“Accept that you are a foreigner in your motherland, or get arrested as terrorists,” this seems to be the message for the remaining Rohingyas in Maungdaw township as immigrant officials (La Wa Ka) step up NVC vigilance. Rohingya face prohibition entering Maungdaw town without NVC. Anyone failing to show NVC are facing the threat of being arrested and tortured on charges of planning to attack state forces.
Rohingyas have been defiant in their refusal to accept the NVC, or any other identification form that refers to them as Bengalis i.e. immigrants from Bangladesh. However, Maungdaw township which had an overwhelming Rohingya majority is now eerily depopulated as the vast majority have fled to Bangladesh. Once, Rohingyas were defiant in their refusal to accept the NVC, despite all the arrests and tortures, fearful they would be permanently labelled as Bengalis. Now, they have been driven out to Bangladesh by brute military strength, and the remaining Rohingyas are finding it increasingly difficult to put up passive resistance that had once been vital in preserving the identity of Rohingya and their ancestral claims to their native land of Arakan.
Meanwhile La Wa Ka has erected many more checkpoints at strategic points on the main roads making it almost impossible for Rohingyas without NVC to travel within even short distances.
