Narinjara news
‘Smuggled’ minority
Muslims detained in Burma
Sittwe, 2 August 02: On July 20th , two minority Muslims from Arakan State, in
the western part of Burma, with an Arakanese national were arrested at the Nasaka checkpoint # 25 at Ann Township.
The Arakanese was serving as the 'carrier’ of the two Muslim persons being
'smuggled’ into
The two Muslims, named Habib Rahman
(27) S/O Shamsuddin and Abdul Zaman
(22) S/O Abdul Hakim from Pauktaw-palaung
village under Kyauktaw Township, and an Arakanese
national, named Maung Kyaw Win (33) S/O U Tha Myint
Aung hailing from the same village were arrested on charges of, what the
authorities term as ‘human smuggling’ - a reference made to ‘smuggling
Muslim nationals from Arakan State to Burma Proper’ against the decree of the
Burmese junta’s ban on the free movement of Muslims from the state.
The Nasaka security forces allegedly recovered kyat
250,000 from the possession of Maung Kyaw Win as the price for ‘smuggling’ the
Muslim nationals into
In the same manner, on July 16th
, a minority Muslim, Tun Naing alias Farid-ur-Kamal
(18) son of Muhammad Sabur of Pibaung-raung
(Pi-bin-yin) village, Nangya village tract under
The ban on the movement of Muslim nationals of Arakan State has been effective
since 1988 when the Burmese junta imposed travel ban on the Muslims who
allegedly ‘infiltrated’ into Arakan State from a neighbouring country, while in
practice, the ‘ban’ has now also been extended discriminatorily to those Muslim
nationals of Arakan State who for centuries have been living in their ancestral
land of Arakan, said a well-known public administrator in Mrauk-u.
Previously there were incidents of what is termed as ‘Muslim smuggling’ by the
Military Intelligence agents posted across the state. Recently many
Arakanese people lured by the ‘trade’ that needs the least risk but high profit
have taken up the ‘smuggling’ that made a large number of intelligence agents
instantly rich, he added. #