Tinma villagers agree to return home in October

By DMG 25 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom
25 June 2021, Kyauktaw 

Displaced residents of Tinma village in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township have made an agreement with the military council to return home in October, villagers said. 

The Kyauktaw Township administrator, immigration officers, and police and military personnel met with five people from Tinma village including the village head on June 24 and made the agreement, said U Maung Kyaw Win, the Tinma village head. 

“They asked me whether we would return home or not. Villagers responded that they would. They then asked when the IDPs would return home. So, we gave the answer that villagers would find it suitable to return home in October,” U Maung Kyaw Win said. 

The Tinma villagers said the military council told them villagers who return home will be provided K500,000 and rice for a month per household, and that houses will be built at their village as well as jobs arranged. 

Villagers want to return home after landmines are cleared, houses that were destroyed by fire are rebuilt, and job opportunities are created for them. 

“The situation is different from what we expected. We thought we would return home after the landmines were cleared. We hope authorities will rebuild our destroyed houses,” said U Oo Saw Thein, a displaced resident of Tinma village. 

DMG phoned U Than Tun, a member of the Arakan State military council, about the meeting with Tinma villagers and he said the township administrator had invited them and asked about their needs. The council has not received a report about the case, he added. 

DMG attempts to seek comment from U Kyaw Zaw Nyut, the Kyauktaw Township administrator, were unsuccessful. 

Some Tinma villagers and a former MP visited the village on March 23 with the approval of the state military council, in order to assess the situation in the abandoned village. 

They compiled a list of 132 houses and a monastery that were destroyed by artillery shells and fire, and submitted the list to the state military council. 

During the conflict between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army, Tinma villagers fled their homes for safety amid clashes in March 2020, with dozens of houses then torched. Eighteen Tinma villagers were also abducted by the Tatmadaw that month, and their status and whereabouts remain unknown more than a year later. 

An informal ceasefire in Arakan State has held for some eight months, but more than 100,000 IDPs in the state remain reluctant to return home, concerned about landmine risks and other difficulties.