Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has escalated in the country’s western Rakhine state in recent days, putting thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya living in the area at greater risk.
Based on interviews with Rohingya activists who spoke to witnesses in Buthidaung, large fires have occurred across the city in recent days. They accuse the Arakan Army of being behind the arson campaign, but the AA has rejected claims that the fires were started by the Myanmar military in airstrikes.
What is clear is that thousands of Rohingya are fleeing for their lives and are increasingly insecure, trapped between the military, which seized power in a coup more than three years ago and in 2017 launched a brutal crackdown on the Rohingya who are now the subject of a genocide investigation and the AA.
“Until now, people are still on the road looking for a safe place,” Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition advocacy group, told Al Jazeera. “There is no food or medicine. Most of them were unable to carry their personal belongings.”
The Arakan Army is an armed ethnic group based in Rakhine state and is believed to have around 30,000 soldiers. The armed wing of the United League of Arakan, it represents the state’s Buddhist majority, Rakhine, and wants autonomy for the people of Arakan, the state’s former name. He was in an increasingly provisional ceasefire with the military until November last year.
Nay San Lwin claims that the AA issued an ultimatum late last week, demanding that the Rohingya vacate Buthiduang by 10am on May 18, 2024. The AA had previously attacked key locations where the Rohingya had sought shelter, including a school and a hospital, resulting in numerous injuries and deaths, he said. The entire town allegedly “witnessed AA troops burn down their homes.”
Rohingya sources report that since May 17, thousands of Rohingya refugees have sought safety in central Buthidaung, occupying any available space, including homes, government buildings, a hospital and schools. At least four different sources told Al Jazeera that the fleeing Rohingya were forced to abandon their homes. They “have nowhere to go,” said Nay San Lwin.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the competing claims because the state’s internet and mobile phone networks were largely shut down.
The Arakan Army denies being involved in the alleged arson campaign, but announced at the weekend that it had taken control of Buthidaung. On May 19, AA Commander-in-Chief Twan Mrat Naing posted what appeared to be a warning on his X account.
“Attention activists and R-Bengali diaspora circle,” he wrote, using the term “Bengali” that the Rohingya consider a slur. “MM people fight against a brutal military regime with great tribulations and sacrifices. Please stop the selfish bad temper and sabotage, dragging the fight in the wrong direction. It is time to abandon your ill-conceived scheme of creating a separate Islamic safe zone through foreign interventions, it is very unpatriotic.”
On Monday, the United League of Arakan blamed the fires on the Myanmar military. In a statement, he condemned the military for “prolonged air attacks on Buthidaung”, saying that “in reality, SAC and its allies destroyed the city”, using the acronym for State Administration Council, as the military calls itself.
Trapped in rice fields
Regardless of who is responsible for the attacks, human rights groups are sounding the alarm: warning of the danger of another serious wave of ethnic and communal violence that could be even worse than in 2017.
That year, more than 750,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh after the military launched a series of attacks on their villages, after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an armed group, attacked several police posts.
The United Nations concluded that the military committed crimes against humanity and genocide in the crackdown, which is now the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Although those who fled continue to live in vast refugee camps in Bangladesh, around 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, mainly in Rakhine state, and live under severe restrictions.
According to Fortify Rights, a human rights organization that works closely with the Rohingya in both Bangladesh and Rakhine, the situation is extremely tense in a state that has a long history of communal violence.
Fortify Rights says that while it is extremely difficult to verify who is responsible for the attacks, reports from the past two nights have been distressing.
“The AA and the junta must refrain from damaging or attacking civilian infrastructure, including homes,” Sai Arkar, a human rights associate at Fortify Rights, told Al Jazeera. “The area that was burned does not appear to be a military target. [There are] reports of thousands of Rohingya trapped in rice fields in the middle of the night, including children.”
The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, known as SAC-M, a group of former UN special rapporteurs who have been monitoring the situation in Myanmar since the 2021 coup, also highlighted the urgency of the situation.
“There are credible reports that the Rohingya in Buthidaung have been targeted by AA attacks. There is a very real risk that these attacks could escalate further,” Yanghee Lee, former UN special rapporteur for Myanmar and founder of SAC-M, told Al Jazeera.
While Lee stressed that the military was the “primary perpetrators of violence against civilians in Rakhine State,” she added that it was “extremely alarming that the AA now appears to turn its guns on the Rohingya to complete the genocide undertaken by the same military that has long been opposed.” She urged the UN Human Rights Council to take immediate action to resolve the situation in Rakhine.
Satellite evidence
Given the complexity of the conflict in Rakhine, it is difficult to prove who is responsible for the arson attacks, but satellite evidence appears to corroborate the testimony of local witnesses.
Nathan Russer, a geospatial analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told Al Jazeera that based on satellites and other available evidence, the arson attacks were likely carried out by the AA.
“What we are seeing is a widespread scale of arson attacks focused on [the] Buthidaung Municipality in northern Rakhine State,” Russer said. “It appears that most of the villages and areas targeted in recent days are Rohingya settlements.”
Russer noted that a previous wave of arson attacks in Buthidaung mainly targeted ethnic Rakhine communities from April 11 to 17.
Much of the arson fires in recent days have targeted villages on the outskirts of Buthidaung, mainly to the south and southeast. He said at least 35 villages in the area appear to have suffered significant fire damage.
“We’re basically seeing villages being burned down, an entire urban area being burned down, and surrounding fields and forests largely untouched. This is quite diagnostic of an on-site arson campaign rather than a remote arson campaign.
“Putting these two facts together strongly suggests that the Arakan Army was responsible, corroborated by fairly unanimous eyewitness accounts from the town of Buthidaung itself and, apparently, the surrounding areas.”
‘Burn to the ground’
Local Rohingya say the military airstrikes took place on the afternoon of May 19, while the arson attacks reportedly began later that night. Nay San Lwin highlighted that military troops had left the city at least three days earlier, on May 14, adding further credibility to the allegations against the AA.
Wai Wai Nu, director of the Women’s Peace Support Network which has close links in Rakhine, also told Al Jazeera that she suspected the AA was behind the attacks.
“My community on the ground tells me they feel like it’s ‘the end of the world’ and that it’s worse than it was in 2017,” said Wai Wai Nu. “I was also informed about cases of mass killings in different villages. They can be killed by the Arakan Army or the Myanmar junta at any time.”
She said the Rohingya have long lived under an “apartheid regime” imposed by the Myanmar military, which has implemented discriminatory laws and policies such as travel restrictions and other abuses. Now more than ever, she said, ethnic armed groups, and the broader pro-democracy movement, must work harder to protect vulnerable communities – especially the Rohingya.
Over the past 24 hours, Nay San Lwin has spent his time fielding phone calls from family and other people he knows in Buthidaung, trying to gather more details about the attacks. But it is a struggle due to the network blackout.
“I spoke to six people yesterday… But the mobile network is extremely weak,” he said.
“There was not [Myanmar] military or ARSA present in the city. Arakan Army troops suddenly entered the city and forced people to leave their homes before setting fires. Almost the entire city was burned to the ground. Only a few houses remain intact.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
