April 29, 2017
Maungdaw- Local administration officials and Hlun Htein forces went to the destroyed village tracts of Kya Ri Prang and Na Sa Gru in Maungdaw North and ordered displaced people to move their homes out of their former places to the marshlands.
On Friday, the officials went to these two villages where former residents of the village were now living in temporary shelters built on their former homesteads. The two villages were razed during the first days of the clearance operation and there are now no houses left standing. As a result, the Rohingyas who did not escape to Bangladesh have now erected small huts in place of their homesteads.
However, officials told the Rohingyas that as soon as their houses were hit by government forces, they have legally become the property of the government. So as per government order, they are to relocate to an area designated by them.
The area designated for them is on the marshlands, that gets submerged during the rainy season. Locals say it is impossible to stay in that area even in normal times, and during the rainy season, they can only live in boats and not houses.
Much of the residents of these two villages have fled to Bangladesh during the crackdown and most have not come back. Locals allege this is a ploy by the government to make the few remaining residents of Kya Ri Prang and Na Sa Gru leave for Bangladesh.
Earlier in February, Hlun Htein officials told villagers in Sa Li Frang, Ra Bai La, Sau Ra Gazi Bil and Bor Gazi Bil that all their land property previously held by the Muslims now belong to the government.
During the three month clearance operation, heinous crimes were committed by Tatmadaw led forces in these villages including throwing infant children into the fire, firing randomly at civilians, raping and abducting women, gruesome torture in custody and so on.
