The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Qutub Shah RB News January 16, 2013 (Edited by Mayu Thit Sar) Maungdaw: January 14, at midnight, in Kyauk Pando (Shita Furikka) village of Southern Maungdaw Township, the villager Eliyas s/o Habiullah was arrested from his house by the chief of Kyauk Pando Nasaka (Border Security Force) Camp. He was severely tortured soon after he got arrested although he didn’t know what went wrong with him. He was in the lock-up of Nasaka since then. It was his luck that he was able to convince the in-charge of the lock-up to release him after promising for a ransom.

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Burma’s border security force (Nasaka in Burmese) arrested 18- Rohingya villager and looted goods from market on December 13-14, at night, according to a local leader who denied to be named. “On that day, at around 8:00pm, a group of Nasaka from Naga Kura camp under the Nasaka area No. 5 went to the market nearby Kyetyoepyin (Kyariprang) village of Maundaw north while a group of shopkeepers were listening to a radio and listening songs in a shop. After entering the shop, the Nasaka indiscriminately beat them up severely and the shopkeepers became very angry, as retaliation, the shopkeepers also beat up the Nasaka personnel harshly.”

PHUKET: Ismail has been bought as a slave, the way hundreds of Rohingya are bought in Thailand, a country that is supposed to be free of slavery. His body still bears the unhealed wounds of a horrendous beating. He says he was handcuffed, forced to lie face down and thrashed without mercy. Held captive by modern flesh traders in a strange country, he did what uppity slaves always have done - he tried to escape.

Photo by Waedao Harai NARATHIWAT _ He was 10 years old, but Rohingya Nu Rahasim decided to set a journey to the sea for a better life after his parents were killed by Myanmar soldiers. The migrant, his fate now in the hands of Thai officials and international diplomats, was one of 139 Rohingya rounded up in Songkhla's Sadao district on Sunday, the third group arrested in the district in less than a week.

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  The construction road – highway- made by authority is destroying most of Rohingya winter cultivation farms in Maungdaw south, according to a local businessman. “The road – from Maungdaw north to south- is going near the mountain side where most of the Rohingyas grow winter season crops – potato, chili, eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, radish, carrot, tomato, water melon and etc.. “

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Burma border security force (Nasaka) detain two Rohingys in their area number 8 since January 10, said a local businessman. “They were arrested over allegation for involving in human trafficking – sending Rohingyas to Malaysia by sea route.”

A Rohingya migrant receives a health examination at a detention centre in Songkhla’s Sadao district. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD The government plans to consult with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) before deciding on the status of nearly 850 detained Rohingya migrants, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says. The government will not return or relocate the Rohingya migrants for the time being, Ms Yingluck said after yesterday's cabinet meeting.