March 05, 2013
By Mohamed Ibrahim
To implement its Human Barrier policy the government of
Burma has taken a plan to establish Model Villages to populate the Rohingya
majority areas of Arakan by the Rakhaine and Buddhists people. Model villages
have been established in the confiscated lands of the Rohingya communities. The
government has replaced Rohingya Holy places, historical monuments and relics
by building monasteries, pagodas and other Buddhist structures.
Under the border area development program the junta has
provided each of Rohingya lands for cultivation, 0.2 acres of land for housing.
They distributed each of the new settler families with kyat 40,000 as lump sum
monetary help, Kg 40 per head free of cost per month, one pair of bullocks and
one bullock cart. Each of such model villages has been provided fifteen 5 Hp
Honda Tractors.
The Thein Sein has a policy of relocation Burmans or Rakhine
Families into new Model Villages comprising the land that have been seized from
the Rohingyas. There are 50 such model villages in Rohingya Township with 200
families in each.
The settlers of these so-called model villages are Nasaka
members and their families, former insurgents. Non Rohingyas and people from
plain localities. Thus the Rohingyas become landless, shelterless with no means
of livelihood. They ultimately end up by taking refuge in Bangladesh and other
country as well.
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