Rakhine Extremists Are Up Again: Rohingyas’ Villages Burned in Kyawk Taw

5th August 2012

This afternoon, armed Rakhine extremists in Kyawk Taw township of Arakan torched the houses of Rohingyas in five villages such as GopPi Taung, Appok Wak and Shwe Hlaing and other two. 

Here how it happened. We are informed that “this afternoon at 1:30 pm, hundreds of Rakhine extremists came to GopPi Taung village and started to torch the houses of Rohingyas. There were 100 houses in the village. Even though the concerned authorities were informed immediately after Rakhine extremist had started firing Rohingyas’ houses, their reply was just this “We are coming.” Most of the people in the burned villages are poor farmers and daily labors.

Again at 3pm, there were more 50 Rohingyas’ houses burned in Appok Wak village. Besides, Rohingyas have been trying to escape the dangers posed by Rakhine hooligans and running towards the safe places” a local from Kyawk Taw reported on the condition of anonymity. There were 46 Rohingyas’ houses burned in the same village in last June. There were around 200 houses in this village after that.

Besides, at 4pm, Rakhine extremists came to Shwe Hlaing village which has more 130 houses and torched many houses of Rohingyas. According to the latest report, around 500 houses of Rohingyas’ houses have already been burned by Rakhine hoodlums in all villages mentioned above. Around 50 Rohingyas were killed and one village is still on fire. Military and Hluntin (Security Guards) got to the places of incident. They have been doing nothing to prevent the Rakhines from their malevolent deeds but looking on.

Revised and Translated by M.S. Anwar