Kaladan News

Date: Thursday, August 26, 2004

Forced Labor for Model Village

Maungdaw, August 26: Nasaka forces are taking forced labor for construction of model villages from Rohingya villagers of Maungdaw Township in Arakan State, western Burma, according to our correspondent inside Arakan.

Since June 10, 2004, the Nasak (Burmese- Border Security Force) has been taking forced labor from the Rohingya villagers of Maungdaw Township for constructing 120 houses at Wabag village nearby Nasaka Headquarters of Maungdaw Township, our correspondent further added.

The villagers of Wabag (Myaw Taung), Maung Hna Ma, Thet Kai Pyin (Nanda Khali), Zambonnya (Zinbaingya) of Maungdaw north have to pay forced labor daily for construction of houses for newcomers, said a villager who came in Bangladesh for medical treatment.

All the houses are to be built at the measurements of 18 feet by 15 feet per each, roofed with tin-sheets and would be finished by the end of August 2004. The Nasaka authority is only providing tin-sheets for roofing and the villagers have to provide all other house building materials, he further said.

New settlers will come from Burma proper and they are mostly jailers, drug addicts. They have no experience to cultivate the land and to grow paddy and other seasonal vegetables. Therefore, the new settlers have to let somebody borrow again their provided farmlands to the Rohingya villagers or the villagers have to grow their crops by the order of Nasaka with forced labor. Nasaka confiscated arable lands from Rohingya villages to provide the new settlers. In brief, Rohingya villagers have to pay forced labor, farmlands and house building materials to the new comers, said another villager.

For the new settlers, the concerned Nasaka authorities have already confiscated 100 acres of farmlands from nearby Rohingya villages to distribute to the new settlers, said a farmer whose lands were confiscated.

Similarly, Nasaka authorities have taken measurement of some farmlands of Rohingya villagers from Ba Gone Nah village tract of Maungdaw south for Nasaka families or new comers, it is still not known to villagers, he further added.

Since 1988, The SPDC authorities have been very busy for construction of model villages for the new Buddhist settlers. This is nothing but an attempt to destroy the economic bases and uprooting of the age-old establishments of the Rohingya people. The so-called Natala villages (model villages) are dotted with continued erecting of pagodas, monasteries, and community centers built with forced labor, said a schoolteacher.

As a result, more and more Rohingyas are becoming landless, internal refugees or internal displaced persons after their land properties being confiscated and theirs homes uprooted. ##

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