Kyauk Phyu lies at the
northern end of Ramree (Yan-byae) offshore Island. It has ten wards of which
eight wards are Buddhists and two are occupied by a small community of Muslim
fishermen. Followings are the list of all ten wards in Kyauk Phyu.
1.
Eastern,
2.
Western,
3.
Central,
4.
Myit-nar-dan,
5.
Zay-di-taung,
6.
Ah-soe-ya,
7.
Ah-yar-shi,
8.
Than-ban-chaung,
9.
Pike-seik (west), and
10.
Pike-seik (east).
Both Pike-seik wards are
Muslim wards and once the racial and religious troubles restarted again in nearby
Min Byar town and spread to other towns of Arakan the Muslims in Kyauk Phyu were
preparing for eventual Buddhist attacks even though the town was not affected in
last June disturbances.
No one really knew who
started the devastating fires. Buddhists claimed the Bengali Muslims started
throwing their fire-rings at Buddhist houses and they had to retaliate. Some
Kyauk Pyhu locals even claimed that the attackers were not local Buddhists but the
outsiders from other Arakan towns who don’t like the Kyauk Phyu’s peaceful
coexistence between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority.
Anyway the result is the
total annihilation of two Muslim wards in Kyauk Phyu and the town is now
Muslim-free as the Bengali Muslims had fled the town by taking to the sea in
their 80 odds motorised fishing boats.
Following satellite photos
are from the HRW’s PDF document released yesterday.
Bangladesh border guards has recently reported that about 60 boats load of Muslim refugees from Arakan had been floating on the nearby sea while waiting to land on Bangladesh side. With at least 100 on a boat the number of Muslim refugees might have been at least 6,000 on those fishing boats floating on the sea.
(Muslim-cleansing in Kyauk Phyu town of Arakan, Burma.)
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| Kyauk Phyu Muslim Wards before the fire - HRW satellite photo. |
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| Kyauk Phyu Muslim wrads after the fire - HRW satellite photo. |
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| Bengali Muslims fleeing the burning Kyauk Phyu by a fishing boat. |
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| Bengali Muslim boats fleeing Kyauk Phyu beached near Sittwe. |