Maungdaw, Aralkan State: The Tactical Operation Commander (TOC) stationed in Buthidaung Town has ordered the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) Chairmen of Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships on November 14, to send youths to the concerned Nasaka area for ‘Fire Service’ training, said a VPDC chairman from Maungdaw Township.

The Commander also asked the VPDC Chairmen to send 15 youths from each village tract to the concerned Naska area by November 20, for Fire Service training. The government will not provide any support for the training. All the expenditure is to be borne by the concerned village tract. The training is for one week.

The youths, who had taken basic military training earlier from Nasaka are allowed to take the Fire Service training. Therefore, Rohingya youths are automatically excluded from the training as earlier Nasaka gave basic army training to some of the non-Rohingya youths, said a local school teacher of Maungdaw town.

Earlier, some youths across the Arakan State were forcibly recruited from villages to serve in the army because the army authorities failed to recruit voluntary soldiers in Arakan as many youths refused to join the army. As a result, the authorities gave them (youths) basic military training and allowed them to go home by propagating that the youths had been trained for fire service, said an elder from Buthidaung township.

The youths of Rathedaung, Pauktaw, Kyauktaw and Mrauk U townships, in Arakan State had already been trained in Fire Service. Actually it is not for Fire Service training, as the junta intends to give them training for the 2010 election on how to get support from local people. This is being done in the guise of Fire Service training, said a politician from Maungdaw town who declined to be named.

Some USDA members and village councils in rural areas of Arakan are now preparing for the 2010 election, said a trader from the locality requesting not to be named.

“We believe that the junta authorities will take votes forcibly from the people though there is pressure from the international community,” a local businessman from Buthidaung Town said.