Rohingya Look on Arakan Army as Saviours in Fight With Myanmar’s Junta

By The Irrawaddy 25 October 2022

Civilian casualties have been reported in renewed preventing between Myanmar’s junta troops and the Arakan Military (AA) in Rakhine State.

Fierce preventing has taken place in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships, referred to as Mayu area in western Rakhine and neighboring Paletwa Township in Chin State since early August.

Greater than 10,000 individuals have been displaced by preventing with a number of civilians killed by junta shelling. Ethnic Rakhine residents make up a lot of the victims however Rohingya Muslims have additionally been killed.

A seven-year-old Rohingya was killed and two others injured by junta mortars at Thabeik Taung village in Buthidaung on September 23.

The village is split between Rakhine within the south and Rohingyas within the north.

The Rohingyas’ plight

Rohingyas who wish to reside peacefully are being focused, stated a Rohingya group consultant in Buthidaung.

“Although the junta is preventing the AA, we Rohingyas are at all times focused. Because the recent preventing broke out, now we have suffered plenty of restrictions,” he stated.

Troops stress Rohingya villages to shun the AA but additionally arrest them on suspicion of getting ties with the armed group and abduct them for ransom, stated Rohingya villagers in Buthidaung.

In August, a Sin Thel Pyin villager needed to pay 1 million kyats to junta troopers in compensation after his two bulls stepped on two regime landmines.

“Once we went to get the useless cattle, troopers refused to present them again. They instructed me to pay 500,000 kyats per mine. When villagers are taken by troopers for interrogation, they’re by no means launched until cash is paid,” stated a Sin Thel Pyin villager on situation of anonymity.

Rakhine is likely one of the poorest states in Myanmar the place jobs are extraordinarily scarce. Amid the post-coup financial turmoil, younger individuals are leaving war-torn Rakhine to work abroad.

However the Rohingya lack id playing cards and can’t depart the state legally.

They disguise in field vans or cross the ocean in crowded vessels with giant numbers dying or being arrested within the course of.

Trafficking

Virtually everybody detained in a ship within the Bay of Bengal is a Rohingya from Rakhine.

They’re usually charged and imprisoned for violating immigration legal guidelines and deported again to Rakhine.

Regardless of arrests and imprisonment, younger Rohingyas’ sea crossings proceed all yr spherical.

On Could 22 fishermen from Shwe Thaung Yan village in Ayeyarwaddy Area discovered 17 useless Rohingyas washed ashore close to their village who died in a storm. Six younger Rohingya ladies had been among the many useless.

Greater than 30 individuals drifting within the sea had been rescued by fishing trawlers.

They had been from Buthidaung Township and heading to Malaysia to work, in line with the Muslim group.

The regime has not commented on the incident. The Rohingya group stated there have been a minimum of 60 individuals on the vessel and a few 30 individuals had been rescued.

Malaysia is the most well-liked vacation spot though few keep away from the authorities and traffickers.

Rohingya casualties

Greater than 200,000 individuals had been displaced in two years of preventing between Myanmar’s navy and the AA from late 2018 to November 2020. Roughly 342 civilians had been killed and 740 others had been injured, in line with media stories.

At the least 21 Rohingyas from Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya townships died and roughly 50 others injured within the preventing, in line with The Irrawaddy’s stories.

Rohingyas wish to reside peacefully with different ethnicities in Rakhine, stated Rohingya author U Aung Khin from Sittwe, who was as soon as jailed for publishing a Rohingya calendar.

“We hope to reside and make a residing peacefully. That’s all. We solely hope to be acknowledged as residents and have human rights,” stated U Aung Khin.

Rohingyas pinned excessive hopes on the now-ousted Nationwide League for Democracy authorities that it might finish persecution however nothing optimistic occurred, stated members of the Muslim group.

Nonetheless, the AA has been in a position to restore belief between Rakhine and Muslim communities they usually can now freely journey to totally different villages after years of segregation.

U Aung Khin stated he trusts the AA as a result of it has to this point honored its guarantees, treating Rohingyas equally and empowering them to hitch its administrative physique.

