I. Human Rights Violations and National Verification Cards 62 A Rohingya village leader, 42, from Doe Tan village, also known as Ludaing village, in Maungdaw Township told Fortify Rights how security forces beat him ahead of the 2016 attacks for refusing to cooperate with the demands of the security forces, saying: In October 2016, before the violence, the military came to my village. They called together many village leaders, including myself, to meet with them. They told us that we had to tell our fellow villagers to take the NVC. In the meeting, not many people disagreed with the soldiers, but I did. They came to me and said, “You must accept the NVC, or we will kill you.” I told them, “I’ll never accept the NVC.” After that they beat me in front of everyone to show that they didn’t want villagers to disagree with them.218 Another Rohingya man, 26, from San Go Daing village, also known as San Goe Taung village, in Rathedaung Township told Fortify Rights: In 2016, immigration officers came to our village to make us—the village leaders—accept the NVCs. The whole village did not want to accept them. In August 2017, before the attacks, the military and immigration called the elders, educated people, and religious leaders together in the morning. The authorities said, “You must accept the NVC.” We did not listen. They kept us in the town hall until 8 p.m., but soon they realized we were not going to accept the cards, and then they set us free.219 In August, 2017, the Myanmar Army attacked surrounding villages, and many Rohingya residents from San Go Daing village fled to Bangladesh.220 Further illustrating correlations between the military-led campaign of atrocities against the Rohingya and the NVCs, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar—the U.N. mechanism mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations perpetrated by the Myanmar military in Rakhine, Kachin, and northern Shan states—documented how a Myanmar Army commander of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, accompanied by an ethnic Rakhine village head, told Rohingya residents of Chut Pyin village, also known as Chu Wa Parang village, in Rathedaung Township on August 22, 2017 that they must accept the NVC “or else they would be killed.”221 Residents of Chut Pyin village refused to accept the NVC, and the FFM as well as Fortify Rights documented how, on August 27, Myanmar state security forces and local armedresidents massacred Rohingya Muslim men, women, and children in Chut Pyin village, razed the village, and committed other atrocities, such as rape and mutilation.222 Many Rohingya survivors of the Chut Pyin massacre fled to Bangladesh, where they now face pressure to accept the NVC as part of bilateral government plans between Bangladesh and Myanmar to return refugees to Myanmar.223 The FFM reported how “[p]ressure to accept the NVC increased in the months leading up to August 2017” and that Border Guard Police and Myanmar Army soldiers held a “series of more targeted and aggressive meetings” with Rohingya elders in mid-August 2017, demanding residents accept NVCs.224 According to the FFM, these meetings took place in villages where “some of the most brutal ‘clearance operations’ subsequently took place.”225 218 Fortify Rights interview with Z.G., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 2, 2018. 219 Fortify Rights interview with Z.E., northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 1, 2018. 220 Ibid. See also, Fortify Rights electronic communication with aid worker, August 18, 2019. 221 Human Rights Council, Report of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, p. 267. 222 Ibid. Fortify Rights, “Myanmar: End Attacks in Rakhine State, Protect Civilians,” September 1, 2017, https://www. fortifyrights.org/publication-20170901.html (accessed August 23, 2019); Fortify Rights, “They Gave Them Long Swords.” 223 See, the textbox “Refugee Returns and the NVC Process” in chapter 1 of this report. 224 Human Rights Council, Report of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, p. 266, para. 1131. 225 Ibid.