3 Rohingya Women Raped, At Least 50 Men Arrested By Myanmar Army In Kyet Yoe Pyin

RB News 

November 18, 2016 

Maungdaw, Arakan – As part of the current “clearance operation” the Myanmar army arrested 50 Rohingy mn in Kyet Yoe Pyin village tract in Northern Maungdaw Township. Three Rohingya women are believed to have been raped by soldiers during these operations. 

At 5:30AM today, November 18th, 2016 the Military and Border Guard Police (BGP) surrounded Kyet Yoe Pyin, Nga Sar Kyu and U Shey Kya village and then later raided the villages. They have been inside of the villages since the morning and remained stationed there are the present time, according to local villagers. 

The Militaryand BGP were reported to have raped women in homes where no men were present in Lu Pan Pyin hamlet, in Kyet Yoe Pyin village tract, according to on man who fled the village. 

“They said they needed to check the houses. They raped the women if there were no men in the home. As of today I know of three women who were raped. Their neighbors heard them screaming for help,” another villager who escaped the village said. 

Today the soldiers and police involved in the so called ‘clearance operation’ arrested 50 men from Kyet Yoe Pyin and 3 men from U Shey Kya villages. 

Another villager who fled the scene informed RB News that, “They arrested any man they saw in front of them, so we had to run away from the village. Some were arrested while they were running away. They said to stay quietly in the villag, but they arrested many people once they began raiding the village. Now we can only be calm if we flee the country, if we don’t they will arrest us one day soon as well.”

A human rights watchdog group in Maungdaw said that, “The forces in the clearance operation are arresting any man they find. After they arrest them they post about it on state media saying they’ve arrested a terrorist. Because of this all the innocent people are running away when they see the police or BGP. It is bad because the army will then rape the women in the villages freely with all the men gone. As of now there are more than a hundred rape cases in Maungdaw. It has become normal to expect the army will rape here now.”

Since October 9th, 2016 many Rohingya have been killed and more than 100 Rohingya women are believed to have been raped. Hundreds of civilians have been arrested, most if not all of them are believed to be completely innocent. As the military continues to crackdown on Rohingya in Maungdaw many are now fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh for safety.

Report contributed by MYARF.