Maungdaw, Arakan State: People from Borgarbill Village—part of Kyauk Hlai Khar Village Track—fled after their village was surrounded by 11 trucks carrying Burma Border Guard Police (BGP) officers at midnight on July 31st, according to Hala, an elder from Kyauk Hlai Khar Village Track.
“The villagers had to run away from the village after hearing and seeing that vehicles were surrounding their village. They don’t know why or what was the problem. The villagers were also frightened when they saw BGP surrounding their village,” said Hala.
According to a local BGP officer who declined to be named, the BGP had previously summoned 10 influential villagers to the local BGP office, but they didn’t show up. BGP officers then went to Borgarbill Village to pick them up.
The influential villagers didn’t appear at the office because they didn’t want to be coerced into encouraging their villagers to participate in a “population data collection” process which would have essentially forced them to identify as “Begali” (instead of “Rohingya”) in order to obtain Burmese citizenship, said Mamon, an elder from the village tract.
The villagers and the entire Rohingya community in Burma know they are “Rohingya” now and will be “Rohingya” in the future, said a student from Maungdaw who declined to be named.
There are also unconfirmed reports received by Kaladan Press that when BGP officers went to the village they attempted to rape women, as the women were vulnerable because many men had fled the village.
