KIF A Rahman|Arakan Watch
May 18, 2017
Burmese Police Force has arrested 11 Rohingya Muslims in Rangoon who were trafficked from conflict zone of western Arakan State to the country’s commercial capital Rangoon over land.
A report by the Anadolu Agency states that the smuggled Rohingya Muslims were arrested by Rangoon Police in patrol at the Aung Mingalar Highway bus station in North Okalapa Township of Rangoon, a high official confirmed on Thursday, May 18,
The arrestee were suspected to be trafficked to Malaysia overland via Burma-Thai border with the help of Burmese smugglers in Rangoon. They flee troubled Arakan state to escape from inhuman persecution perptrated by Burmese security forces since October last year.
On interrogation, the arrested Rohingya informed to the police that they were trafficked to Rangoon by local Rakhine smugglers in cooperation with Rakhine Police in exchange of high payment. The arrested 11 middle-aged men could face two years in prison for ‘illegal intrusion’ under the Residents of Burma Registration Act (1949) and Myanmar’s Penal Code. Last October, 18 trafficked Rohingya men were sentenced to two years in prison in Rangoon on the same charges,
Tens of thousands of Rohingya compelled to flee their ancestral homes in Arakan State to save their lives from the barbarian Burmese army who launched a crackdown operation in the name of so-called clearance operation since last October.Security forces have been accused of gang-rape, killings, beatings, disappearances and burning villages in the Maungdaw area of northern Arakan.
At least 1000 Rohingya were killed and 75000 others were compelled to take shelter in neighboring Bangladesh.The crackdown has attracted severe international criticism of its brutality. The UN termed this atrocities as Crimes Against Humanity.
There are an estimated 1 million Muslims in the region who are known as Rohingya are today largely stateless. The enactment of the discriminatory Citizenship Law in 1982 has turned these native Rohingya into alien in the land of their fore-fathers. Without citizenship, Muslim Rohingya are unable to own land, form political parties, or act as civil servants.The head of Sitwe immigration has imposed restriction of movements on Mulim Rohingya in 1997 that compelled them to lead a life of captivity and misery under the four walls of iron curtain.
