A bride, dressed in bright red, is surrounded by well-wishers presenting her with gifts. Outside, guests are treated to a meal of rice and curries while loud music blasts from generator-powered speakers. The couple are both Rohingya Muslims, displaced by the communal violence of 2012. She is from Sittwe, he from southern Rakhine state.
Killing time: Two teenagers at one of the camps, which they are not allowed to leave, in Rakhine state.
Life has assumed a strange kind of normalcy in the internally displaced people's camp near Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, where the wedding was held. The camp was supposed to be temporary, housing people for an estimated six months, but two years later displaced Muslims continue to live there in increasingly dire conditions and with no chance to leave.
Muslims, most of them stateless Rohingya, have been interned in camps since communal violence divided Muslim and Buddhist communities in the remote corner of the country. More than 140,000 Muslims have been displaced by the violence that left scores dead and more than 300,000 in Rakhine state, mostly Rohingya Muslims, in need of humanitarian assistance.
More than 100,000 other Rohingya are said to have fled Rakhine state in rickety boats since 2012, a number that speaks to the hopelessness of the situation inside the camps where they are interned. The conditions they attempt to escape from more and more resemble apartheid, as the segregation of communities remains. Many of them die during the attempt, others fall into the hands of abusive traffickers.
Trapped: Rohingya children in a host village, which is surrounded by police, and where their parents have no way of earning a living.
"This camp is worse than prison. As a prisoner you know when you'll be released, but we're innocent and we don't know how long our imprisonment will last," said Aung Min, a member of the management committee for one of the camps.
The institutionalisation of the camps is further complicated by the authorities, who profit financially from the situation. In one of the camps, a police truck twice a week ferries Rohingya to and from Au Mingalar, the last Muslim neighbourhood in Sittwe, for 5,000 kyat (158 baht) per person, to visit relatives.
But the profit these officers make does not compare with the money made from aiding human traffickers, who lure desperate Rohingya onto boats with promises of a better future in neighbouring countries. A recent report from Fortify Rights, an international human rights organisation, claimed that authorities are also heavily involved in the trafficking of Rohingya. The organisation is said to have evidence of the involvement of the Lon Thein riot police, Myanmar Police Department, the navy and army.
"Not only are the authorities making life so intolerable for Rohingya that they're forced to flee, but they're also profiting from the exodus," said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, in the report.
"This is a regional crisis that's worsening while Myanmar authorities are treating it like a perverse pay day."
FINDING A SOLUTION
The Rakhine State Action Plan was developed by the government in response to local and international pressure to find a solution to the crisis. But human rights advocates argue it will only serve to entrench the segregation of Muslim and Buddhist communities in the state.
"The plan does not discuss the possibility that Rohingya displaced by the violence of 2012 will be permitted to return to their original homes and dispels hopes that Rohingya would be permitted to reintegrate into areas also inhabited by the local Buddhist population," Human Rights Watch said in a report.
"It is nothing less than a blueprint for permanent segregation and statelessness that appears designed to strip the Rohingya of hope and force them to flee the country," the report continued. The Rakhine State Action Plan is divided into six sectors: security, stability and rule of law; rehabilitation and reconstruction; permanent resettlement; citizenship assessment; socio-economic development; and peaceful coexistence.
According to Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe, the reintegration of Muslims into their society would face difficulties due to the lack of trust between the two communities and an increased fear for terrorism. "Before 2012 we paid no special attention to the religious differences, but now trust is low, there is much hatred and anger," said Naing Naing, the headmaster of a monastic school in Sittwe. "People are afraid of the RSO [Rohingya Solidarity Organisation] and IS [Islamic State]." In the camps, displaced Rohingya remain interned and many stay in UN-built houses. Inside, a space of six square metres, divided into two small rooms, is designated to each family. Families, often three generations, sleep together at night in the small rooms. There is no privacy and no way to escape the eyes of neighbours peering through openings in the walls.
Off side: Watching soccer in a camp.
Muslims from Sittwe as well as those living in nearby villages are all interned in large areas cordoned off by the police. Most have no way to earn a living. Firewood is running out and children are sent out to collect cow dung, which is dried and used for cooking fires.
Education is only provided at primary-school level and health care is next to non-existent. The weather changes of the past few weeks have caused a spike in diarrhoea among young children and a local nurse says not enough medicine is available to treat them.
Fuel for cooking: Cow dung drying in the sun, with UN housing in the background.
THE VALUE OF CITIZENSHIP
As part of the Rakhine State Action Plan, the government has begun citizenship verification. For the stateless Rohingya, considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by the Myanmar government, obtaining citizenship is a priority. But some are sceptical about whether citizenship would give them the rights they are hoping for.
"Even if they get a pink card [full citizenship], they still cannot travel. The card is without value," said Kyaw Hla Aung, a Rohingya lawyer who was arrested several times and most recently released in October this year.
Pierre Peron, from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, said: "Restrictions on the freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State severely compromise their basic rights to food, health, education and livelihoods."
The plight of the Kaman, the one Muslim ethnic group listed as one of the official 135 national races and entitled to citizenship by birth, highlights the questionable value of citizenship for Muslims in Myanmar.
On the outskirts of Sittwe sit three Kaman villages cordoned off by police, though many of its inhabitants have a pink ID card, giving them full citizenship. "Before we went to Buddhist Rakhine hospitals and schools. Now we cannot go anywhere, even though we have pink ID cards," said Kyaw Min, a Kaman man living in one of the villages.
The verification process is surrounded by controversy as Rohingya Muslims are allowed to register only as Bengali, the term used by the government to signify their alleged Bangladeshi descent. If they do so, they could be entitled either to a pink or a green card, full versus nationalised citizenship.
Buddhists only: A busy market in Sittwe. No Muslims are allowed in downtown Sittwe.
Most Rohingya would receive naturalised citizenship, which can be more easily taken away than full citizenship. They would also have fewer rights. For example, they cannot form political parties, own immovable property or stand for election. Rakhine Buddhists allege that Rohingya Muslims are bribing officials to be registered as Kaman in the hope of obtaining full citizenship.
Shwe Maung, a central committee member of the Arakan National Party, the largest opposition party in Rakhine state, said that while he supports the verification process for those registering as Bengali, this would not solve the problems between the two communities.
"The government should scrutinise the Muslims. If the government decides they can be citizens, we have to accept that. But the government must carry out the task according to the wish of the Arakanese people," he said.
"But for the time being, it is best to live separately. If they move back here we will fight again." n