Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Forced labor for Newcomers and Relocated the Rohingya Villagers in Northern Arakan
Maungdaw, June23: The Nasaka (Border Security Force) of Burma has been extracting Rohingya forced labor to build houses for newly arriving settlers from central Burma and relocated the Rohingya villagers in northern Arakan since the end of May 2004, according to a relocated villager.
An order has been issued by the Nasaka acting Director Lt. Col. Myint Oo to evacuate 130 Rohingya houses from Myaw Taung (Wa-beg) and Kyi Kan Pyin (Kawa Bil) villages of Maungdaw Township to build houses for newly arriving settlers, which are closed to the Nasaka Headquarters. These newcomers are arriving soon from central Burma to the Maungdaw Township, Arakan, he further added.
Day in, day out, many Rohingya people are being engaged routinely from neighboring villages in forced labor for the “settlement programs” of the new Buddhist settlers, while no any alternative arrangement has been made yet for the evacuated Rohingya families. These families are living at nearby villages with an unbearable condition in rainy season, said another villager.
Under the construction scheme, the villagers have been building 20 houses, a monastery, a school, a health center, several ponds and wells. The nearby villagers are compelled to abandon their agriculture works because of construction works for the newcomers without any wages. In addition, the villagers have to pay Kyat 3,000 to 6,000 per each family according to their financial status. Besides, they have to provide house-building materials including pillars, bamboos and etc., he further added.
The concerned authorities to confiscate 260 acres of the Rohingya lands from the surrounding villages for newcomers have framed a plan, said a Village Peace & Development Council (VPDC) member who is declined to mention his name.
Villagers have to pay forced labor 2 to 3 days constantly to their work site. Due to their absence from their houses, some villagers’ family members have been facing starvation because of having very little income, he further added.
A schoolteacher said, “Right now, our lives are under a modern slavery of the government. We have to pay forced labor, money, constructional materials, and farmlands, etc. Even though our valuable trees have been forcibly taken by the Nasaka for the construction of new settlers’ houses. This construction of model villages entails us forced relocation and relegated to the poorest.”
Over 100 Arakanese Buddhist villages have been set up around Maungdaw and Buthidaung since 1950, compared to only 15 before then, mentioned in a report of International Federation of Human Rights League (FIDH).
The Burmese authorities intensified their model village or Natala program at the beginning of the 1990s. There were 14 villages built in the year between 1991 and 1996, mentioned in another report.
The Western Command Commander in Ann supervises the Natala or model village program in Arakan. Model villages are designed for 100 families, each allocated on average two acres of land, livestock, farm tools and a house. In some cases, the newcomers even get food assistance.
So far, there are about 20 model (Natala) villages have been built for new Buddhist settlers since 1990, in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaund Townships in Arakan State. ##
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