AsiaWeek – 14 July 1978
Rangoon correspondent U Maung Maung reports on his recent (July 1978) secret visit to thetowns of Aykab (Sittwe), Buthidaung and Maungdaw:
Extracts: From the minarets of mosques in the townships I toured, I could hear the familiachant calling the devout to prayer. The sound seemed to support the government’scontention that there was no religious persecution in the area. I certainly saw no sign ofantipathy among the non-Muslims towards Muslims.
Any visitor can see that the Muslim population in these townships is significant. According tothe 1973 census, 209,873 of Maungdaw's 223,616 people were Muslims while in Buthidaungthere were 138,547 Muslims in a total population of 263,317. In Akyab, the capital of Arakanstate, Muslims dominate.
The problem is that the proportion of “Chittagong Muslims” among these groups has beensteadily rising; these are people who moved into Burma from the Chittagong area ofBangladesh. They have settled down as farmers and fishermen, but many are active in thesmuggling trade. They apparently have access to relief goods supplied to Bangladesh, suchas clothing and medicine. They also bring bicycle accessories, Horlicks, Ovaltine, biscuitsand talcum powder through the well-trodden jungle paths into Maungdaw. In the village of Phone Nye Leik, all the people I saw were Chittagong Muslims.
Burma looks upon these people as illegal immigrants. It says that many of them have nowfled to Bangladesh – not because they’re Muslims but because their illegal status was beingexposed. Burma does not even concede that they are refugees, preferring the term“fugitives”.
While arguments go on at governmental levels, problems on the ground are continuing.People described as “bad elements” are apparently in a situation to exploit the situation.Many of them are said to have crept back into Arakan from the camps in Bangladesh. Theyare certainly keeping themselves busy. On my way back, I saw a village near Buthidaungbelching smoke; enquiries revealed that it had been set on fire by some Chittagongians [sic]who had returned for that purpose and then vanished again.
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