Rakhine govt denies reports Bengalis were killed

“Recent reports by online media including ARU about Myanmar’s army assisted by Rakhine villagers killing Bengalis and raping Bengali women in Maungdaw were totally wrong,” said Win Myaing, spokesman of the Rakhine government’s information committee. “In actuality, authorities are investigating the case of a missing policeman who was supposed to be killed in a Bengali village during a night patrol there on January 13.” 

The whereabouts of the police sergeant, who went missing after an attack by Bengalis during a night patrol, is not known. Only pieces of his uniform with blood stains were found near the Gawduthara creek during a police search. In the case, 84 Bengalis from Duchiratan village, where the attack occurred, are now under police investigation. Some of them have run away.

The police uniform and a belt belonging to the officer were found near a mosque in the village, and authorities are still in search of those who committed the crime, said Win Myaing, adding that it was the Bengalis who attacked government staff and Rakhine ethnics.

State-owned TV clarified “false” reports made by AP and Irrawaddy online news agency which said Bengali women and children were brutally attacked with swords on January 17.

It contacted the police chief in charge of Maungdaw after the reports. 

The police chief denied the claims. “The reports are completely wrong,” he said. “Our police force there is only making necessary investigations about a missing police sergeant named Aung Kya Thein. Some of the suspects who took part in the crime have been identified.” 

On January 13, a group of five policemen led by the police sergeant, with support from village elders, was on a regular patrol in the area and reaching the Bengali village at around 9.30pm. When they arrived near the village school, several Bengali villagers shouted in their language at them. When the police replied that “we’re just patrolling, take it easy”, a group of Bengalis attempted to surround them, shouting “Knife them!” 

As the heavily outnumbered police retreated, the sergeant was left behind, trapped in the village along with his M22 rifle. He has been missing since then. When informed, an army and police force with other authorities reached the village at around 2am, requesting people there to turn over the sergeant, but in vain.

In a similar case that took place in Sittwe Township on December 26 last year, Bengalis attacked two policemen, killing one and leaving the other severely injured.

In the early morning of January 16, a fire reportedly broke out at a Bengali refugee camp in Pauktaw Township.