Myanmar's Kaman Muslims face no option but relocation

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - New New Oo initially greeted the news of the closure of the refugee camp where she had lived with her family since 2012 with joy.

“At first, we are happy that we will be home soon,” she told Anadolu Agency during a visit to the small hut on the outskirts of Yangon where she now lives with her two adult daughters.

“But we also felt fear as we don’t know if it will be safe to stay among the people who destroyed our properties.”

New Oo and her daughters are Kaman Muslims. Like their co-religionists, the Rohingya, they were targeted by Buddhist nationalists in ethnic violence that erupted in Myanmar’s westernmost state, Rakhine, five years ago.

After their home was torched, the 50-year-old, whose husband died 10 years ago, and her daughters were among 54 other Kaman households moved to a camp just a few hundred yards (meters) from the ruins of their house in Ramree, southern Rakhine.

Three weeks ago, she heard the authorities were to close the camp and was excited at the prospect of rebuilding her life.

However, a week later it was shut and she was offered cash -- 500,000 Myanmar kyats ($365) per family and 100,000 kyats ($73) for each family member -- to help her family resettle in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital and largest city.

The families at Ramree were also offered free transport to the city.

“Actually, we don’t want that money but we have no choice,” New Oo said. “So we just follow the plan.”

She left her home town where her family has lived for generations without knowing what will happen to her land and arrived in Yangon on April 19.

- Resettlement

New Oo and her neighbors were part of an initial resettlement of 335 households -- 215 Rohingya, 55 Kaman and 65 Rakhine Buddhist -- who had lived in three camps in Rakhine for the last five years.

Overall, the government plans to resettle around 120,000 people, mostly Rohingya, from Rakhine.

Despite, the movement of such large numbers of people, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this month denied claims of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine.

A Rakhine state official told Anadolu Agency that Muslims were being relocated because of the threat they face from the state’s Buddhist majority were they to return home.

“There is still a group of ultra-nationalist Rakhine Buddhists who see the Kaman as the same as Bengalis,” he said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Unlike the Rohingya, the Kaman are recognized by the government as one of the country’s 135 ethnic groups and enjoy the citizenship rights that go with that recognition.

The government considers the Rohingya to be Bengali migrants from Bangladesh and, as such, they are denied citizenship, rendering them effectively stateless.

“We believe they can enjoy their citizenship rights outside Rakhine state,” the official added, referring to the Kaman.

Fresh violence erupted in Rakhine last October after nine border police were killed. According to the UN, the security forces subsequently carried out widespread abuses against the Rohingya.

These atrocities included the killing of children and babies, gang rapes, beatings, the burning of villages and disappearances. The government has said 106 people were killed during the operation but Rohingya groups have said approximately 400 were slain.

- Lost voice

There are believed to be around 50,000 Kaman living across Myanmar. The largest concentration -- around 20,000 -- lived in Rakhine’s coastal areas in Thandwe, Ramree and Kyauk Phyu before 2012.

When violence broke out in 2012 between the Rohingya and Buddhists around Maungdaw, near the border with Bangladesh, the Kaman were subjected to the same discrimination as their fellow Muslims as mobs looted and burned their homes and businesses.

“The rioters used to be neighbors to Kaman Muslims there,” Tin Ngwe, an executive committee member of the Kaman National Development Party, said.

“Things have changed, even though we have a centuries-long history of peaceful co-existence with our Rakhine neighbors.”

“Now the Rakhine people are treating us like an enemy.”

Tin Ngwe said the Kaman’s rights had been slowly eroded in the aftermath of the riots and his party has said just 5,000 Kaman remain in Rakhine.

“We are also losing a political voice to stand up for our community,” he told Anadolu Agency. Around 10,000 Kaman who were displaced by the riots lost their right to vote in the 2015 election that saw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy take power.

According to Tin Ngwe, the Kaman have also faced discrimination from the Rohingya.

“In some cases, they even call us fake Muslims as we have citizenship rights,” he said.

“Both majority groups don’t like us. We are stuck this way.”