Maungdaw, Arakan State: A mixed group of Burmese security forces—including personnel from the Burmese border guard; police, and military—killed one person and injured another for refusing to participate in the so-called “population data collection program” in Lound Don Village in Maungdaw north district, said Ahmed Hussion, an elder from the village.
Burmese security personnel went to Lound Don Village for the purpose of conducting the population data collection program, but instead wound up attacking, arresting, and harassing Rohingya villagers whom they encountered. Thereafter, the villagers attempted to settle the incident and ask the security forces to explain their actions. However, the security forces open fire on the villagers, killing on Rohingya–Zahid Hussin—and injuring two others, Ahmed said.
The villagers then become angry and attacked the security forces, precipitating a clash in which the security forces fired off more shots, injuring even more villagers, said a school teacher named Nazam. “The security force fired on the villagers, they weren’t firing warning shots in the air,” she said.
High-level authorities in Maungdaw have ordered the army to deploy around the Kyein Chaung (Boli Bazar), Lound Don, Labowzarr, and Ngar Khura areas. Apparently, the army has been ordered to force villagers in the region to provide family lists for the population data collection program. The army has also been performing random inspections of people in the area to ensure that all family lists have been submitted and usually won’t release individual they’re inspecting until all their paperwork has been verified, Nazam said.
As a result, villagers have become frightening and have run away from their villages. The army has taken advantage of the situation by looting valuable goods from empty homes and attempting to rape women who have remained behind in the villages, Nazam added.
In another incident, security forces set fire to Rohingya-owned houses in Labowzarr Village on Aug 28th and forcibly entered Rohingya houses in the village, after which they stole personal property, family lists, “white identity cards,” and gold from the homes, said Harron, a shopkeeper from the village.
Male villagers ran away from the village when they saw security forces entering the area, but all the females stayed behind, Haroon said.
The authorities have stepped up their harassment of the Rohingya community in order to compel them to participate in the “population data collection program,” a scheme designed to deny Rohingya their right of self-identification by categorizing them as “Bengalis” instead of “Rohingya,” thereby rending them ineligible for Burmese citizenship.
The authorities have also imposed restrictions on the ability of Rohingya to work, travel, marry, and obtain health care and education, said Nur Mohamed at a meeting between the Rohingya community and local administration officials in Maungdaw on August 27th.
