Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has intensified in recent days in the western state of Rakhine, putting thousands of Rohingya at increased risk for mostly Muslims, who live in the area.
According to interviews with Rohingya activists who spoke to witnesses in Buthidaung, huge fires have broken out in the town in recent days. They accuse the Arakan Army of starting the arson campaign, but the AA has rejected allegations that the fires were started by the Myanmar military during aerial attacks.
What is clear is that thousands of Rohingya are fleeing for their lives and are increasingly in danger, trapped between the army, which seized power in a coup more than three years ago and launched a brutal crackdown in 2017 against Rohingyas who are now the subject of genocide investigationand A.A.
“For now, people are still on the road looking for a safe place,” Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the advocacy group Free Rohingya Coalition, told Al Jazeera. “There is no food or medicine at all. Most of them could not carry their personal belongings. »
The Arakan Army is an ethnic armed group based in Rakhine State and is believed to be approximately 30,000 soldiers. The armed wing of the United League of Arakan, it represents the state’s Rakhine Buddhist majority and demands autonomy for the people of Arakan, the former name of the state. It was an increasingly tepid ceasefire with the military until November last year.
Nay San Lwin says the AA issued an ultimatum late last week, demanding that the Rohingya leave Buthiduang by 10 a.m. on May 18, 2024. The AA had already attacked key locations where the Rohingya had sought shelter, including a school and a hospital, leading to many injuries and deaths, he said. The entire town reportedly “saw AA troops setting their houses on fire.”
Rohingya sources report that since May 17, thousands of Rohingya refugees have sought shelter in central Buthidaung, occupying every 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 leave their homes. They have “nowhere to go,” Nay San Lwin said.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the competing claims because the state’s internet and mobile phone networks were largely cut off.
The Arakan Army denies involvement in the alleged arson campaign, but announced over 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.
“Beware of R-Bengali diaspora activists and its coterie,” he wrote, using the term “Bengali” which the Rohingya consider an insult. “The people of MM are fighting against a brutal military regime with great tribulations and sacrifices. Please stop the selfish grumbling and sabotage, which is taking the fight in the wrong direction. It is time to abandon your misguided plan to create a separate Islamic security zone through foreign intervention, it is very unpatriotic.
On Monday, the Arakan United League blamed the fires on the Myanmar military. In a statement, he condemned the military for “prolonged air attacks on Buthidaung”, saying “in reality, the SAC and its allies destroyed the town”, using the acronym for the Board of Trustees of the city. State, as the army is called.
Trapped in the rice fields
Whoever is responsible for these attacks, human rights groups are sounding the alarm: they are warning of the danger of a serious new wave of ethnic and communal violence that could be even worse than in 2017 .
This year, more than 750,000 Rohingya have fled in neighboring Bangladesh after the army 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 found that the military had committed crimes against humanity and genocide in the repression, which is now the subject of a genocide case before the International Court of Justice.
While those who fled continue to live in sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh, around 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine state, and live under severe restrictions.
According to Fortify Rights, a human rights organization working closely with the Rohingya in 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, the reports from the past two nights are heartbreaking.
“The AA and junta must refrain from causing damage or targeting 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 targets of attacks by the AA. There is a very real risk that these attacks will escalate further,” Yanghee Lee, former UN special rapporteur on Myanmar and founder of SAC-M, told Al Jazeera.
While Lee stressed the army was the “main perpetrator of violence against civilians in Rakhine State”, she added that it was “extremely alarming that the AA now appears to be turning its guns on the Rohingya to complete the genocide undertaken by the same military that They have been opposing each other for a long time.” . She urged the UN Human Rights Council to take immediate action to address the situation in Rakhine.
Satellite evidence
Given the complexity of the conflict in Rakhine, it is difficult to prove who is responsible for the arsons, but satellite evidence appears to corroborate local accounts.
Nathan Russer, a geospatial analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told Al Jazeera that, based on satellite data and other available evidence, the arsons were most likely carried out by the AA.
“What we are seeing is an increase in large-scale arson attacks, concentrated in (the) Buthidaung township 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 had largely targeted ethnic Rakhine communities from April 11 to 17.
Much of the arson in recent days has targeted villages on the outskirts of Buthidaung, mainly to the south and southeast. He said at least 35 villages in the region appear to have suffered significant damage from the fires.
“We’re basically seeing villages burned, an entire urban area burned, and the surrounding fields and forests largely intact. This is a diagnosis of a field arson campaign, rather than a remote arson campaign.
“Putting these two facts together suggests very strongly that the Arakan Army was responsible, corroborated by fairly unanimous eyewitness accounts from Buthidaung town itself and apparently the surrounding areas.”
“Burned to the ground”
Local Rohingya say the army airstrikes took place on the afternoon of May 19, while the arson attacks reportedly began later in the evening. Nay San Lwin pointed out that military troops had left the city at least three days earlier, on May 14, adding further credence to the allegations against the AA.
Wai Wai Nu, the director of the Women’s Peace Support Network which has close ties in Rakhine, also told Al Jazeera 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 it’s worse than 2017,” Wai Wai Nu said. “I was also informed of cases of massacres in different villages. They can be killed at any time by the Arakan Army or the Burmese junta.
She said the Rohingya have long lived under an “apartheid regime” enforced by Myanmar’s military, which implemented discriminatory laws and policies, such as travel restrictions and other abuses. Now more than ever, she said, ethnic armed groups and the pro-democracy movement as a whole must redouble efforts to protect vulnerable communities, particularly the Rohingya.
Over the past 24 hours, Nay San Lwin has spent his time answering phone calls from his family and other people he knows in Buthidaung, trying to find out more details about the attacks. But it’s a struggle given the network outage.
“I spoke to six people yesterday… But the mobile network is extremely poor,” he said.
“There were no (Myanmar) military or ARSA present in the town. Troops from the Arakan Army suddenly entered the town and forced residents to leave their homes before setting fire. Almost the entire city was burned to the ground. Only a few houses remain intact.
