The commander of the Sector No. 6 Major Than Tun has confiscated about 300 acres of Rohingyas’ lands from “Khoror Dale” (Nwa-ron-daung) village, a place 3.5 miles north of Maungdaw while extracting forced labour for constructing 80 tin roofed houses for the new Buddhist settlers. This has been done by the order, dated May 13, of Lt. Col. Soe Twe, the chairman of the District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) and Lt. Col. Aung Ngwe, the Commander of Nasaka headquarters of Maungdaw Township, said a trader to the Kaladan Press.
Major Than Tun has selected 12 village tracts around “Nwa-ron-daung” village compelling each village to construct 7 houses. The government is reported to have been supplying most of the house-building materials, including tins for roofing. The settler village is named “model village” which will have a school, pond, Buddhist religious centre, he further added.

It goes without saying that these installations imply additional forced labour and increased expenses for the neighbouring villagers.

“Since1991, the situation has been harder and harder day by day. Today, there are so many model villages, which have already been built. More such villages, each with 80 families, are now under construction in various places of northern Arakan. For the Rohingyas, each new settlement means land confiscations, forced relocations, and economic losses. The authorities have seized the rice fields and hill side lands for the new Buddhist settlers,” said another villager.

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