By Kyaw Kyaw Htay | The Rohingya Post<\/p>\n
Minbya, Arakan State \u2014 Hundreds of rebels of \u2018Arakan Army (AA),\u2019 a Rakhine Buddhist rebel group, and Rakhine Buddhist people have put a Rohingya village in Minbya Township under total siege since July 24, 2021, making its villagers run out of essential supplies and sealing the mosques off while also torturing the villagers in them (the mosques), local sources reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Rakhine rebels started to arrive at \u2018Let Ma\u2019 village (also known as Lumbashor in Rohingya) in Minbya Township through three fronts on July 24 and turned the mosques in the village their camp base. After that, Rakhine extremists surrounding villages were reported to have besieged the village from all sides.<\/p>\n The apparent reason is behind the siege and tortures of the villagers \u2013 old, young, men and women alike \u2013 the villagers not living up to a ransom demand made by the AA rebels from those conducting \u2018Kurbaan\u2019 on Eidul Adha (i.e. sacrificing animals and distributing meats to the poor as an Islamic religious duty) and but the moves seem more likely to upscale violence and uproot the Rohingya village than just reactions to not fulfilling their demands.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore Eidul Adha that fell on July 21, the rebels demanded each and every household making Kurbaan (conducting animal sacrifices) in the village Kyat 15,000 be paid and 3 Kilograms of pure meats (beef or mutton) be given (to them) but the villagers apparently didn\u2019t pay up the ransom money and the pure meat that they demanded. After that, since July 24, they have started to besiege the village.<\/p>\n \u201cThe AA rebels came in three groups from three sides and encamped inside the Masjids (Mosques) in the village and sealed them off from the villages from offering prayers. They initially claimed that they only came to capture 12 people \u2013 who were on their list \u2013 in the village and once they could do that, they would leave. So, they detained the family members and relatives \u2014 men and women including children \u2014 of these 12 villagers in the mosques, left them hungry for the whole day and tortured them. When the villagers persuaded the rebels, they released them. But they were detained again and the villagers are being tortured\u201d said a local in the region asking to withhold his identity.<\/p>\n Besides, the rebels are said to have been seizing the livestock \u2014 cattle and goats \u2014 owned the (Rohingya) villagers and eating them up. The villagers also need to cook and provide meals to them regularly, while the whole village is still under siege.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way they are behaving is like they want to force the villager to react by pushing them to the extreme end. So, once the villagers react, they could use it as justification to upscale the violence. So, they are besieging the village and preventing people from moving in and out of their homes; cutting off essential supplies; detaining and torturing men, women, children and abusing the places of worship and more. In the absence of the Myanmar military, the AA rebels are making everything sure that Rohingya Genocide survivors do not have a breathing space,\u201d said another Rohingya implying that the situation is more serious than it actually appears.<\/p>\n Since the February 1 coup by the Myanmar military and the mainland Myanmar falling into chaos, the fighting between the military and the Rakhine rebels (\u2018Arakan Army\u2019) stopped in Arakan State and the rebels virtually took control of northern Arakan state where majority of Rohingya Genocide survivors live. While the world turns its attention to the violence on the civilians by the Burmese military and a raging Covid-19 pandemic in the mainland, in Arakan State, the Rakhine rebels are committing atrocities against the Rohingya survivors from kidnapping and torturing them, extorting ransom money, rapes on women and girls, imposing arbitrary taxation, besieging villages to abusing religious places. The survivors, out of fear of getting subjected to an increased violence, are reluctant to report the atrocities committed on them.<\/p>\n Currently, the siege on the village is ongoing and those still detained by the rebels in the mosques have still been in detention for three days. And due to heavy rain, there is a looming danger of flood in the village. In the case of a flood, the villagers will face a catastrophic situation as they are blockaded by the rebels from taking preventive measures.<\/p>\n According to latest reports, more and more AA rebels are arriving and the villagers were apparently told that they needed to leave their houses for the river banks so that the rebels could conduct clearance operations. Such a move is being seen as a move aimed to uproot the Rohingya village, one of few surviving Rohingya villages in the Township.<\/p>\n [Edited by M.S. Anwar]<\/p>\n