My name is Aung Soe Than,

from Min Gyi Village (aka Tula Toli),

in Maungdaw Township,
Rakhine State, Myanmar
Interviewed at refugee camp in Sittwe,
September 26, 2017

My name is Aung Soe Than, and I come

from Min Gyi (also known as Tula Toli) in
Maungdaw Township.

As you come to my village you must cross a

small stream. Nearby are many Bengali
villages. On that day (Aug 25, 2017) first
the Bengalis attacked the security outpost,
then came into our village with weapons,
yelling, killing, and setting our homes on
fire. We had to run so fast to save our lives.

We ran to the Buddhist monastery and joined other villagers who also had to flee. We
spent a fearful night in the compound. The next day we all fled to the mountains, and
spent 3 fearful nights with no food and no water. It was especially difficult for the young
children, and the old people. Education was disrupted, and health issues were many.

The Bengalis are so cruel. They kill us and they burn our homes. They think they are the
majority people, but in our Rakhine State we Buddhists are the majority. These Bengali
immigrants should behave like guests in our homeland and not make trouble. But, they
are not like guests. They have no respect or decency to us. Around the world people
should not behave like they do. Why do they think it is right to kill us and steal our land?

They live in our land, they drink our water, and eat the food from our land. But, they are
so ungrateful. Why do they kill and threaten us, again and again? They are so cruel. We
cannot live together, or near the Bengalis. We are too frightened. We don’t want our
families killed by them.

If the Bengalis in Bangladesh come back to here we are too afraid to live near them. We
need to rebuild our village and live peacefully with the other ethnicities. But, not the
Bengalis. Nobody can live in peace with Bengalis.

Interviewed by Rick Heizman 9 rick@rickhiezmanreality.com

 My name is Aung Kyaw Kyaw
from Nantha Daung Village,
Maungdaw Township,
Rakhine State, Myanmar
Interviewed in Maungdaw,
September 30, 2017

My name is Aung Kyaw Kyaw, and I teach

at a monastic school in Nantha Daung
Village, in northern Maungdaw Township.

On August 25, 2017, around 1:00 AM, ARSA militants made a surprise attack on police
outposts around here. We heard guns shooting all night. All the students were so
frightened and didn’t know what to do.

In the morning security forces came in trucks and told us it is not safe here, the fighting
is still going on, there are a lot of militants, and fighting will continue. So, the army took
all of us to the nearby town of Taungpyo for safety.

A few days later ARSA terrorists reached the Nantha Daung monastery school and
temple complex and took it over. They killed the old monk who stayed there to watch it.
Then they were shooting from there at the security forces. The security forces even had
to retreat back to Taungpyo because they only numbered 8, and the militants numbered
several hundred, and had guns. [This area is very close to a remote jungle-covered part
of Bangladesh where weapons can easily be smuggled across the border. The border is
no longer the Naf river.]

The ARSA militants then destroyed the school, the dormitories where the students lived,
and the temple, breaking and smashing all images of the Buddha, and then setting fire
to everything. We had to stay in Taungpyo, and then we were moved down to Maungdaw
town on October 10.

We are lucky, we can stay in this large monastery and temple complex in Maungdaw.
And, we can continue learning, because we all love knowledge.

Eventually we want to go back to our small villages - as long as we are safe. We hope to
live honestly and harmoniously. We don't want to be chased off our land.

Interviewed by Rick Heizman 38 rick@rickhiezmanreality.com

 I am San Goe Aung
from Taung Ba Zar Village,
Buthidaung Township,
Rakhine State, Myanmar
Interview in refugee camp in Buthidaung,
October 1, 2017

On Thursday night (Friday morning) August 25, 2017,

the Bengali Muslims attacked several dozen police
outposts and army battalions in Maungdaw and
Buthidaung. In the morning around 9:00AM, the
Bengalis came to our village. They were shouting they
will kill all of us and make our village into a Rohingya
village.The villagers were afraid to run, and we
phoned the Army and implored them to save our lives.

We survived because the army troops arrived just in time. We had nowhere to run. The
Bengalis set landmines on the road. We walked the path near the graveyard.

When we arrived inside of the battalion base, around 500 Bengalis came and opened fire
on the base. When we arrived inside of the battalion base, around 500 Bengalis came
and opened fire on the base. They ran away when the army troops shot back with big
guns. When they retreated, they burned houses in the villages.

We are the minority now. Our Buddhist Rakhine villages only have 20 to 50 households
while Bengali villages have thousands of households in their villages. We can only live
here with better security and big villages.

The rescue assistance groups are helping us here. We stayed over 10 days in the army
battalion base, and moved here to the monastery. The Sayadaw (Senior Monk) helps us
a lot. If not, we will have many troubles.

We have had this kind of suffering many times. The so-called Rohingya terrorists are
nothing but the Bengali villagers themselves. They pretend like they are innocent
villagers when the authorities come to investigate. We feel very discouraged to
encounter such terrible things done by Bengalis in our own country.

Some houses were destroyed, some were not. An hour after we left our village, another
group of army troops went to our village to guard it. If not, Bengalis would have burned
the entire village.

Interviewed by Rick Heizman 15 rick@rickhiezmanreality.com

 A man in a village near Kha Maung Seik,
northern Maundaw Township,
Rakhine State, Myanmar
Interviewed January 17, 2018

Six Buddhist Fishermen Ambushed

by Group of Muslims

Near the river there was a mosque, and just near it

ten ARSA Bengali Muslim terrorists were waiting to
ambush the Buddhists. While they were fishing, the
10 terrorists suddenly attacked. 5 fishermen
managed to run away, but one was in the river, and couldn't get out fast enough. None
of the fishermen had weapons with them.

The Bengalis were all armed with swords and heavy clubs. They sliced his head and
arms and hip, and then one Bengali plunged his sword into the man's chest. The sword
blade got stuck between two ribs and the assailant let go, and the Bengalis ran off
thinking rejoicing that he was dead. The severely wounded man had to pull the sword
out of his own chest.

The others fishermen came back and they called the military to come help them. The
man was taken to the hospital in Maungdaw which was a 4-5 hour drive on very bumpy
dirt roads.

Ironically, the man's son, in Sittwe, upon hearing the news about what happened to his
father, crashed his motorcycle, and was now in the hospital in Sittwe.

[We visited the fisherman in the hospital the next evening, but the staff said please no
photos. The man looked almost like a mummy, with so many bandages covering gaping
wounds. He was in great pain, and his family members were thankful that he survived.]

Interviewed by Rick Heizman 14 rick@rickhiezmanreality.com