II. Post-Coup Human Rights Violations Related to National Verification Cards in Myanmar 52 Rohingya interviewed by Fortify Rights believe the junta is continuing a longstanding campaign to erase the ethnic identity of Rohingya and destroy them as a people group, using the NVC as a tool to implement this campaign. This chapter exposes how the Myanmar military junta is continuing to use NVCs to deny Rohingya the right to basic rights in the context of an ongoing genocide in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Restrictions on Nationality and Denial of Identity Rohingya in Myanmar who applied for the NVC since February 1, 2021, told Fortify Rights that the junta is continuing the authorities’ earlier practices of refusing to allow them to identify as “Rohingya” in the application process, and instead requiring them to register as “Bengali” or another foreign identity.190 A Rohingya woman in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township told Fortify Rights how the junta labelled her a “Bengali” when she applied for a NVC in July 2021 in order to travel and pass security checkpoints in Rakhine State. She told Fortify Rights: I went to Buthidaung immigration office to make the NVC . . . [The officers] wrote “Bengali.” In the column, they wrote “Bengali” and the religion “Islam.” I can read a little bit of Burmese. [The military] want to make us Desh Sara [stateless]. I feel bad they wrote I was Bengali. I am a Rohingya, and we have a family list that is Rohingya, and we have Rohingya parents.191 Another Rohingya man, 30, in Buthidaung Township, who applied for an NVC after the coup around March or April 2021, told Fortify Rights: “[Junta officers] asked my religion. They asked my ethnicity . . . They wrote ‘Bengali’ [at the immigration office] . . . Our name is Rohingya, but they wrote Bengali.”192 A 26-year-old Rohingya woman in Maungdaw Township told Fortify Rights how she lost all her family identification documents during the 2016 military-led attacks against Rohingya in Rakhine State.193 She said: “During the 2016 massacre, the Myanmar military killed my husband, and our house was burned. We lost all of our belongings, including our documents such as ID cards and household registration papers.”194 She went on to say: “As I lost all of my identity documents, I wasn’t able to move from one place to another place. I can’t go out so I decided to take the NVC, and I got it on October 8, 2021.”195 A photograph of the woman’s NVC is on file with Fortify Rights.196 To travel to the immigration office to apply for the NVC, the woman described paying 2,000 Myanmar Kyat (approximately US$1) to obtain a recommendation letter from the village administration office and another 5,000 Myanmar Kyat (approximately US$2.70) to the district administration office. At the immigration office, she paid 10,000 Myanmar Kyat (approximately US$5.50) to immigration officials to facilitate the application process.197 Describing the application process itself, she said: will of the people.” Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Myanmar Sees No Reason for UN’s Resolution Other Than a Politically Motivated Agenda,” November 19, 2021, https://www.meseoul.org/index.php?option=com_ content&view=category&layout=blog&id=71&Itemid=341&limitstart=5. 190 Fortify Rights interviews with Z.B., A.Z., A.A., and B.B., Rakhine State, Myanmar, February 10, 2021, July 20, 2021, and April 4, 2022. Furthermore, an aid worker in Myanmar familiar with the situation told Fortify Rights the junta continues to use the term “Bengali,” saying “It’s actually one of the barriers towards obtaining documents. Rohingya don’t want their documents to say ‘Bengali.’” See, Fortify Rights communication with B.C., in undisclosed location, April 6, 2022. 191 Fortify Rights interview with Z.H., Rakhine State, Myanmar, July 13, 2021. 192 Fortify Rights interview with Z.I., Rakhine State, Myanmar, July 19, 2021. 193 Fortify Rights interview with B.B., Rakhine State, Myanmar, April 4, 2022. 194 Ibid. 195 Ibid. 196 Photograph of the NVC on file with Fortify Rights, October 8, 2021. 197 Fortify Rights interview with B.B., Rakhine State, Myanmar, April 4, 2022. Furthermore, a Rohingya person in Rakhine told Al Jazeera about the restrictions on travel, saying: “If we have to go to Sittwe for our health problems,