Administrator warns Buthidaung IDPs to vacate or face legal action

By DMG 25 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
25 October 2022, Buthidaung

The Buthidaung Township administrator has instructed internally displaced people (IDPs) at camps in Buthidaung town to leave by October 31 or face eviction.

Township administrator U Kyan Aye issued the warning through IDP camp managers and ward administrators, said an IDP camp manager who asked for anonymity.

“At the meeting, the administrator said those who fail to vacate by October 31 will be treated as squatters. The administrator said they had already asked IDPs three or four times to leave their camps, and return to their homes. He said those who fail to leave will be charged with squatting and violating curfew,” the camp manager said.

One IDP from Lanma IDP camp told DMG that many displaced people have difficulty returning to their homes because of ongoing fighting and also because junta troops are still stationed in some villages.

“We are not returning. Where are we supposed to go? We have nowhere to go,” he said. “We have lost our homes and villages. They [Myanmar military troops] are stationed there. And we can’t afford to rent a house in the town. We are going through sleepless nights.”

Another IDP from Yan Aung Myay IDP camp said residents there are concerned that any returnees to their home villages would risk being hit by artillery strikes due to the ongoing fighting, and that they are also concerned about the danger of landmines.

“We have no plan at all,” he said. “We will wait and see how they will respond if we don’t return by October 31. They said legal action would be taken against us. We will have to leave if they use force against us. But none of us wants to return.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Buthidaung Township administrator U Kyan Aye. DMG’s calls to the regime’s Arakan State spokesman U Hla Thein also went unanswered.

There are 991 people at Lanma IDP camp; 567 people at Yan Aung Myay IDP camp; 387 people at Mya Taung IDP camp; and 740 people at Gandar Yi IDP camp in Buthidaung, totalling more than 2,600.