The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Muslim Militants Targeted Civilians in Rakhine: Govt
- Thousands of Buddhist Rakhine, Hindus Evacuated from Northwest Myanmar
- Northern Rakhine Cut Off As Violence Continues
| Muslim Militants Targeted Civilians in Rakhine: Govt Posted: 27 Aug 2017 04:13 AM PDT YANGON – In what the State Counselor's Office has labeled terrorist attacks, militants in northern Rakhine are allegedly targeting civilians including six members of a Hindu family—three of them children—who were shot dead in northern Rakhine on Saturday. The 12-member family, who live in No. 4 Quarter of downtown Maungdaw, were returning home from working as casual laborers in Myin Hlut village in southern Maungdaw at 11 p.m. on Saturday when they were caught in clashes between Rohingya militants and the Myanmar Army, according to a statement released on the Facebook page of the State Counselor Office Information Committee on Sunday. The family sought refuge in a construction site between Myo Thu Gyi village and downtown Maungdaw on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road when they were discovered by Muslim militants who allegedly shot dead two men, one woman, and three children, the statement read. Two women were severely injured and four children managed to escape to a neighboring village where security personnel were deployed. On Sunday, the six bodies were taken to Maungdaw General Hospital and the surviving family members traveled to Buthidaung. The Irrawaddy was unable to independently verify the account. In a separate attack, 20 ethnic Daignet—a sub-ethnicity of Rakhine—were besieged by around 100 Muslim militants with knives as they evacuated to Aung Zan village in Maungdaw on Saturday afternoon, according to a statement from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief's Facebook page on Sunday. One man evaded the violence but the fate of the rest of the villagers is unknown, according to the statement. Since Rohingya militants launched attacks on 30 police targets and one army base on Friday, leaving 12 members of security forces dead, the route between Buthidaung and Maungdaw has been blocked as a precaution against landmines. Police Col. Maung Maung Soe of No. 1 Border Police Headquarters in Kyee Kan Pyin, Maungdaw Township said seven police outposts in Maungdaw Township were attacked by home-made bombs on Sunday. According to Reuters, the Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers in the area as clashes continue, while around 2,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh. Saturday's attack on the Hindu family was strongly condemned by a legal advisor for the All Myanmar Gurkha Hindu Dhama Assocation U Gannes Basnet, who spoke to The Irrawaddy by phone from Kachin State. He urged the government to protect civilian lives in Maungdaw. "This is not just attacks on Buddhists and Hindus, it's threatening the security of the nation," said U Gannes Basnet. There are about 2,000 Hindus living in Maungdaw, according to a member of Myanmar's Hindu Association U Bagale who lives in Mogok Township of Shan State. U Bagale said he had heard from relatives in the area that Maungdaw's Hindu Temple had been burnt down, although The Irrawaddy was unable to verify this. "They were innocent children who have no idea about politics, why did they brutally murder them?" he asked of Saturday's incident. Chairman of the Arakan National Party's Maungdaw chapter U Khin Maung Than told The Irrawaddy that the entire Hindu community from No.5 Quarter of Maungdaw Township had been driven out by Muslim residents, and one was killed. Some 400 Hindu families were sheltering in schools, monasteries, and government compounds, he said. He described the situation in Maungdaw as "critical," and said 4,000 people had sought refuge at the three-mile border check point, near the Mayu mountains on the road between Maungdaw and Buthitaung, and five Rakhine villages had been burnt down in northern Maungdaw. The Irrawaddy was unable to independently verify his accounts. A Twitter account claimed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for attacks on Friday morning, calling them "defensive actions" against security forces. In Friday's statement, the group vowed that they would "continue [their] struggle." In previous statements dating back to May, statements from the ARSA Twitter account maintain that the group was committed to avoiding civilian targets. Tension had been running high recently between ethnic Rakhine and the stateless Rohingya Muslim population, who remain largely separated since inter-communal violence in 2012 and 2013 displaced around 140,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslim Rohingya. Myanmar Army-led security operations, in response to attacks on border guard posts that killed nine police, drove 75,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh and "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity, according to the UN. The post Muslim Militants Targeted Civilians in Rakhine: Govt appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Thousands of Buddhist Rakhine, Hindus Evacuated from Northwest Myanmar Posted: 27 Aug 2017 12:52 AM PDT YANGON and COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh – Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said, while thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh. The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said. The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area. Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government. The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority, and of defending the army's counteroffensive after the October attacks. Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 "ethnic villagers" who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area. The ministry is arranging facilities for non-Muslims in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities. "We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities," said Win Myat Aye. He was unable to describe the government's plans to help Rohingya civilians. "It is very difficult to say—this is a conflict situation so it is very difficult to say who is right or wrong," he said. Panic-stricken Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said. "The clashes continued all day yesterday on the main road, there are a lot of landmines. I don't think local authorities have enough food for all the people. The price of commodities is rising day by day," a local journalist from Maungdaw town said on Sunday. Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya—mostly women and children—were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border as gunfire could be heard from the Myanmar side, Bangladesh border guards said. Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border. Bangladesh's foreign ministry said it was concerned that thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" had assembled near the border to enter the country. Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country's citizens. The post Thousands of Buddhist Rakhine, Hindus Evacuated from Northwest Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Northern Rakhine Cut Off As Violence Continues Posted: 26 Aug 2017 11:30 PM PDT SITTWE, Rakhine State — Access to Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships of northern Rakhine State was cut on Saturday as boat services were suspended from the state capital Sittwe as attacks by Rohingya militants continued in the area since early Friday morning. Boat service providers in Sittwe told The Irrawaddy requests to the Rakhine State government for security assistance had not been answered. The three townships are only accessible via boat from Sittwe to Maungdaw. "We suspended our service as we don't dare to venture out without any security assistance," said a saleswoman from the Shwe Nadi Boat Service's ticket counter, adding that she didn't know when the service would be resumed. U Aung Kyaw Zan, state minister for industry and transportation, told The Irrawaddy he had informed boat services to operate based on the situation in Maungdaw. "Everyone knows what is happening there, we can only take action based on the situation there," he said. Since Friday morning, attacks on around 30 police and army targets in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships caused the deaths of 10 policemen, one soldier, one immigration officer. At least 59 suspected militants were also killed. The Myanmar government on Friday evening denounced those involved in the attacks as terrorists. The post Northern Rakhine Cut Off As Violence Continues appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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