Rohingya cattle owners are facing harassment by both the army and the new police force, according to a local elder that preferred not to be named for security concerns.
Authorities complained to the ranchers for allowing their cattle toe graze to closely to a Natala (model) village. Model villages are villages for for resettled Rakhines or Burmans. Sometimes they are built on land that was confiscated by Muslim owners.
When one of the cattle owners, Kala, 45, the son of Nazir Ahmed, went to retrieve his livestock both the police and army severely beat him. Kala was released after paying a 25,000 Kyat bribe, according to a police aide.
On the same day a fourteen-year old boy from Kilaidaung village was also detained. Ayas, son of Salim Ullah, was grazing cattle when he was arrested. The boy was also tortured, but then later released after his father paid 50,000 Kyat, according to a relative of the victim.
Zahir Ahmed, from the same village, was arrested on the way to his paddy field the same day. A Rohingya businessman from the area said that security officers told him that they beat the forty-five year old son of Basa Meah for being “an eyesore”.
“It is a deliberate action against the Rohingya community. How long Rohingya people will survive in Arakan state in Burma? Why the world community is tightlipped regarding this?” asked a youth that didn’t want their name used.
Kaladan Press Network contacted the Maungdaw police station for more information regarding the latest incidents but no-one was authorized to discuss it with the media.
