IDPs’ return home delayed by checkpoint questioning in Ann Township

By Win Nyunt 08 May 2020

Win Nyunt | DMG
8 May, Sittwe
 
About 70 IDPs making their way from a refugee camp in Ann town, Arakan State, back to their homes in Gate Chaung village have been delayed en route as they were held up for questioning at the Kazukaing checkpoint on May 7.

More than 400 Gate Chaung villagers fled to the IDP camp in Ann town in early April due to a clash near their village.

About 70 of them decided to return home on May 7, but they had not arrived at their village as of May 8 because they faced questioning at the Kazukaing post, said Ko Than Htike Soe, an activist who assists IDPs in Ann Township.

“They do not know when they can return home,” Ko Than Htike Soe said.

The would-be returnees headed back to Gate Chaung because they had heard rumours of plundering in the village while they were at the displacement camp.

“Some of them fled from home urgently, so they left their cattle untied. So they wanted to return home,’ said Ko Soe Thein, a resident of Ann town.

Family members worried because they were not in phone contact with the traveling IDPs, nor had the group arrived home, said U Khin Win, the administrator of Gate Chaung village.

IDPs in Arakan State lead difficult lives in displacement camps, where food, shelter and other basic necessities are often in short supply. Most, however, find the hardscrabble existence to be preferable to the uncertain security situations that await them back home.