Displaced Tinma villagers send latest in series of letters to coup leader seeking approval for their return

By DMG 04 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
4 March 2022, Kyauktaw

A letter was sent to junta chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing on March 3 seeking approval for the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) to Tinma village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State.

More than 600 homes in Tinma village were set on fire in 2020 during the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), and many villagers affected by the fighting continue to shelter at IDP camps.

A group of Tinma villagers sent letters to the military council addressing their eventual return to the village, as the fighting in Arakan State has stopped and the situation is relatively stable. The Tinma villagers said they sent a seventh letter to the chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC), Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, on March 3 as nothing had happened to resolve the villagers’ plight.

SAC is how Myanmar’s junta refers to itself.

Now that the fighting has stopped in Arakan State, IDPs living on the west side of the Kaladan River have been forced to return, and Tinma villagers living on the east side of the Kaladan are expected to return to their homes, U Tin Hlaing, a village elder, told DMG.

“The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement informed us that the ministry has made arrangements to return displaced Tinma villagers, but no exact date has been set. The military has also announced a 10-month ceasefire with the ethnic armed groups, which is a good opportunity for us. This is the reason why we submitted a letter to the military [asking] to help us return home,” he said.

Tinma village was one of the larger villages on the section of the Kaladan River that divides Kyauktaw and Paletwa townships. Dozens of houses were damaged or destroyed by fire in the villagers’ absence during the conflict, and many more homes have fallen into disrepair since Tinma was abandoned.

Currently, if the displaced Tinma villagers were to attempt a return to their homes voluntarily, their travel would be restricted by Myanmar military troops stationed on Taung Shay Hill near the village, and they would not be allowed to transport any belongings left in the village, locals said.

“We would like the military council to work for our return, based on our repeated submissions,” said a resident of Tinma village. “The main reason we want to return is because there are still our belongings and homes in the village that were not destroyed by the fire. We want to settle down in the village because the remaining homes will be destroyed if we are unable to return home.”

The Tinma villagers are asking the military council to help them return to their homes ahead of the monsoon season to allow them to build new homes and repair damaged houses before the rains begin in earnest.