Press Release
April 25, 2024
Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) expresses its serious concern over the simmering tensions, between ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine communities, being fuelled by the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).
The Rohingya people who have long been subjected to crimes against humanity and genocide, perpetrated by the Myanmar military, its partners or non-state actors, are now trapped in limbo as the fighting between Myanmar military and Arakan Army intensifies in Northern Arakan. Besides, there are other minor factions involved in the conflicts making the ground situation more complicated.
The military is trying to further divide the Rohingya and Rakhine on ethnic and religious lines setting one people against the other. In some places of Arakan the military has forced the ordinary Rohingyas to stage public protests against AA in order to exploit the situation when it is facing defeat.
In this situation, the military has horrendously abducted and forcibly recruited more than 1,000 Rohingya youths from across the Arakan since February 2024, particularly from the townships of Kyaukphyu, Sittwe and Buthidaung. Most recruits were picked up through night raids from IDP camps such as, South Ohn Taw Gyi, North Ohn Taw Gyi, Baw Du Pha I, Baw Du Pha II, Hman Si Taung, Thea Chaung, and Thet Kay Pyin. These unfortunates are being used as human shields in the frontlines and a number of them have been killed, maimed or injured.
There are reports that the military is forcing the Rohingya recruits or villagers to burn Rakhine homes, buildings or villages, and Rakhine villagers have allegedly responded in kind by burning Rohingya villages. It is particularly disturbing!
Forcing protected persons to serve as human shields is a war crime according to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, and the 1998 Rome Statute. We strongly condemn the Myanmar military for forced conscription of Rohingya men and boys, and demand to cease its attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Conversely, AA has now conscripted about 100 Rohingya youths and ordered the terrified villagers to provide them at least one person from each household, apparently for using as human shields. Rohingya are in a particularly worrisome predicament as the AA used to position itself in and around their villages effectively inviting military attacks, shelling or airstrikes on civilians. AA fighters have seldom threatened the Rohingya villagers either to comply with their demands or leave for Bangladesh.
AA continues to deny ‘Rohingya’ ethnic identity as evident in the statements or communications of AA’s responsible leaders, including the recent interview of the AA Commander-in-chief Gen. Twan Mrat Naing, calling the Rohingya people ‘Bengalis’, the term used by the military. It is objectionable that he has spread disinformation and propaganda on social media a false news published in The New Indian Express on April 15 alleging that “Islamic terrorists” have taken 1,720 Hindus and Buddhists hostage, thus fostering hatred or causing untoward effects among the communities.
In recent months AA carried out sporadic killings or detained several Rohingya villagers in North Arakan. On the evening of April 17, AA had arrested 5 innocent Rohingya civilians from the Abuja hamlet of Tha Yet Oak village tract in Maungdaw Township. They were all killed, and on April 22, the villagers found their dead bodies near a shrimp farm close to the residence of the village administrator U Tun Aye Maung. We condemn all unlawful killings.
Time and again the AA’s spokesperson U Khine Thu Kha warns that except AA no armed organisations will be allowed to operate on the soil of Arakan. This announcement is absurd when Arakan is a home to diverse peoples. It is shocking that good sense does not prevail yet in the minds of the Rakhine leadership; they should come up with a clear policy towards Rohingya people in the interest of peaceful coexistence in Arakan, which is “a living together in peace rather than in constant hostility”.
Since January 23, 2020, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ, World Court) ordered provisional measures on Myanmar ‘to take all measures within its power’ to protect the Rohingya — whom the Court described as ‘extremely vulnerable’ — as a part of the ongoing genocide case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar, there have been continual breaches of the order over the past four years. The Court recalled that the State’s obligation to prevent and punish the crime of genocide apply at all times, including in situation of internal armed conflict.
The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has rightly said: “Rakhine State has once again become a battleground involving multiple actors, and civilians are paying a heavy price, with Rohingya at particular risk,”… “What is particularly disturbing is that whereas in 2017, the Rohingya were targeted by one group, they are now trapped between two armed factions who have a track record of killing them. We must not allow the Rohingya to be targeted again.”
We remind that the warring parties have a responsibility to distinguish between combatants and civilians in accordance with the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). “Anyone who is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict is a civilian, and the civilian population comprises all persons who are not combatants… They shall remain immune from military attacks.”
We urge the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) for dialogues in order to maintain peace and security in Arakan, to develop mutually beneficial cooperation between Rohingya and Rakhine, and to forge a better, brighter future for all peoples of Arakan, including ethnic Chin, Mro, Khami, Kaman, Dainnet and Hindu etc.
Media contact: secretariat@thearna.org
