Rakhine police raid camps for laptops

Bill O'Toole

Muslims living in camps for displaced people near the Rakhine capital Sittwe say police have been conducting regular nighttime raids to confiscate laptops and smartphones.

The move appears to be designed to isolate IDPs and stop them communicating with foreign individuals and groups. Sittwe’s Rohingya Muslims, who are referred to in Myanmar as Bengalis, are largely restricted to the camps and a few sections of the city and the internet is their only means of connecting with the outside world.

A Rakhine State government spokesman has denied the allegations, calling them fabricated.

But one IDP from a camp near Thatkepyin village, who asked not to be named, said police have been arriving several times a week since early June to search camps for laptops and other internet-enabled devices.

He said the visits usually involve harsh interrogation, with police even sometimes beating people in the camp for information. During the visits, the police regularly accuse people of using the internet to spread “wrong information”.

“The are trying to stop us from communicating with foreigners,” said the man, who was a university student before the violence broke out.

He said he uses the internet to keep in touch with his brother in Europe and communicate with sympathetic groups in Malaysia. 

“Rohingya people want to share their suffering with the world and share information,” the man said.

U Aung Win, a Rohingya activist in hiding in the Sittwe area, estimated that more than 80 people found with computers or smart phones have been arrested on “false charges” in Sittwe in the past month. Other sources based in the area made similar estimates. 

“I also use a laptop secretly, everybody uses a laptop secretly ... in every IDP camp it's the same thing,” he said.

Many of the IDP camps in Rakhine State lack basic amenities, such as running water and electricity, and residents are forced to be resourceful to recharge their electronic devices. Sources in the camps say that several groups have worked together to buy 15-watt solar panels, at K15,000 a unit, that can be used to charge their devices. 

U Win Myaing, a spokesperson for the Rakhine State government, denied that the raids were taking place and said he had never heard reports of police harassing IDPs. He said that U Aung Win and the other IDPs were being paid to spread disinformation.

He said the websites that post their information are “biased” against the Rakhine ethnic group. “No one ever talks about all the good things [the state government] does for the Muslim people,” he said.