“They were arrested after the violence of June 2012, in Maungdaw Township. After the arrest, they were severely tortured and kept in Buthidaung jail without inadequate food and other facilities. They were not allowed to hire lawyers to give them protection.”

Those convicted were charged with a variety of offences ranging from murder, assault, arson to inciting unrest, according to a police aide that requested anonymity for security reasons.

The heavy handed sentencing follows earlier concerns that the arrestees would be used as scapegoats bearing the brunt of the punishment for the unrest.

Sources told the Kaladanpress that on Oct. 15 thirty-two members from Kanpoo village received sentences between four to five years. Nineteen residents from Warr Char (upper Than Dah) village were sentenced to five years jail each from the Buthidaung court on Oct. 17. Later in the same day four villagers from Sonmowna village received convictions of fourteen years and seventeen were sentenced to between four to five years.  All the villagers are from southern Maungdaw.

Monu Meah (not a real name), a relative of one of those charged, told the Kaladanpress that police released him after they paid a large bribe on Oct. 23. Two other detainees were also released after paying extortion fees.

Every day in the Buthidaung jail where the detainees are being held they are forced to do hard labour that could be considered slave labour, said Monu Meah.  But if they have the money they can buy their freedom from police for a sum of 30,000 Kyat.

During the July violence in 2012 many of both the Rohingya and Rakhine community were killed or injured.  But the injured Rohingyas weren’t allowed to seek treatment in the government hospitals where the Rakhines were, Monu Meah said.

The violence that saw at least 240 killed and about 250,000 displaced - the majority being Rohingya – has been blamed on state ministers and prominent Rakhine political group leaders from RNDP, ALP, ALD. They were supported by police, the army and Arakan state’s former border force, Nasaka, according a local politician that didn’t want their name used.

When the violence broke out security forces encouraged the Rakhine community to attack Rohingya villages allowing them to carry out a reign of terror without fear of prosecution. After security forces arbitrarily arrested as many Rohingya as they could. This broad net included women and boys as young as 10.

The government has made the Rohingya community pay the biggest price for the unrest. Since last year many have been locked in their villages or squalid camps, their movements severely restricted. A emergency act that has been in effect since last year outlaws the gathering of more than five persons yet this has largely not been applied to the Rakhine community.

According to official government data, 1,189 people have been detained by authorities. Out of this only 260 were Buddhist Rakhines.