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Rights group condemns atrocities on Rohingya in Myanmar
Both the military junta and rebel Arakan Army are responsible for killings and arson on Rohingyas in Rakhine state, says HRW
Global rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has strongly condemned Myanmar military junta and rebel group Arakan Army (AA) for their role in extrajudicial killings and widespread arson against Rohingya Muslims and other civilians in Rakhine state in recent weeks.
The military’s unlawful recruitment of Rohingya men and boys has stoked communal tensions between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities in the western Myanmar state, HRW said in a statement on Aug. 12.
The statement is accompanied by a detailed report on violence against Rohingya and other civilians amid the ongoing conflict in Rakhine.
Beginning in April, the junta military and allied Rohingya armed groups as well as the advancing AA all committed atrocities against civilians, it stated.
The AA rebels were accused of shelling, looting and burning Rohingya neighborhoods and villages after it gained control of the remaining junta military bases in Buthidaung township, a Rohingya-majority area.
The intense fighting between the junta forces and rebels forced thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes. The violence then spread to Maungdaw, another Rohingya-majority area and nearby villages.
HRW said it has obtained credible reports of killings and other abuses against the Rohingya population, including children, women, and older people.
All parties to the conflict should halt unlawful attacks, cease the use of hate speech, and allow unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need, it said.
“Ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine civilians are bearing the brunt of the atrocities that the Myanmar military and opposition Arakan Army are committing,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director.
“Both sides are using hate speech, attacks on civilians, and massive arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing,” she added.
HRW said its report is based on interviews of 33 ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine victims and witnesses to abuses and analyzed satellite imagery, open-source material, private videos and photos, and medical records.
The AA, an ethnic Rakhine armed group, has engaged in periods of heavy fighting with the Myanmar military for control of Rakhine State since late 2018. Hostilities between junta forces and the AA have surged since mid-November 2023, ending a year-long unofficial ceasefire.
As the AA has rapidly expanded its control across Rakhine State, the military has responded with indiscriminate attacks using helicopter gunships, artillery, and ground assaults. From November to July, junta forces carried out over 1,100 airstrikes nationwide, more than one-fifth of them in Rakhine State, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
The fighting between the military and AA rebels has put lives of an estimated 240,000 Rohingya people still living in Rakhine state at risk.
Rohingya are denied citizenship and other basic rights in spite of living in Myanmar for generations.
Following a brutal military crackdown in 2017, more than 750,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
Currently, more than one million Rohingya reside in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar district of southeast Bangladesh, surviving on aid from the government and charity groups.
The latest fighting in Rakhine prompted another exodus of Rohingya and dozens perished on the way to way to Bangladesh after being caught in the crossfire and extremely rough sea.
(c) 2024 Union of Catholic Asian News
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