Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma’s border security force, Nasaka, has seized cattle from Natala (model) villagers of Buthidaung Township, while the cattle were being driven to Maungdaw Township, through a mountain pass, after they were initially stolen from a Rohingya farmer, a local farmer said on condition of anonymity.
A group of four Natala villagers of Katila model Village of Buthidaung Township stole a pair of cows from a Rohingya farmer of Boddaw Para of Buthidaung Township on July 10, while the cattle were tied up in a cowshed.
The Natala villagers were driving the stolen cows to Maungdaw Township from Buthidaung Township through a mountain pass, which is connected to Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, as the Natala villagers thought that the owner of the cattle would be unable to fin them. Luckily, the stolen cattle were caught by the Nasaka personnel of Aung Mangala camp of Maungdaw Township, while they were on patrol. The Nasaka seized the cows from Aung Thaya Natala village of Maungdaw Township. The Natala villagers of Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships jointly have been stealing cows from Rohingya farmers, a local trader said.
According to a relative of the cattle owner, “It is a very important time for farmers for preparing the arable lands for growing paddy. Without the cattle, the farmers have no alternative of tilling their lands. At this time, the disturbance caused by Natala villagers to the Rohingya farmers is intolerable.”
A high school student said, “How will the Rohingya community survive in their homeland given the persecution by concerned authorities and also the harassment of Natala villagers?”
The populations of model or Natala villages are poor Rakhine people from other parts of Arakan State and some are poor Burmans from Central Burma, mostly retired civil servants, drug addicts, former prisoners, former insurgents groups and some ethnic minorities.
The SPDC's policy of establishing "Natala villages or Model villages" in northern Arakan calling in Burmans from Burma proper and Rakhines from inside and outside Arakan, has resulted in the confiscation of land and forced labour from the Rohingya community, said a local elder.
The setting up of model villages reportedly intensified after the formation of Nasaka (Burma's Border Security Force) in 1992.
The newcomers are poor Burmans, retired civil servants and former prisoners. The newcomers were lured by the authorities and forcefully brought to Arakan State. For the settlement of the Natala villagers, the authorities made houses for them forcing Rohingya villagers to work at the construction site after confiscating land from Rohingya farmers, a schoolteacher, who declined to be named, said.
However, officially the program is under the supervision of the Ministry for Development of Border Areas and National Races, better known under its Burma acronym "Natala". Therefore, model villages are locally known as "Natala Villages.”