“We’re not known as Bengalis by the Rakhine individuals. Rakhine individuals now discuss with us as Muslims. Beforehand we had been branded as Bengali interlopers. However there’s social concord between the communities and we are able to coexist peacefully. So we Muslims view the AA as a savior,” stated U Aung Khin.

Armed Rohingya teams

Greater than 200 individuals had been killed in communal violence in 2012 in Rakhine. Lots of of 1000’s of individuals had been left homeless by arson assaults. Many Rohingya villages had been razed within the navy’s so-called counter-insurgency operations in 2017 after the Maungdaw incident and a whole bunch of 1000’s of refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh.

Numerous investigation committees and commissions have been established relating to the Rohingyas between 2012 and 2017. However they haven’t been repatriated and rehabilitated and Myanmar is dealing with genocide prices on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.

At the least three Rohingya armed teams, together with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Military (ARSA), Rohingya Solidarity Group (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Military are reportedly working alongside the Bangladesh border and infiltrating Maungdaw. There’s additionally a bunch led by Abdul Hakim which is extra like a felony gang with stories of kidnappings for ransom.

The RSO was established within the early Nineteen Eighties and has regularly attacked safety outposts in Maungdaw Township on the border, in line with historic information.

In June final yr, a person claiming to be Main Kyaw Myint Tun from the RSO, clad in uniform and with a holstered pistol, shared a video on social media by which he stated in Burmese that the armed group would combat the regime for Rohingya rights. The video additionally exhibits RSO fighters present process coaching.

ARSA got here into the highlight following its reported assaults on border guard outposts in Maungdaw in 2016 and 2017.

It stated it was preventing for Rohingya rights however the killing of Hindus introduced its motives into query. Its reputation with Rohingya has subsequently declined.

Can the AA resolve the Rohingya subject?

Relatively than insurance policies from Naypyitaw, the Rakhine individuals’s opinions will probably be extra vital in resolving the Rohingya subject. With the AA having consolidated its management in a lot of Rakhine for the reason that unofficial ceasefire in 2020, its political wing the United League of Arakan (ULA) has began to deal with the Rohingya subject.

Because the junta administration has collapsed in northern Rakhine, Rakhine and Muslim villages at the moment are turning to ULA courts. And Rohingya individuals are working within the AA’s administration and its police pressure.

A Rohingya villager from Buthidaung Township, who requested for anonymity, urged the AA to not make nepotistic appointments to administrative our bodies in Rohingya villages however appoint individuals with majority help.

“Suppose now we have an issue at our village, we are able to’t complain on to the AA. We are able to’t complain until the village administrative physique appointed by the AA writes us a referral letter. The village administrative physique writes the letter solely once we pay cash. That is no totally different from the junta’s administration. The AA ought to appoint village directors with majority-backing,” he stated.

At a AA press convention in September, spokesman Khaing Thukha known as on Bangladesh and the worldwide group to acknowledge the ULA and AA because the professional authority in Rakhine and begin repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.

“It’s a important subject and it’s tough for a revolutionary authorities to deal with it. If we’re to resolve this subject, Bangladesh and the worldwide group should acknowledge us. We are going to begin repatriations once we can formally speak to them,” the AA spokesman instructed The Irrawaddy.

Ko Khin Maung Thein taking shelter at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh stated the regime is mendacity when it repeatedly talks concerning the repatriation of Rohingya. However the AA has not taken any constructive steps to resolve the Rohingya subject, he added.

“It is not going to be totally different for us irrespective of which facet wins the preventing. However the AA is preventing for liberation and I would like the liberator to win,” stated Ko Khin Maung Thein.

A Rakhine politician from Maungdaw stated Rohingya villagers are presently impartial on preventing between the regime and AA however this will change.

Outstanding Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin stated it’s mistaken to suppose that Rohingyas are spectators.

“Rohingyas should not an viewers. Clashes occur close to Rohingya villages and we reside in fixed worry,” Ro Nay San Lwin stated.