Myanmar tragedies

One of the untold tragedies of the Rohingya crisis is that the refugees who fled to Bangladesh and other countries following coordinated attacks in Myanmar may never be able to reclaim their land. Their crops have already been harvested and sold by the government. This flies in the face of everything that de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has promised Rohingya Muslims and the world community at large. Suu Kyi had earlier claimed that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh can return to Myanmar provided they can prove they were Myanmar residents.

Even those who have preserved copies of land contracts and government receipts proving their ownership of farmland and property in Myanmar will find it difficult to secure their resettlement in future. But Myanmar officials have conceded recently that those who don’t have citizenship will probably not be able to prove their land ownership. The country’s laws do not recognise the citizenship of more than 1 million Rohingya who lived in Myanmar before the recent exodus – despite the fact that many among them trace their family ancestry to Myanmar for many generations.

By all intents and purposes, it would appear that the authorities in Myanmar have seized the land and crops belonging to Rohingya families. In most cases thousands of acres of crops have been sold and redistributed among other ethnic groups. Their resettlement plans have run aground as well. Many of the 600,000 refugees who have taken shelter in Bangladesh will be taken not to their homes and settlements but to model villages – which officials of the United Nations have dubbed permanent camps. International charities have argued instead for the voluntary repatriation of the refugees to their place of origin. They have also demanded that the crops abandoned by the refugees be used for humanitarian support and not for profit.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2017.

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