Nearly 40,000 got place in the camps, the rest are living around the other villages which weren’t burnt during the June violence, some of them are living with their relatives, but nearly 26,000 built tents themselves and lived there.

Yesterday [24-25th November] all those tents were destroyed by Myanmar military regime forces, so those people need urgent shelter, there is the cold season arriving now and if they can’t get shelter soon, I don’t know what will happen; children, pregnant and old people’s lives are in danger,” said one of the refugees. (T/R-022/R-006)