A/HRC/42/CRP.5 First-hand accounts 126. The Mission received information from Rohingya directly affected by the Government’s land policies. This included accounts of the Tatmadaw and ethnic Rakhine confiscating Rohingya land229 for the construction of security bases or camps. 230 In some cases, the Tatmadaw confiscated cultivatable lands that belong to Rohingya who fled Myanmar.231 In other instances, ethnic Rakhine forcibly occupied Rohingya lands. 232 One interviewee described to the Mission how the military marked the land by placing a military flag - a sign indicating that the land had been confiscated. 233 Some Rohingya told the Mission that they were no longer allowed to consume products from their own lands following the confiscation234 and that the land was used for the Tatmadaw’s own interests.235 One interviewee described how he and his brother were driven out of their house and how their house was destroyed and the site turned into a police base.236 An interviewee who was released from prison in early 2019 gave the following account: After my release, I spent a couple of days in Buthidaung Township before I visited my village. As I arrived, I found the entire village demolished. The authorities were constructing a huge compound. It looked like a military compound or an IDP camp. The area was fenced and the compound was constructed on around 200 hectares of land. I saw huge bulldozers, vehicles and construction materials. The construction of the building was yet to begin. I couldn’t stay in the village for fear of arrest. 237 127. Satellite imagery confirms these types of accounts and that new construction is taking place, particularly in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, on sites of Rohingya villages that were either burnt or abandoned around the time of the “clearance operations” in 2017.238 128. UNOSAT identified destruction still occurring in northern Rakhine State after November 2018, mostly concentrated in central Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships. Between November 2018 and May 2019, a total of 30 villages, including five new villages, across these two townships were destroyed, mostly by burning. These five villages are Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son village, Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son village tract, the three villages of Ka Nyin Tan, Doe Tan, and Na Khaung To, Ka Nyin Tan (a) Alel Than Kyaw Ka Nyin Tan village tract, Maungdaw Township and the village of Taung (Pale Taung), Nan Yar Kone village tract, in Buthidaung Township. 129. Demolition of a significant number of structures was also visible throughout the reporting period as was construction of new structures throughout the analysed area. 239 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 Myanmar: New land law could have disastrous impact on ethnic minorities, Available from https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24296&LangID=E. CI-214, CI-287, FI-025, FI-029, FI-031. CI-214, CI-287, FI-011, FI-031. FI-007, FI-025, FI-029, FI-032, FI-038, Land Portal, Land Confiscation Is Latest Barrier to Return for Myanmar’s Displaced, Available from https://landportal.org/news/2019/03/land-confiscation-latestbarrier-return-myanmar%E2%80%99s-displaced FI-007, FI-029, FI-038, FI-046. FI-031. FI-029, FI-031, FI-038. FI-029. CI-214. FI-011. A/HRC/39/CRP.2, Para: 828, 842, 879, 967, 971 1222, 1230, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia49596113. Satellite imagery analysis prepared for the Mission by UNITAR-UNOSAT, May 2019. 39