May 15, 2017
Maungdaw- Local government officials accompanied by security forces held a meeting with villagers from Kawa Bil, Maungdaw North, on Friday.
During the meeting that took place in the destroyed hamlet of Wa Beik, the officials told the government would be ‘kind enough’ to shift the Muslim population to an IDP camp where they will be given ‘grants’ to build shelters.
The villagers told the officials that if they were really kind towards the affected population, they would be allowed to go back to their original homes. The officials replied harshly that it was the government decision and not subject to negotiations.
Kawa Bil was evicted and burned down in mid October last year amid gruesome atrocities that included planned executions of civilians, rape and abduction of women, and killing of children. The entire village, especially those in the Wa Beik area were burned down and everybody was driven out.
Much of the populace has since fled to Bangladesh while the rest have erected shanty huts in marshlands and other places alongside their former habitats.
The government has told villagers that all destroyed homes are now their property and Rohingyas will be moved to ‘model villages’, a synonym for IDP camps. The space allocated for this IDP camp will hardly hold even the remaining populace of Kawa Bil.
Villagers in the other destroyed areas of Northern Maungdaw have been given similar directives.
