Nasaka, with the help of local Rakhine and religious leaders have already visited the sites of three villages, Don, Zawzi and Kara Gyi villages.

The Rohingya villages were torched during the recent violence. “Over 8,000 people (from the villagers) are in a shelter in a town nearby,” said the business man.

The central government recently asked the Nasaka to compile lists of Rohingya villagers for a new commission on citizenship for Muslim residents of the township.

According the Burmese news reports, 18 officials from several government departments will carry out the new initiative that is expected to follow in accordance with the 1982 citizenship law, introduced by former dictator Gen. Ne Win. The immigration department, army, police, and township and village level politicians are all taking part in the commission.

According to a village elder their efforts “will be in vain” and will do nothing to help the Rohingya unless the 1982 Citizenship law is amended. This law repealed the 1948 citizenship law - after Burma was granted independence – which stated, under Article 4 (II), ‘any person descended from ancestors who for two generations at least have all made any of the territories included within the Union their permanent home and whose parents and himself were born in any of such territories shall be deemed to be a citizen of the Union.’

Nasaka officers collected the names of the people living in the village, their relative’s names, their occupations, ages, birth dates and ethnic backgrounds. The border security force officers are writing Bengali in their reports despite villagers told them they are Rohingyas.