Maungdaw, Arakan State: As of August 1st, Maungdaw District officials have been changing their approach to collecting “population data” in order to force Rohingya to participate in the survey and identify as “Bengali,” according to Nurul Hamid, a village administration officer from Maungdaw.
Nurul said that at the bi-monthly meeting of Maungdaw village administration officers on August 1st, the administration officer of Maungdaw Township, U Kyi San, and Burma’s Border Guard Police (BGP) Director Tin Ko Ko ordered Maungdaw village administration officers of to encourage their villagers to participate in the “population data collection” process
In addition, U Kyi San and BGP officers said they would send letters to all influential people in Maungdaw villages for the purpose of directing them to join the population data collection process, a campaign that began on August 5th. Local officials have also started to harass the local Rohingya community in order to coerce them into participating, said Halim, a human rights watchdog from Maungdaw.
On August 9th, dozens of letters were sent out to such influential persons, and in Myoma Khayoungdan Village those who received the letters were told by BGP officers that if they identify as “Rohingya” they won’t be able to participate in the “population data collection” program. The officers who went to collect data from the village said that “Rohingya” was not recognized as one of Burma’s ethnic groups by President U Than Sein, so they couldn’t collect data from people who identify as “Rohingya.”
However, an elder from Myoma Khayoungdan Village named Hasu Meah decried the government’s current position, saying “the name ‘Rohingya’ was previously recognized by Burmese leaders and the Burmese government even established a Rohingya-language radio station in the past. The government also published several books on Rohingya history during the military era, and now you are refusing to recognize the term ‘Rohingya’—people who have lived on this land for centuries.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Burma’s capital for the ASEAN Regional Forum, met Thein Sein and discussed “quite a few details” about the situation in Rakhine State and the Rohingyas—in particular their designation as “Bengalis,” which Rohingya see as supporting the assertion that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many have lived in western Burma for generations, according to a senior State Department official.
The State Department official also said that “To force any community to accept a name they consider to be offensive is to invite conflict, and if the goal is to prevent conflict, then it is better the name issue should be set aside.”
During his meeting with John Kerry, Thein Sein apparently wasn’t reluctant to discuss all these issues, and on August 8th U Ye Htut, Thein Sein’s minister of information and spokesperson, said that “We don’t deny there are some challenges that we are facing and we are moving in the right direction and we’re trying our best to overcome these challenges.”
Nevertheless, at the local level it seems as if there’s no end in sight for the problems faced by the Rohingya community. For instance, on August 10th in Aley Than Kyaw Village there was an argument between the Rohingya community and the “population data collection” officers as the officers attempted to arrest a Rohingya elder who refused to participate in the survey. In response, local community members tried to prevent the arrest, said Hanidul Rahaman, an elder from Aley Than Kyaw.
Later, Maungdaw District officials asked supposed “Rohingya leaders” from Maungdaw and Buthidaung to solve the dispute between the Rohingya community and the population data collection officers in Aley Than Kyaw Village, but Mohamed Ibarahin from Maungdaw said these “so-called ‘Rohingya leaders’ are merely collaborators who are helping the government by encouraging Rohingya to participate in the population data collection process and identify as ‘Bengali’.”
