Rohingya Vehicles in Buthidaung Deliberately, Excessively Being Extorted

November 18 /2021

Rohingya vehicles in Buthidaung town under Rakhine state are deliberately being extorted by the traffic police and this cruelty is going on against the Rohingya Muslims due to their race and religion, Rohingya drivers said.

A car driver said that traffic police in the town come out unexpectedly at the Zabaw village market junction in Kakjebek Kanbyin, the suburb of Buthidaung town and motorcycle as well as tricycle riders and drivers are illegally being arrested and extorted.

Traffic police based in Buthidaung collect monthly taxes, ten thousand kyat from a Rohingya motorcycle owner, twenty thousand kyat from a tricycle driver and three thousand kyat from a glass car driver.

It is only Rohingya Muslims who are excessively, forcefully, deliberately and discriminately collected taxes because of their race and religion, said a victim of the traffic police.

Obtaining a license to persecute Muslims from the township development authority, a Rakhine man is also collecting parking tax and wheel tax. The vehicles owned by the poor Rohingyas are usually collected 5,000 kyat per month.

A Rohingya driver on the condition of anonymity said “The taxes are deliberately collected to kill us through hunger.”

On 16 November, Master sergeant of traffic police U Than Shwe and Sergeant U San Shwe Hla abruptly arrived in the market in Zabaw village at around 09:00 A.M and illegally arrested Rohingya drivers and extorted from 10,000 kyat to 20,000 kyat from each of them, the driver added.

A local eyewitness said the drivers who were unable to pay due to financial difficulties were inhumanely beaten in the market.

Being Muslims, Rohingya people from all walks of life are being persecuted daily in the majority Buddhist country, Myanmar.

Reported By: ArakanGo

Edited By: Md. Shuaib