On May 25, 2002 the SPDC armed forces ordered to the chairmen of the many local Village Peace and Development Council ( VPDC ) in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State to supply house building materials and construct a total of 347 houses within the next few months on the confiscation lands of Rohingyas with the forced labour of the Rohingya villagers, said a VPDC chairman.On May 23, 2002, a Joint Survey Report was submitted to the NaSaKa headquarters of Maungdaw Township by Maj. Tun Oo, Maj. Sein Tun and Maj. Khing Lay Maung, who are commanders respectively of sector No. 1, 2 and 5 together with U Ray Lwin the ranger of Maungdaw township, U Tin Maung, chairman of the “Natala” (responsible for model villages) and personnel from survey departments to confiscate more Rohingyas’ lands, said a source in the NaSaKa headquarters.

Earlier the NaSaKa headquarters at Kawarbil (Gyi Gan Byin) village, 9.7 miles from the Maungdaw town, had asked its Sector No. 1, 2, and 5 to submit lists of lands suitable for construction of proposed new model villages for new Buddhist settlers by May 23, he
added.

Sites for new villages are to be selected on consideration of giving total lands to be confiscated for the villagers, number plots in proposed villages, acres of wasteland around the proposed villages for possible clearance, distance between proposed villages
and farmlands, feasibility for freshwater and environmental condition, he further said.

It has been also reported that 347 houses for Buddhist settlers would be completed in three phases: in the first phase a total 90 houses will be constructed the villages of Tharapi (30 houses), Kying Gyi (30 houses) and Thazan Myiang (30houses), said a chairman of VPDC who wish not be named The second phase 70 houses will be constructed in the villages of Tharapi (15 houses), Kying Gyi (12 houses), Thazan Myaing (15 houses), Pi Dok (15 houses) and Gim Min (15 houses), he further added.

In early May 2002 the military authorities of Maungdaw also ordered to the chairmen of VPDCs to construct 48 houses at “ Prasa Village”, 3 miles from Maungdaw east within two weeks and the village was completed with unpaid and forced labour from Rohingya villagers.

It may be mentioned here that the SPDC government initiated the model village program in 1988 to encourage ethnic Burman Buddhist villagers from the Irrawaddy delta to move voluntarily into the selected sites. Later, the government forced villagers to move and drew people from the delta and within Arakan. Model Villages are reserved exclusively for Buddhists, so Rohingya Muslims are prohibited by the government from occupying them. Most often it is the Rohingya who pay for the construction of model villages through the
provision of land, labour and building materials for the construction of model village homes.

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