Buthidaung, Arakan State: Army personnel in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State have been criminally extorting money from local Rohingya villagers since five years ago, so that the villagers are becoming victims under the administration of army, according to a local elder requesting not to be named.
“Two army Sergeants namely U Myint Zaw Aung and U Kyaw Thet from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No.551 of the Military Operation Command (MOC)-15 of Buthidaung Township have become rich after arresting the local Rohingya villagers with false allegation and torture to extorted money from them.”
In Buthidaung Township, village tracts or villages had been divided between army and Nasaka (Burma’s border security force); so some villages are under the controlled of army and some of the villages are under the controlled of Nasaka. Hence, the villagers who are under the controlled of army are discriminated by army and those who are under the controlled of Nasaka are persecuted by Nasaka as they want to do against the villagers except non-Rohingya villagers, the elder continued.
There are over 50 villages under the MOC-15, so that the army get chance to discriminate against the villagers of 50 villages. Monthly, the army battalion does not receive adequate budget for the camp, so they depend on local villagers. As a result, using various kinds of methods, they have been collecting money from the local villagers to support army personnel and their family members. Accordingly, the local villagers have been continuously falling into preys of army and there is no justice, said an aide of army who asked not to be named.
Recently, the said two Sergeants collected Kyat 3,000 per head of cattle as a tax from the villagers. So, they could get a lot of money from them, in which some of the money will go to the pocket of the said Sergeants and other will go to the camp, the aide of army more added.
A local trader said that the armies are using another way to get money from the villagers. At first, they give loan money on high interest to the villagers by forced and at the end of the year; they collected money with compound interest. At that time, some poor villagers are not able to pay money with compound interest. Therefore, army forcibly seized farmlands and cattle of the villagers to get money. After that, the two army personnel sell those cattle and farmlands to other villagers with ten folds price compare to current price.
“In this way, villagers become poor and the said two army Sergeants become rich and usurers. They are let to do such business by their boss,” said a local schoolteacher preferring not to be named.
