School girls broken bone in car accident, warned by MI not to file case against the offender

Rakhapura News
Minbya, 23.8.2003

Three school girls who were broken bone in a car accident in 2nd week of June in Minbya, Rakhine state, did not receive any compensation for their medical treatment and they are instead warned by Military Intelligent (MI) not to file case with police against the law breaker.

In 2nd week of June, when three Rakhine school girls returned home from their school, a track car owned by Bengali Muslim incidentally ran over them and fled away, the report said. All three girls were from Creektaung village situated between Minbya and Mraungbwe township and they are studying at Class Ten at State High School in Minbya as there is no High Level School in their Creektaung village. The track owner instead of helping some money for medical treatment to the victims, bribed Ks.1,000,000 (Ten Lakh Kyats) to the head of Military Intelligence (MI) in Minbya. The parents of victims filed the case in Minbya police station but later, the police after receiving the order from MI, closed the case without giving any reason to the victims’ families.

“The MI personals come and meet with the victims in the hospital and warned them that they will be expelled from the school if they try to file the case against the driver” said an angry relative of one of the victims. The news about the girls is also known to the town peoples and nearby townships and the relatives of the victims are very upset with the MI’s intervention.

Minbya is a town from which all the nearby towns such as Mrauk-U, Mraung-Bwe and Kyauktaw can be connected by both water way and land. The track car service to carry passengers and goods is profitable and popular business in Minbya. It is also learnt that if a business man purchased a track car, then he also have to purchase another one as a reserve for the military porter assignment, our correspondent said.

Generally, most of the track car owners are Bengali business men who have mutual relation with the Military Intelligence. More Passengers used the track cars run by Bengali Muslim as they are cheaper than the track cars run by local Rakhine business men, it was learned.