Rohingyas Threatened On Their Refusal To Be Bengalizied (Nasaka Made Video By Bengalizing Rohingyas)

RB News 

May 2, 2013 

Maung Daw, Arakan - On 26th April 2006, local Rohingyas in Sittwe (Akyab) utterly rejected the forced attempts by Immigration, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) and other authority to forcefully Bengalize Rohingyas in the township. In response to it, on 30th April, the NaSaKa Commander of the commandment area (7) in AlayThanKyaw (HaisshuRata), Southern Maung Daw, called up some local Rohingyas for a meeting. 

The commander forced the Rohingyas attending the meeting to shout as “we all are Bengalis” in his presence. He threatened to imprison the Rohingyas for 10 years each when they refused to shout so. Therefore, the extremely worried Rohingyas had to shout as ordered. 

“We attended the meeting because we were invited in the name of a discussion. We were more than 100 people in total. In the meeting, we were forced to shout as ‘we all are Bengalis’. We were threatened that each of us would be sentenced to 10-year imprisonment when we replied we could not say so. We were afraid and so, we had to shout as the commander ordered. The camera man waiting standby shot video on it” said a local to RB News. 

Besides, the NaSaKa commander said “Muslims are illegal immigrants. Therefore, you have to follow my orders. Or else, you all Muslims will be sent to jail.” 

Then, the NaSaKa forcefully registered the Rohingyas as Bengali by means of bio-metric finger prints. Besides, the NaSaKa Commander yelled “those who do not want to be registered so can leave the country.” 

Similar cases happened in the NaSaKa commandment area (8), Southern Maung Daw on 1st May 2013. The NaSaKa commander, major Wanna Zaw, called up the locals of the village of Myint-Hlut (Mer Ullah) and forced them to do so. 

“We come to know that they did so in response to what happened in Sittwe. People there could resist. Authority can’t cover up everything in Sittwe because there are many international NGOs. No International Journalist can come to our region. We are here in the open prisons. It has been more than 20 years for us under NaSaKa’s barbaric oppressions. Their recent inquiry reports on Arakan violence are also full of lies and fabrications. To justify their lies and fabrications, they are desperate to Bengalize local Rohingyas. So, they forced Rohingyas to shout to be Bengalis and made videos on it. 

Though they are bullying us and trying to Bengalize us, they can’t wipe out our real identity ‘Rohingya’ from our hearts and history. We will never become Bengalis. Because we are not Bengalis” said a victimized Rohingya to RB news. 

(Translated into English by Maung Aurther)