The internally displaced persons (IDPs) confirm that the new Rakhine Prime Minister of the SAC seized the power is pressuring and threatening that all IDPs in Rakhine will have to return home.
The new Rakhine Prime Minister and his team had arrived to Rathedaung town in the evening on 7th February and called a meeting with those who had fled the war.
”All those who are here must go back to the village. They can’t stay here anymore. Now there are no more battles and there are no more internally displaced persons,” a displaced woman at Rathedaung town told MPA.
Since the fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the SAC Military in Rakhine became more intense, there have been constant reports of pressure on Rakhine displaced persons by the Military to return back home.
“After a sudden cease-fire between the AA and the SAC Military on November 26, the displaced persons in Rakhine are being forced to return back home, being threatened and forced to sign,” the IDPs said.
It is said that now, as the responsible person at the State level has officially said and threatened, most of IDPs are worried and afraid.
A displaced woman from Sangoe Taung village in Buthidaung Township told MPA that ”we have no home to return to, and there is no village anymore and we can’t even go there. Both on the road and in the village as well as on the pagoda, the soldiers are still living and making the camp like their villages and their home, until now”.
IDPs in Rakhine said that the SAC Military is pressuring all IDPs to return to their homes, as well as restricting humanitarian aid, including food.
“There are more than 100,000 displace people, including the ethnic groups like Rakhine, Rohingya, Mro and Khimi, and the Military troops are living in camps near all the villages of those, and there are landmines near all villages of those. So, it is still impossible for those to return home,” the IDPs explained.
Photo – MPA (Picture: A refugee camp in Ponnagyun Township)