Burma Army cremates Rohingya Muslims

Kaladan Press - 04 June 2008

Maungdaw, Arakan: The Burmese Army based in Bandohla camp, near the Burma-Bangladesh border, near pillar No.50, cremated two Rohingya Muslims on June 1 evening, according to a villager near the camp. The bodies ought to have been buried.

Bandohla camp is a border outpost with the special armed forces located near the Burma-Bangladesh border.

On June 1, a section of army personnel patrolling the area, found two bodies near the camp, between pillars No.54 and 55 and took the bodies to the camp, according to official source.

The troops informed camp authorities that the dead were Muslims, who had gone to cut bamboo inside the government controlled forest and could have been killed by Bangladeshi robbers, the official source more added.

On May 31, in the morning, a group of army went to the forest to check the border and they shot to the bamboo cutters while they were cutting bamboo and cranes from the forest not far from the camp. The patrol group, hearing the voice of the bamboo cutters, the army blindly fired to them and killed two bamboo cutters on the spot, but some others were managed to escape. But, the nearby villagers did not dare to expose the name of the dead bodies, according to the villagers inside Arakan.

Of the two dead one was old and another young. The army was unable to identify them or get their address. The officer-in-charge ordered their cremation.

"Bodies of Muslims are not cremated as per traditional Muslim custom, but the army didn't handover the bodies to the nearest Muslim village and cremated them in keeping with Buddhist customs," said the sources.