Members of Arakan Army (AA) raped Bengali women in Theintan Village, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State and they are conflicts with the villagers, announced the army.

The announcement said four members of AA arrived in the village to meet with four ten-household administrators on January 31 and they demanded Ks4 million compensations for four landmines controlled with remotes set up near the village as the villagers moved the land mines.

The ten-household administrators denied to pay compensations as the villagers didn’t move the land mines. The AA members punched the ten-household administrators and injured them. They left after that and returned in the village around 4 pm. They entered a house owned by one of the ten-household administrators and raped Bengali women inside the house, it said.

The villagers from nearby stopped them and the AA members have conflicts with the villagers. The villagers caught two of the AA members and Maung Thein from Saetetaung Village arrived in the village around 6 pm and took AA members with him, it said.

The AA members arrived in the village one more time around 8 pm and took the women, who were being raped, witnesses and the ten-household administrators with them. They threatened the villagers to deny the rape case and took a video record. They also made them to sign and took fingerprints. After that, they released the villagers. The villagers run away to other villages as they feared for their lives.

The village elders sent a letter to the army to help them. An army column arrived in the village on February 2 and helped and inquired about the AA.

The AA pounded Kingtaung Village in Buthidaung Township on January 25 killing two villagers and injuring seven. A land mine exploded near Htaketupauk Village on January 7 killing four children and injuring six, including a teacher, according to the announcement.