Nasaka officer threatens to seal all business to join the program of digital sign and photograph in Maungdaw south

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma border security force (Nasaka) commander of area number 7 threatened the Rohingya villagers to seal all their business if they didn’t join the program of digital signatures and photographs on May 24 meeting at high school of Alay Than Kyaw, said a village administration officer. 

“The commander called all Rohingya villagers and village admin officers with members to Alay Than Kyaw high school, where he had given a speech “to join at their (authority) program of digital signatures and photographs which mention the race as Bengali, in the place of Rohingya.” The commander also threatened the villagers, he will seal all the business – fishing, farming and business- if not join the program.”

In the meeting, the Nasaka commander discussed many different issues with village leaders and administrators regarding the present situation of Arakan State, said an aide of Nasaka.

“If anyone doesn’t comply with the order, he/she will be punished according to the law and also will be imprisoned five years,” the commander added.

We don’t want to join the program as Arakan State government spokesperson U Win Myaing has insisted that recent household data collection for Muslim in Arakan, is related to next year’s census and preparation for the next coming census in 2014, where the UN Population Fund issued a statement on May 3 in which it said that “[h]ousehold data collection activities being undertaken in the camps, other sites in Sittwe, and other towns, Rakhine State, involving the update of family lists by teams composed of several government departments, are unrelated to the National Population and Housing Census scheduled for April 2014” and these activities are also not connected to the pilot census exercise that took place successfully from March 30 to April 10. Actual data collection for the 2014 National Population Census will take place from March 29 to April 10, 2014 in all parts of Myanmar. Every person present within the borders of Myanmar on the night of March 29, 2014 will be included in the census.” So, we did not want to participant the program for using us as Bengali in the name of Rohingya which authority trying to label us Bengali, said the villagers from Maungdaw south.

The commander also mention the recent Arakan State government imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists Rakhine in the area – Maungdaw and Buthidaung where Rohingyas are about 95 percent Muslim and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian violence. But, this Law was issued sine long times when Nasaka started to control the marriage of Rohingya with these conditions and to extort money from Rohingya community. It is not a new one, but now it issued from state government, said a school teacher.

According to sources, Burma’s central government, Arakan State authorities and Arakanese politicians have long claimed that the Muslim population in the region is rapidly growing and pushing out local Buddhist communities.

Rohingyas villagers in northern Arakan State are now passing days and nights in panic for giving pressure to join the government program of digital sign and photograph by Nasaka, the politician said.

“They have no alternative way to go anywhere from Arakan soil, so they have to live at a big cage in Arakan State, Burma.”

Source: KPN