Mar 15, 2024 | ARNO Press Release
ARNO firmly declares its position as being with the freedom-loving people of Myanmar, who are currently waging a historic resistance against the evil forces of the Myanmar military throughout the country. Never in the history of this nation have people from all walks of life been more united in the revolutionary struggle against the Myanmar military. It is with surprise and cautious excitement we see that regardless of ethnic identities, the people of Myanmar are rallying together against the forces of darkness and injustice which masterminded the genocide of our people.
As the people remain united as never before, the brutal military is once again relying on their age-old strategy of creating divisions along ethnic and religious lines. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the ethnic tinderbox of Arakan, where the SAC forces try to light the fire to destroy this unparalleled unity of our people.
On February 19, the Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) issued a press release titled ‘United we stand, divided we fall’, which mentioned how the SAC is trying to raise ‘Village Defence Forces’ from Rohingya villages in Northern Arakan.
This old practice of the security forces, raising men to carry out military activities in the form of slave labour, is a continuation of the same tactic the now-disbanded NASAKA once used against Rohingya villagers.
In reality, the Village Defence Forces are nothing more than human shields, using a more subtle strategy to continue fanning the flames between the two communities of Arakan state.
Ironically, this is the same military which carried out the genocide of 2017, which ended the existence of ancient Rohingya settlements, west of the Mayu River and forced them into southern Bangladesh, where they currently live as refugees. In many cases, people have been arrested from villages in Buthidaung and Kyauktaw for refusing to serve as human shields against the Arakan Army, which is currently on an offensive against the junta’s military.
We would once again like to reinstate that the Rohingya people are victims of the gravest genocide ever committed in contemporary times. We cannot and will not forget the mass atrocities carried out by the military and their accomplices, the peak being in the years 2012 to 2017.
Those who fight alongside the brutal military are complicit in the genocide against the Rohingya people. We are aware of and entirely against the military junta’s heinous plans to divide the people, and we reinstate our support to the forces fighting for a federal democratic Myanmar where all ethnic groups have a right to justice and self-determination.
We request that all people of Myanmar, especially those in Arakan, learn from past mistakes and urge everyone to come to a strong understanding so that past mistakes are not repeated. A new chapter in history should be opened to create a federal democratic Myanmar. In our country, the brutal military and its cohorts should be relegated to the dustbins of history.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Mohammad Habib Ullah
Email: arno@rohingya.org/ info@rohingya.org
