May 18. 2017
Maungdaw- Tatmadaw forces arrested a woman from the now destroyed village tract of Ra Bai La on Monday for disclosing the murder of her husband and two other neigbhours when the army attacked the Northern Maungdaw village in mid November.
Salima Khatun had spoken to an investigation commission which had visited the region on February 19 where she described in detail on how Tatmadaw personal got hold of her husband Abdu Salam and two other men on November 13, cut them up with sharp weapons, burned their corpses and buried them in a hole.
Since the statement, Khatun has received multiple threats from military and BGP personal stationed in the area. At one point, the forces asked a notorious gang of collaborators (tabbeys) to get Khatun to confess that she had lied about her husband’s death.
The tabbeys forced Khatun to sign a confessional statement saying she had lied to the investigation commission and her husband had died from natural causes and was not killed by the Tatmadaw.
Soon after she wrote this confessional statement, Khatun was arrested on Monday at around 3pm by the military. She has been accused of slandering the Tatmadaw and they have produced Khatun’s forced confessional statement in the court as evidence of her guilt.
One source said she had already been sentenced to six months in jail without giving the chance to defend herself.
Incidentally, Ra Bai La, along with the nearby settlements of Sa Li Frang, Bor Gazi Bil and Sau Ra Gazi Bil was attacked with helicopters and rocket launchers on November 12. The next day, heavily armed Tatmadaw men went in, apprehended and killed civilians, and threw infant children into the fire, among other atrocities committed on that day. Hundreds died in what was the deadliest attack on Rohingya civilians during the three month crackdown that has killed more than a thousand.
