Internally displaced people in Arakan State have said that it is not impossible for them to return home without adequate security measures from the military council, despite being urged to do so by the junta.
In recent days, military council union ministers visited Sittwe, Minbya, Kyauktaw, and Mrauk-U Townships and urged IDPs to consider returning to their homes.
However, they did not inquire about the needs of the IDPs, the IDPs said.
“The IDPs want them to clear mines and withdraw their troops, even if they don’t get support from them. Once they feel physically and psychologically safe, they’ll return home. None of them wants to live in a place where they don’t belong. The IDPs encouraged themselves to express their needs when they heard that the ministers were coming to visit, but they didn’t have a chance to talk about it. They just told the IDPs to go back home and left,” said U Oo Than Tun, in charge of Mahamuni IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township.
U Pe Than, a veteran Arakanese politician, believes that it’s unrealistic to discuss the return of the IDPs without the military council being able to arrange a safe return.
“It’s impractical to talk about the return without considering the safe return of the IDPs. In this time of ceasefire in Arakan State, they [the military council] are just trying to portray that the people in the community support them,” he said.
The military council ministers – Daw Thet Thet Khine, Minister of Social Affairs, Emergency Relief and Resettlement, U Ko Ko Hlaing, Minister of International Cooperation, U Myint Kyaing, Minister of Immigration and Population, Lieutenant General Tun Tun Naung and U Thin Lin, Chief of Arakan Military Council, visited IDP camps in the western state from 8 to 10 February.
The regime’s information ministry said on 10 February that the needs of IDPs in Arakan State will be met so that they can return to their homes, and urged people to return to their homes from the temporary shelters.
Former Pyithu Hluttaw MP U Aung Thaung Shwe said the junta’s recent visit to the IDP camps was only to show the international community its activities.
“They want the people in the IDP camps to disappear. They want IDPs to return to their homes and IDP camps to be closed. A government shouldn’t do such a thing. There is a good chance that the military council can close the IDP camps under its rule. And we have heard that they’re planning to take in the returnees (Muslims). This is to show the world that they’re able to do this and that,” he said.
U Aung Thaung Shwe added that the military council’s repeated calls for the return of internally displaced people in Arakan State without adequate measures for safe return are “irresponsible”
On 11 January 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) announced that there are still about 90,000 IDPs displaced by armed clashes in Chin State’s Paletwa Township and in Arakan State.
Lack of security, fear of landmines near their villages, and lack of livelihoods have prevented the displaced from returning to their homes.
Although a ceasefire exists between the regime troops and the Arakan Army (AA), six people have died and 12 have been injured from the explosion of landmines and other remnants of war between 26 November 2022 and 9 February 2023, according to the DMG.
Sent by DMG.