A ‘Miracle’ Minefield Passage for Displaced Buthidaung Villagers  

By Admin 11 Aug 2024

Written by Aung Min
 
“It was a miracle,” said Marajan as she recounted how she and fellow Muslims crossed a literal minefield unharmed on a pitch-black night on their way to the Mayu mountains.
 
In May, some 30 residents including Marajan managed to escape Kyaukphyu Taung Village in Buthidaung Township, where they had been isolated by the regime for more than eight months.
 
“We were quite lucky to cross the farms dotted with landmines and reach the mountaintop. We didn’t think we would survive,” said the 25-year-old Marajan.
  
Located just five furlongs from the Myanmar military’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 353, the village of Kyaukphyu Taung is home to more than 140 Muslim households. Villagers need permission from the battalion to travel to nearby villages and Buthidaung Town.
 
In October 2023, the villagers were told that they were not allowed to leave Kyaukphyu Taung until further notice. Junta personnel from the battalion did not provide an explanation for the prohibition. The battalion imposed a similar ban on four other Muslim villages nearby.
 
“It was like we were in a prison. We could not earn a livelihood during the eight months of isolation. We could only stay in our houses, starving,” said villager Sadek Kula.
 
The regime blockaded roads and waterways in Arakan State after renewed fighting broke out on November 13, 2023.
  
Then things got worse. The junta forcibly recruited Kyaukphyu Taung villagers and forced them to join protests against the Arakkha Army (AA). Kyaukphyu Taung villagers were also dragged into the fray as the regime attempted to foment racial conflicts in an apparent attempt to offset its military defeats.
 
“[Junta personnel made overtures] to us by promising rice, food, cash and citizenship identity cards, and freedom of movement across the country,” said Marajan.
 
Kyaukphyu Taung villagers said armed Muslim organisations such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) also attempted to persuade them to enlist, but there was little interest.
 
Then in early April, villagers were forcibly conscripted from Kyaukphyu Taung. Marajan’s husband was one of them.
 
“We were sleeping when they came into our house. They forcibly took my husband. When I begged them, they hit me, and dragged away my husband,” said Marajan.
 
Sade Kular, 50, said his son was also forcibly drafted by the regime.
 
“Both my wife and I were at home [when junta soldiers came for their son]. My wife pulled one arm of my son, and a junta soldier pulled the other arm. A soldier pressed a lit cigarette to the left arm of my wife. She still has a scar,” he said.
 
The regime reportedly abducted around 30 men from Kyaukphyu Taung Village.
 
Many conscripts were sent straight to the frontline after 14 days of basic military training. When the AA captured the 15th Military Operations Command in Buthidaung, hundreds of Muslim conscripts surrendered along with junta soldiers.
 
In addition to its conscription campaign, the regime forced Muslims to stage anti-AA protests in Buthidaung and Sittwe towns amid the fighting.
 
Dozens of local residents, including children, from Kyaukphyu Taung Village were twice coerced by the regime into participating in protests. 
   
Residents of Kyaukphyu Taung, experiencing various forms of hardship brought on by the regime, grew increasingly frustrated with daily life under the military boot, and were further alarmed as the fighting gradually approached their village.
 
Residents said junta soldiers entered Kyaukphyu Taung and used villagers as human shields during an AA offensive against the military’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 353.
 
“During the fighting, the Myanmar military used us as human shields and did not allow us to leave the village at all,” said Sade Kular.
 
When the fighting intensified, residents of Kyaukphyu Taung Village, including Sade Kular and Marajan, decided to flee as they felt they could no longer safely remain.
 
But junta soldiers were positioned in the east of the village and the Mayu mountain range stretches to the west of the village. If villagers wanted to go to the mountains, they would have to pass through fields where junta soldiers are known to have planted landmines.
 
Nonetheless, local residents including Sade Kular and Marajan decided to take that chance, crossing the mine-littered farmlands at night while fleeing to the Mayu mountain range.
 
“We knew there were AA troops on the mountain. That’s why we fled our village to seek refuge in AA-controlled areas,” Marajan said.
 
After the residents of Kyaukphyu Taung Village escaped, they met AA troops somewhere in the Mayu Mountains.
 
“The AA soldiers took care of us for three days and arranged for us to eat and drink, then they drove us to the village where we are now,” Sade Kular said.
 
The AA announced that 166 Muslims, including children, who fled from Kyaukphyu Taung, Tatminchaung and Ngakyitauk villages in Buthidaung Township due to regime airstrikes on May 18, were given medical treatment and assistance.
 
Residents said that during the fighting, 76 houses in Kyaukphyu Taung Village were destroyed by regime acts of arson, artillery fire and airstrikes.
 
Residents of Kyaukphyu Taung Village are still unable to return to their homes and are taking refuge in a location deemed safer, for now at least, in Buthidaung Township. Marajan said they had calmed down a bit since arriving in the AA-controlled area, but are worried about the future ahead.

For Marajan, the fight for control of Arakan State is deeply personal, as her forcibly conscripted husband is believed to have been taken prisoner by the AA during the conflict. 
 
“I hope that the AA will release my husband,” she said. “Without him, we face livelihood hardships.”