Soldiers brought over for supervising fence construction on the Burma-Bangladesh border and  troops stationed in the state patrolling Maungdaw Township were withdrawn on March 21, after a clash between GE army (Government Engineering battalion) and Burma’s border security force (Nasaka), said a schoolteacher who declined to be named.

There was a clash between Nasaka of Nansa Daung Nasaka camp of Nasaka area No. 3 of Maungdaw Township and troops who came to Maungdaw Township for supervising the fence construction on March 20, because of harassment of Rohingya people by the GE battalion based in Letwai Dha village tract of Buthidaung Township.

Though the GE army came to Maungdaw Township for supervising the fence construction, they extorted money from Rohingya villagers, looted vegetables from local villagers and fish from fishermen, and also forced villagers to work on fence construction without any wages. They insulted the women and were into other kinds of persecution against the Rohingya, said a youth from the locality.

Villagers informed the local authorities Nasaka. The Nasaka asked the GE army not to harass the Rohingya villagers in the Nasaka area. This irritated the GE army so a clash ensued on March 20. The Nasaka commander was arrested by the GE army and humiliated, said a Nasaka aide from Maungdaw town.

After the clash, on March 21, the GE army and other troops, who have been patrolling Maungdaw Township, were transferred to Buthidaung Township, where its mother battalion is located.

A village elder said on condition of anonymity, “Now we are free from harassment from GE army and other soldiers.”

The construction of the fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border has been temporarily halted, said a local trader on condition of anonymity.