Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) has ordered 28 more houses to be vacated in Horitala village of Maungdaw Township, a trader from the village said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, on October 20, over 100 houses were ordered to relocate from Bakkagona village of Maungdaw Township
The order came from Nasaka Headquarters of Maungdaw Township. The villagers were asked to vacate at the end of this month. The villagers are not being told where to go but asked to go anywhere they like.
The villagers were forced to sign on a blank white paper that they will vacate houses within this month, the trader added.
On October 24, Nizam Uddin (50), son of Oli Ahmed from Bakkagona was called to Nasaka headquarters. It is learnt that it is a two-storey building and Nasaka and engineers from the army, who came from Maungdaw Township for erecting barbed wire fencing on the Burma-Bangladesh border want to stay in this house, said a close relative of Nizam Uddin.
Nasaka recently increased destroying Rohingya villages for their needs or deliberately to harass Rohingya people, though lands are available. They had also destroyed old Rohingya Muslims’ cemeteries.
Some villagers went to the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) Chairman of Maungdaw Township and requested for permission to stay one month more before relocating. But, the TPDC Chairman rejected the villagers’ request, said a local villager.
It is the end of the rainy season, yet sometimes rain falls heavily. In such a situation villagers were ordered to vacate the houses. Villagers have to prepare for relocation and to choose the place to go to. The TPDC chairman did not extend the date to relocate and this is human rights violation, said another local.
Foreigners working with NGOs in Arakan have been barred to go to north Arakan six months ago, said a man close to Nasaka.
Destroying the houses of Rohingya villagers or relocation of Rohingya villages would create difficulties for villagers. Confiscation of lands from Rohingya villagers may increase in future. It will also affect to the economy of the villagers, education of the children and they will face many difficulties to establish another house in another place. The villagers will become poor day by day and the SPDC authorities will benefit by relocating Rohingya villages, said a businessman from Maungdaw town.
A student said, “I am studying in Maungdaw High School living at my home. After relocating our village, how can I go to school as my house will not be set up soon? It is very expensive to live in other house, so, I have to stop studies.”
An elder from the village said, “I have a garden near my home. How can I go from my village after abandoning my garden?”
There are eight Nasaka areas in Maungdaw Township, a western border town of Burma. Nasaka monitors the Rohingya people to harass them in their daily life and to force them to leave Arakan and make the state into a Buddhist majority community, said a school teacher.
