The Situation of Rohingyas in Maung Daw Afterwards Cyclone

Maha Min Khant 

RB News 

May 20, 2013

Opening of the Mosques and Locking Down Again 

On 15th May 2013, the district administration and the township administration of Maung Daw asked local Rohingyas to open some mosques that had been locked down since June 2012 and pray in the mosques to get protected from Mahasen cyclone. The mosques were the main Mosque of Maung Daw in Quarter 1, two mosques in Quarter 2 and one in the village of Maung Ni. 

People were glad to see the mosques open and to have permission to pray in the mosques that had been locked for almost a year. As the cyclone changed its direction off the Arakan coast, Maung Daw authority locked the mosques down again at 2PM on 18th January 2013. Facing this situation, the local Rohingya Muslims in Maung Daw are feeling extremely sad and let down according to a Rohingya in Maung Daw. 

The Arbitrary Arrests of Rohingyas Due to Their Denial to Be Bengalized 

On 13th May 2013, Mohammed Salam S/o Syed Ahmed (45), from the village of Khawar Bil (Kyi Kan Pyin), Maung Daw, was arrested by NaSaKa (Border Security Force) as he refused to participate in the biometric process of forced Bengalization. On 18th May 2013, he was charged under the section “Nga/Nya” according to his family. 

It has been announced that the authority will start Bengalizing Rohingyas by force from 21st May 2013 onwards. Therefore, many Rohingyas are afraid and trying to escape the injustice for another country. 

Call Yourself Bengali, We Will Issue All Kind of Permission 

Rohingyas have been living in an open prison called Arakan for more than two decades. Rohingyas have been immense trouble as they have been deprived of such Basic Human Rights as freedom of marriage, freedom of family planning and freedom of medical treatments etc. They have been forced by NaSaKa to pay Kyat 10,000 to Kyat 100,000 to get permission to practice such basic human rights on top of that they have been tortured, persecuted and arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned in the hands of NaSaKa, Police, Military, SaRaPha (Military Intelligence), township administration and village administration for decades. 

Nowadays, at the gates of the NaSaKa Camps in Kyi Kan Pyin, Maung Daw, there are signboards stating that we will issue you travel permission, marriage permission and other sorts of permissions only when you give your finger prints calling yourself a Bengali. People will never call themselves Bengalis because they are not. Even though, people agree to do so, it is very difficult to say if they will live up to their promise because they like to abuse others. Therefore, people are really worried according to a villager.

(Translated into English by Maung Aurther)