Press Release
May 18, 2024
The Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) strongly condemns the violence and criminal acts of any individuals or groups against the Rohingya people and all other communities of Myanmar.
While all over Myanmar, we see a heroic resistance to the Junta by the people, it is with deepest regret that we see arson attacks on Rohingya and Rakhine people, and civilian infrastructures orchestrated by both the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.
The two warring groups are forcibly recruiting the Rohingya youths for military services to use them in the frontlines as human shields. A number of such draftees have already been killed, maimed and injured. Nowadays, both the military and Arakan Army are targeting the Rohingya people resulting in a colossal loss of lives, destruction of homes and villages, properties and possessions, and the forced displacement of tens of thousands.
Now the situation is very tense in northern Arakan. Particularly Rohingya civilians in Buthidaung town and surrounding villages have been under attacks from the Arakan Army including the bombing of Buthidaung High School where escapees from almost 20 villages were taking shelter with their families believing the educational institute would be a safe place. It was not, they were targeted by a drone and bombed.
AA has also ordered the Rohingyas to leave Buthidaung town on May 18. Even before that deadline, AA fighters set fire on houses inhabited by Rohingya families on May 17. All Rohingya residential quarters in downtown Buthidaung are burned to the ground.
There is no secret that the Junta which has been at the helm of the Rohingya genocide is trying to revive ethnic tensions in Arakan by manipulating both the Rohingya and Rakhine communities. We think it is imperative that both the communities do not fall victim to this time tested ‘divide and rule’ strategy used by the Junta to keep their control of Arakan. Of course, the deception of the SAC should not take our attention away from the wider crisis facing the Rohingya community and the potential danger we face from the Arakan Army.
The attitudes of the AA towards the Rohingya Muslims are eerily similar to that of the Junta they have fought to replace. The nature of mass killings and other acts of terror targeting Rohingya civilians makes one wonder whether the forces that now control North Arakan are as determined as the junta in forcing the Rohingyas out of the homeland and over the border to Bangladesh.
In this worrisome situation, we call on the United Nations, ASEAN, Myanmar’s neighbours and wider international community to take immediate action in order to prevent yet another genocide on the Rohingya people in Arakan.
We also invite the attention of the National Unity Government (NUG) and all ethnic and resistance groups of Myanmar to help ensure peace and harmony in Arakan in the interest of federal democracy. We would like to remind them that when the country’s most vulnerable minority communities are being persecuted by fighters from another ethnic group, it is a bad precedent for federal democracy. So many people in Myanmar are sacrificing so much, including their lives for the ideals of federal democracy which makes it all the more unfortunate if such dreams are dashed in the very early stages because of ethnically driven hate politics.
The continued genocide of the Rohingya means the continuation of the Junta’s most brutal policy. No country that has ever fought for federal democracy has won the struggle by eliminating any of their nation’s ethnic and religious minority. On the contrary, revolutionary forces that have targeted minorities for their religious and ethnic identities tend to destroy the entire process of revolution from within. It will be a dangerous precedent for the freedom struggle of Myanmar, and the SAC is fully aware of it.
The NUG and all other resistance groups fighting Junta must step up to find the voice of revolution to unite us all under the umbrella of federal democracy. The road to overthrowing the Junta is fraught with numerous difficulties, and it will require the greatest strategic wisdom. Otherwise, there is always the chance that a fight for democracy will degenerate into ethnic conflict, and that will make the sacrifices of the people of Myanmar fruitless.
Last but not least, we would like to remind the freedom loving people of Myanmar that we stand beside them in their fight against the Junta and their collaborators.
Media contact: secretariat@thearna.org
