Maungdaw, Arakan State: A villager in Maungdaw Township recently had Kyat 400,000 extorted from him jointly by a local chairman and a local Buddhist monk over the allegation that the victim’s son had stolen cakes from a Buddhist temple, said a close relative of the victim who asked not to be named.
“The victim was identified as Nur Alam (25), son of Abdu Karim, who hails from Thay Chaung village under the Powet Chaung village tract of Maungdaw Township. He is a student at an Arabic school.”
“On July 7, at about 7 pm, Nur Alam was called by the local Village Chairman Mamu Rashid while he was working at his paddy field nearby a Buddhist temple. When Nur Alam was going to meet the local chairman after crossing by the local Buddhist temple, he was called by the monk of the temple and entertained him with coffee and cakes.”
After that, the monk gave a complaint to the village chairman against Nur Alam that he had stolen some cakes from the Buddhist temple, said an aide of the village chairman.
As a result, the local village chairman called Nur Alam and his father to his office and asked them to settle the problem. The chairman asked for Kyat one million from them. But, later, they were forced to pay kyat 400,000 to settle the case.
Nur Alam denied strongly that he had ever stolen cakes from the temple, but the chairman did not accept his statement. The chairman threatened them, “If you don’t pay money, the case will be put up to the Nasaka camp”, said a relative of the victim.
A local trader said, “It is unbelievable that a Buddhist monk would give such complaint to the local chairman against a student. I think it is the creation of the local village chairman”.
However, on July 18, when the father of Nur Almam paid kyat 400,000 to the village chairman, the chairman took Kyat 300,000 for himself, and the monk took Kyat 100,000, said an aide of local village chairman.
