Report: Returning Rohingya may lose land, crops under Myanmar plans
Rohingya Muslims who return to Myanmar after fleeing to Bangladesh are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to officials and plans seen by Reuters.
Nearly 600,000 Rohingya have crossed the border since August 25, when coordinated attacks, which were blamed on the minority group, on security posts sparked a ferocious counteroffensive by the Myanmar army.
The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since late August amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.
Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no control over the military, has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return.
Reuters has interviewed Myanmar officials involved with repatriation and resettlement plans. While the plans are not yet finalized, their comments reflect the government’s thinking on how Suu Kyi’s repatriation pledge will be implemented.
Jamil Ahmed, who spoke at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, is one of many Rohingya who hope to go back.
Describing how he fled his home in northern Rakhine state in late August, Ahmed said one of the few things he grabbed was a stack of papers — land contracts and receipts — that might prove ownership of the fields and crops he was leaving behind.
“I didn’t carry any ornaments or jewels,” said the 35-year-old. “I’ve only got these documents. In Myanmar, you need to present documents to prove everything.”
The stack of papers, browning and torn at the edges, may not be enough, however, to regain the land in Kyauk Pan Du village, where he grew potatoes, chili plants, almonds and rice.
“It depends on them. There is no land ownership for those who don’t have citizenship,” said Kyaw Lwin, agriculture minister in Rakhine state, when asked in an interview whether refugees who returned to Myanmar could reclaim land and crops.
Officials have made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Rohingya, according to state government documents.
Myanmar also intends to settle most refugees who return to Rakhine state in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticized in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps.
‘Ownerless’ crops
The exodus of 589,000 Rohingya — and about 30,000 non-muslims from the conflict zone in northern Rakhine has left some 71,500 acres of planted rice paddy abandoned and in need of harvesting by January, according to plans drawn up by state officials.
Tables in the documents, reviewed by Reuters, divide the land into paddy sown by “national races” — meaning Myanmar citizens — or “Bengalis,” a term widely used in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya, but which they reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Kyaw Lwin, the state minister, confirmed the plans, and said there was a total of 45,000 acres of “ownerless Bengali land”.
Two dozen combine harvesters operated by officials from the agriculture ministry will begin cutting stalks this month in areas under military control.
The machines will be able to harvest about 14,400 acres according to official calculations contained in the plans. It is unclear what will become of the remaining crop, but officials said they would try to harvest all the paddy, recruiting additional labor to harvest manually if necessary.
The harvested rice will be transported to government stores, where it would either be donated to those displaced by the conflict or sold, Rakhine state secretary Tin Maung Swe said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, said the government should at least guarantee that the rice would be used for humanitarian support and not for profit.
Satellite imagery shows 288 villages, mostly Rohingya settlements, have been fully or partially razed by fires since August 25, according to HRW.
Refugees say the army and Buddhist mobs were responsible for most of the arson. The government says the Rohingya and even residents themselves burned the homes for propaganda.