Some wary as IDPs are surveyed on return preferences in Chin State’s Paletwa

14 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
14 February 2023, Paletwa, Chin State

The Chin State General Administration Department is registering internally displaced people (IDPs) at displacement camps in Paletwa Township who are wishing to return to their homes.

The department distributed forms through U Zarni, chairman of the Paletwa Township IDP camps’ management committee, to IDP camp managers. IDPs were asked to fill out the forms, which ask IDPs if they want to return to their original villages; if they want to move to another location with their own money; if they want to relocate to a new place to be arranged by the junta; or if they want to continue to stay at their current IDP camps.

“We were summoned over the phone on the morning of February 10,” said an IDP camp manager from Paletwa. “We took forms from U Zarni. He said IDPs have to fill out the forms, and that the forms came from the state General Administration Department. We don’t know why they do so. Probably, they will be really forcing us to return to our homes.”

“I am busy as the General Administration Department has asked us to make a list of potential returnees,” U Zarni told DMG.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from the Paletwa Township General Administration Department about what it would do with IDPs in the township.

Ahead of any large-scale return, IDPs want authorities to provide food supplies and sources of livelihood for them, and there are also concerns about Myanmar military deployments near their villages.

“We have been here for around five years. Our village might have been ruined by now,” said a woman from Namadar Village who is taking refuge at the Sikepyoyay IDP camp. 

“And Myanmar military troops remain stationed near our village,” she added. “We wanted to go back to our village, but we lost our home [in the fighting], as well as our farms to make a living. And we lost all our boats, without which we can’t send patients to healthcare facilities in case of health emergencies. If the government would fulfil these requirements, we do want to go back to our homes.”

IDPs are also concerned about the risk of landmines and unexploded ordnance potentially littered across the farms and forests of Paletwa Township.

“We want authorities to clear mines when we return. The only jobs we have when we return home is to farm, and find firewood in the forests. We are concerned that we will step on mines when we cut bamboo,” said an IDP from the Weekthudaryone IDP camp.

A group of IDPs had a meeting following the junta’s soliciting of their opinions. Most of the IDPs indicated that for now, they would prefer to stay at their camps, with only a few households saying they would prefer to return to their homes.

“Some also want to stay at the places to be arranged by the government. But only a few people want to return to their homes, because we are concerned that the government might stop providing food supplies when we return home,” said an IDP from Bawlonekwin IDP camp. “So, many people chose to stay at the places arranged by the government. I am not yet sure what to do.”

Some IDPs from Abaungthar, Yokewa, and Lelhla villages were already forced to return to their homes by the military regime last year, many of whom now struggle to make ends meet.

There are 21 IDP camps in Paletwa Township housing more than 4,000 people. Most of them have been taking shelter at those camps since previous fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army, which began in late 2018, while others arrived there after the latest fighting flared last year.