Four Women Appeared In Maungdaw Court On False Allegations That They Torched Houses

RB News 

April 13, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan -- Rohingya houses in Sin Thay Pyin hamlet of Longdon village tract and Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract in Maungdaw Township of Arakan state burnt down to ashes on March 10, 2014 and again on March 15, 2014, and four women were arrested.

The authorities arrested three Rohingya women from Sin Thay Pyin and one from Phan Myaung. They are (1) Sha’ Ah Nu D/o Hamid Hussein (Age 29), Noor Ankis D/o Jamal Hussein (Age 46) and Hasina Zuhar D/o Iman Hussein (Age 35) from Sin Thay Pyin hamlet and Gul Zuhar D/o Abdul Rahman from Phan Myaung. The authorities forced them to stand in front of burnt houses and took the photos. Then they were taken to the police station in Kyain Chaung village.

Reportedly four women and the one woman arrested on March 10, 2014 were brutally beaten and tortured in the lockup in Kyain Chaung. They were forced to say that the Rohingyas torched their homes by themselves. The police harassed them by various ways. They burnt their genitals with candles. The women were sent to Kyain Chaung hospital on March 16th for the treatment. The doctor of the hospital, Dr. Nu Kaythi Zan blamed the police for inhumanly burning the genitals of the women, according to locals.

On March 17th, the women were sent to the court in Maungdaw for interrogation and later brought back to Kyain Chaung police station.

On April 11th, they were brought to Maungdaw court for interrogation and they got chance to talk with their love ones for 3 minutes. They said they don’t even know how to describe their plights behind the cell. They claimed that they have been kept without clothes since the time they were arrested.

According to locals, they will be sentenced to at least seven years on false allegations that they torched the houses. In reality, the houses were set fire by a group of Rakhine extremists by using chemical powder. Some remote devices were used in torching houses.

Additional reporting by MYARF.