The 2012 siege of Kyauk Phyu began at the mosque near the edge of the Muslim quarter situated between two ethnic Rakhine areas, which is now an empty field. In order to reach the town center, ethnic Rakhines needed to cross the Bengali village. Adjacent to the now overgrown field remains a derelict house, which was shown to be the first house set ablaze, and it still had visible fire damage. Our guide was a witness when the Muslim violence in Kyauk Phyu erupted from the mosque.
He told us that the Bengalis were firing deadly weapons called “jingalies” at the onset of the siege from the heights of the mosque. These jingalies are sharpened metal arrows made from bicycle spokes with barbs on the end to tear flesh, being launched from high-powered slingshots which can bury deep into flesh, penetrating vital organs, eyes, bone and muscle tissue. Here, jingalies were coated in poison from battery acid, with the intent to kill.
Our guide said the jingalies shot from the mosque roof and minarets were like a rain coming from the sky, a hail of poisoned metal arrows. Bengalis fired 3-4 jingalies at a time on the frightened, defenseless villagers below. As the guide was hit in the leg, he ran for cover by a small water tower by the burning house, while he was trying to protect others from the attack. Ethnic Rakhine women and children were crying everywhere in the village. Villagers covered in blood were fleeing the scene with half a dozen jingalies sticking out of their bodies, easily penetrating their thin, cotton traditional clothes. Rocks and bricks were also being thrown from the mosque by the angry brigade of jihadists, hitting our guide in the head.
Eventually the police arrived and called a face to face meeting between the Muslim and Rakhine leaders, which did not stop the ongoing violence. The attacks continued, as more houses were being torched by Bengalis, who were throwing fire bugs and Molotov cocktails at Rakhine houses. Fire bugs are metal rings covered with rope and cloth which is doused in petrol that was stockpiled on Bengali boats prior to the attacks. The magnetic rings will stick to the nails and metal in the houses. The Bengalis had long swords and big knives, which they use in the halal slaughter of cows, whereas the ethnic Rakhines had no such weapons for these purposes. The guide told us that after the insurgency, the Bengalis lied by claiming the opposite, that the Rakhines attacked them with long swords. There was no evidence of any swords or large knives in the possession of Rakhines during our stay in Kyauk Phyu, or Rakhine. Weapons are prohibited in Myanmar. Even Bengali children were trained jihadist fighters in the insurgency. One of the guide’s friends was found decapitated by a sword from this siege in an ISIS-style execution.
A military attachment arrived to form a line around the Bengali quarter, and they called a curfew, but couldn’t control the army of over 1000 Bengalis. The military did not fire weapons, but sought to contain the situation. There were few arrests, compared to the number of violent participants. The witness told us that when Rakhines would try to put out the fires in their houses, they were met with a group of Bengalis amid the blazing smoke who tried to kill them with swords. So the Rakhines had to flee their burning houses without any of their possessions. Bengalis burned down their own empty houses to accelerate the fires throughout the village of ethnic Rakhines. Later, flames engulfed the Muslim quarter when the wind changed direction, destroying both Rakhine and Bengali village areas. A brigade of Bengalis with swords prevented the firefighters from putting out the fires, as detailed in Rick Heizman’s paper from 2012: Kyauk Phyu — The Truth Is Not Obvious.
Our guide’s relative lived across the lane from the mosque; his house was burned down as jingalies were shot through the bamboo thatch walls and roof. Imagine sitting in your house when a hail of deadly, poisoned metal arrows begins going through your thin thatched walls, whereupon flaming fire bugs are thrown onto your rooftop. Note that most houses in Rakhine are light structures, often being constructed from bamboo and thatched palm leaves, like a tinderbox in the dry season. The ethnic Rakhines didn’t know what was happening to them, as the attacks were a complete surprise even for the police and military, and lasted almost two days.
