New arrivals flee from Northern Arakan

Maungdaw, Arakan State (Kaladan): More people brought from Burma proper, who were recently settled in Northern Arakan, fled from their village, said a village headman from a Model (Natala) village.

Most of the new settlers in the village were provided money, food, houses and other necessities for two months work, he added.

The authorities gave them facilities two months after which they were supposed to work for themselves with the equipment provided. Soon after they ran away from the village, said a Rakhine villager from Taungbro of Maungdaw.

“We know that the new settlers from Burma are being brought here for the ensuing election in 2010 to mobilise the people in Natala villages for votes. They get more facility than us. We don’t know why they run away despite this,” he said.

“Because of the Natala settlers, we have lost our farmlands and cattle. We had to pay for them. They create trouble for our community making the place unsafe, said a Rohingya villager from Alaythan Kyaw.

About 1,000 acres of land were seized in Maungdaw Township for Natala (model) villagers after the Western Command Commander Brig General Thaung Aye visited Northern Arakan on May 4, said a village headman from Maungdaw South.

Around 200 settler families arrived in Maungdaw on April 4. They were settled in Maungdaw Township. Twenty families were settled in Taungbro village, 80 families in Nurula Para, 20 families in Sikdar Para and the rest were settled in south of Maungdaw Town.

The junta authorities plan to annihilate the Rohingya community from Arakan State by setting up Natala villagers in northern Arakan and stepping up human rights violations against the Rohingya community by arbitrary arrests and torture, extortion on false and fabricated cases, restriction of movement, restriction in marriages and insulting the women folk, said a schoolteacher.

Thus the Rohingya community is forced to flee to Bangladesh from their home land, he added.

But the settlers, who were brought from Burma, were given everything for their livelihood and all types of facilities. He wondered why they were running away from their village where they were to settle.