Village Administrator Extorts 200,000 Kyat from Mother not to Charge for the Drowning of Her Son as Murder

August 5, 2013

Maungdaw, Arakan – The Mother of a young Rohingya man who drowned while crossing a river was extorted a sum of 200,000 Kyat by a a village administrator not to charge her with murder for the accident, RB news has been informed.

A young Rohingya man, Faisal (20-years-old), son of Abu Lul from Pas Kawri village, U-Daung village tract was visiting a relative in Tha Pyay Taw village on July 25, 2013. A source told RB News that on his way home Faisal suddenly was taken by the current of a stream he was trying to cross and drowned. His body was found on the following day near the beach of Byu Har Gone village, Aley Than Kyaw. Faisal's remains were buried there as per the desires of his parents.

The village administrator of U-Daung, Tin Maung, came to know of the incident and called Faisal’s mother to his office. According to a villager, he threatened the mother of Faisal, Noor Banu, that he would charge her for murder if she did not pay 500,000 kyat as extortion. It was reporterted that Noor Banu ended up paying 200,000 kyat just to escape threats of being charged with the murder of her recently deceased son by the village administrator, Tin Maung.

“The parents of Faisal are very upset as they lost their son suddenly. And they are more uncomfortable with the extortion of the village administrator as their financial situation is very weak.” a villager told RB News.

Reportedly the village administrator, Tin Maung extorted 26.1 millions kyat in the past three months from Rohingyas in the region.

Moreover, on July 30, 2013, he called the principal of Islamic School, Maulana Mohammed Zubair to his office and threatened him with an accusation of reporting the such news to media.