In hindsight, there were warning signs that the insurgency was planned ahead of time. For instance, the Bengalis started to stockpile batteries and jingalies in their houses. In some cases, the residents could hear the mass production of jingalies in the weeks prior to the insurgency from the Bengali quarter. Witnesses indicate an increase in harassment from Bengalis leading up to the siege, as one schoolteacher crossing the Bengali quarter to work was shouted at “We are going to f*** you like Thida Htwe!”; in reference to a gruesome rape and murder perpetrated by Bengalis months earlier.
After the attacks, many of the Bengalis left by boat back to Bangladesh, while others were relocated to the No-Go Zone. Our guide mentioned that the ethnic Rakhines even helped Bengalis collect their possessions when they were being relocated. In the chaos, Hindus who looked like Bengalis were being mistakenly put in the No-Go Zone, where they would be murdered by Bengalis, so our guide had to help identify them to save their lives. The ethnic Rakhines who lost their houses and possessions still live in an IDP camp with blue tarps for a roof. We saw this IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp from the overgrown field. The Rakhines still living in the IDP camps get no international help after living here for seven years, unlike the jihadists living in the No-Go Zone, most of whom have escaped arrest for the crimes in the jihadist insurgency.
To this day, our guide is still in disbelief to what he witnessed here. Many ethnic Rakhine people are permanently traumatized from the jihadist attacks on their lives, as all basic human sense of trust and security has been shattered, making any future co-existence impossible. The only solution here is to contain the violent Bengali extremists in the No-Go Zone in complete segregation. This No-Go Zone protected the residents of Kyauk Phyu from the 2017 Islamic insurgency, orchestrated by the ARSA Rohingya terror organization; it was restricted to the Bangladesh border areas of northern Rakhine. The ethnic Rakhines have an inherent, basic human right to safely live in their ancestral homeland without the fear of being slaughtered in the next jihadist genocide from hordes of illegal invaders.
One of the witnesses of the 2012 siege of Kyauk Phyu gave us a report with a photograph collection of the victims. More than 100 Rakhines were injured and killed in the jihadist siege of Kyauk Phyu by over 1000 Bengali Muslims in just this area alone. But the false narrative of the UN and its puppet governments and organizations continues to blame the ethnic Rakhines, with no support for the real victims of jihad still living in makeshift IDP camps. Not one ethnic Rakhine was interviewed for their false reports that blamed these people for their own horrific victimization.
It’s as if the murderous Bengali siege of Kyauk Phyu never happened.
jarmanray says
Having visited Rangoon several times, I can attest to the kindness and meekness of the people living in this nation and they deserve better from an organization that claims to believe in justice. The only justice that the UN believes is Sharia justice where hordes of jihadi sub human excrement slaughter and then claim victimhood. I am also discouraged by my own government in its apparently blindness to the occurrences there and other places like Nigeria. It is time for all good people living in the safety of their homes to stand up and demand that their governments protect innocent people. This could be funded by nations simply by stopping all funding of the UN and selling the grounds of this phony organization on the lower east side of Manhattan. Hell, just the price of the stained glass designed by Marc Chagall on the open market could earn enough to completely rebuild many villages.
Savvy Kafir says
That’s an excellent proposal!
gravenimage says
Muslims using a Mosque as a base from which to wage violent Jihad? Yes, this is orthodox Islam.
Peggy says
The Muslim Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bragged: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” Erdogan has also told Turkish immigrants in Germany that “assimilation is a crime against humanity.”
gravenimage says
Yes, Peggy–always a salient quote.
Cicero says
Yet another brilliant well informed article from writer Shwe.
We are grateful that you shine the torchlight of Truth upon what has really been happening in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
As happens in Israel, Kashmir and other non Muslim countries where the latter ( Muslims ) form a significant minority we only hear about the self defensive reactions on part of the victims but we learn nothing about the provocative rumbling aggression which was the Islamic initial action which provokes the reaction .
Please continue posting on Islam and South East Asia dear Shwe
gravenimage says
+1
Anjuli Pandavar says
+1
jule says
I am not at all satisfied for just us to read this here while mainstream ignores it. People have to be told.
gravenimage says
You can help spread this information.