GENOCIDE IN MYANMAR

COUNTDOWN TO ANNIHILATION: GENOCIDE IN MYANMAR
ISCI’s findings suggest, however, that citizenship would be no protection against the State’s goal
of eliminating the Rohingya. ISCI came across many Kaman Muslims with citizenship who faced
relentless discrimination. They were trapped in their villages, hemmed in and oppressed by a very real
threat of violence, cut off from their traditional livelihoods, and denied freedom of movement, education
and healthcare (see below).
A Kaman administrator of a mixed (Rohingya, Rakhine and Kaman) village tract 164 in the area of the camp
complex expressed the uncertainty of the Kaman situation:
The government doesn’t have policies on the Kaman because we are citizens. The Rohingya
villagers have more difficulty than we have I think. They aren’t like us – they can’t go to the
city, to the hospital and they can’t set up businesses. The Kaman can’t leave the village tract [a
collection of several villages with one administration] either... We can’t go to the city or the
hospital. 165
164 Local villages in the greater Sittwe district are organised administratively into ‘village tracts’ which usually consist of four to
seven villages. Tract administrators are sometimes paid by the government and are normally Rakhine. Tracts can be a mix of
ethnic villages and each village has an unpaid, informal administrator who reports to the official administrator. Village tracts
visited by ISCI included Rohingya, Kaman and Rakhine villages.
165 Interviewed in the village tract, 25 January 2015.
58