Difficult road ahead likely for displaced Paletwa villagers forced to return home

By DMG 27 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
27 December 2022, Paletwa, Chin State

Internally displaced people (IDPs) from Abaungthar Village in Chin State’s Paletwa Township who have recently been forced to return to their village by Myanmar’s military regime are in need of food supplies.

The IDPs were displaced by some of the latest fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA). The 445 villagers were taken back to their village, which is located some three miles from Paletwa town, by Myanmar military troops on Monday.

The IDP returnees received no assistance from the regime, a villager told DMG.

“The commander of the 11th Light Infantry Division himself took us back to our village with six boats yesterday. He sent us halfway, and we were transferred to Light Infantry Battalion No. 289 in Thayet Taw Village. They [the military] told us to return. We can’t grow paddy or crops now. It is too late. And they have not supplied anything, not even a tin of rice,” said the villager.

Houses and household items are in a sorry state as they were left unattended for months, said another resident.

“We could bring nothing [from the displacement camp] as we were sent back immediately,” she said. “But in our village, houses are damaged and so is kitchenware. Our clothes and blankets are also gone. We were forcibly sent back but were supplied with nothing. I couldn’t help but weep.”

Another resident said neither the Myanmar military nor the AA have cleared landmines in Abaungthar Village.

“We returned because they told us to do so. We have received no supplies. We can’t grow paddy, and we don’t know what to eat. We don’t have any money even to buy a tin of rice,” he said.

Local residents have called for clearing landmines in the vicinity of the village so that villagers can travel freely and earn a living without fear. They are also asking for assistance to repair their houses.

U Zarni, who has been helping IDPs in Paletwa, said: “They returned at around 10 a.m. yesterday. They have received no supplies so far, and we still can’t provide supplies to them. In previous cases, returnees got assistance from the Social Welfare Ministry.”

Residents of Abaungthar had primarily engaged in farming for their livelihoods prior to their displacement, but it is now too late in the season to grow paddy or other crops, residents said.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Arakan State Administration Council (ASAC) Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura, and ASAC spokesman U Hla Thein, on whether the ASAC has any plans to help the Abaungthar resident-returnees. DMG was also unable to reach the regime’s Chin State government.

Despite an informal ceasefire reached between the regime and the AA on November 26, the junta continues to impose restrictions on the operations of local and international nongovernmental organisations, and civil society groups.