Arakan News Agency
Myanmar’s Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement, Win Myat Aye, said the government would undertake the redevelopment of villages burned during the violence in Arakan state that led to the exodus of about half a million Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh. The plan to redevelop the fire-ravaged areas, which the government blamed on Rohingyas, is likely to raise concerns about the prospects for the return of 480,000 refugees and compound fears that Myanmar is conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.“According to the law, the burning land will become government-run land,” the New Global Light of Myanmar quoted Win Myat Aye as saying at a meeting in the city of Sittwe, capital of Arakan state.Minister Myat Aye also heads a committee charged with implementing recommendations to resolve long-standing tensions in Arakan.
No details were available on any plan or whether the returning Rohingya had any right to return to their old villages. The minister could not be reached for comment.
Human rights groups, using satellite imagery, said about half of the more than 400 villages of Rohingya in northern Arakan province had been burned during the violence.
Refugees who arrived in Bangladesh accused the army and members of popular Buddhist committees of launching a campaign of violence and deliberate fire aimed at expelling the Rohingya from Myanmar.
