Thread: Myanmar’s Volatile Northern Rakhine State

A street in Maungdaw township in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state is deserted after authorities told residents to stay in their homes following attacks by Rohingya 'terrorists'


Overnight attacks on police outposts by Rohingya Muslim "extremists" in Myanmar’s volatile northern Rakhine state have left at least 71 people dead, in the latest violence to grip the religiously and ethnically divided area, the government said Friday.

Among the dead are one security staffer, 10 policemen, a deputy township officer, and 59 extremists, according to a statement issued by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s office.

Eleven people were injured in the attacks, three of them seriously, and one “terrorist” was arrested, it said.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the attacks on 30 outposts in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships in a Twitter post, calling them “defensive action” against persecution of Rohingya Muslims by government forces.

The group is believed to have incited deadly attacks on three local border guard posts in October 2016 and claims to lead an ongoing insurgency movement in northern Rakhine’s Mayu mountain range.

"Burma has been ramping up military in Arakan state since last few weeks in order to derail the 'Kofi Annan Commission Report and Recommendations' by triggering an unrest in the state," the ARSA said on its Twitter page. "Therefore, we have tried our best to avoid any potential conflict meanwhile."

It accused the "military and security forces" deployed in two areas of carrying out "raids; committing killings, loot[ings] in many Rohingya villages across the townships; and molesting Rohingya women."

ARSA chief Ata Ullah said in a 19-minute video uploaded to YouTube earlier this month that the group's "primary objective" is to "liberate our people from dehumanized oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, strongly condemned the attacks on security forces, saying that they were deliberately carried out after an advisory commission on Rakhine state led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan released its final report with recommendations on steps to end the regions's sectarian strife and violence.

Among the commission’s many suggestions were calls for reviews of the country’s 1982 Citizenship Law, which prevents the Rohingya from becoming Myanmar citizens because they are viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and an end to restrictions placed upon them in the Buddhist-dominated country.

“The government had been aware of the risk of the attacks to coincide with the release of the commission’s final report yesterday and had issued instruction to relevant Union ministers,” she said in the statement issued by her office.

“It is clear that today’s attacks are a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state,” she said. “We must not allow our work to be derailed by the violent actions of extremists.

Early morning attacks

The police outposts that were attacked starting around 1 a.m. include Natchaung, Tamantha, Kuntheepin-Chaungwa, Nantthataung, Nantthataung-Chaungwa, Meetaik-Chaungwa, Kyeekyun, Zeepin-chaungwa, Laungdon, Thihokyun, Zinpaingnyar, Tharaykonboung, Panyaungbingyi, Shweyinaye, Myinlut, Alethankyaw, Udaung (Natala), Taung Bazzar, Phaungtawpyin and Maungdaw (Natala), the statement said.

At that time, about 500 to 600 attackers entered Taung Bazzar village market in Buthidaung township, and Myanmar army soldiers and police fought them for an hour and half until they retreated, said local police officer Tun Naing.

“People from Buthidaung and Taung Bazzar are frightened and worried, so we took about 200 of them to Light Infantry Regiment No. 522,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “No villagers are left in Taung Bazzar. The government army, police, and border security guards are deployed in the area now.”

At about 3 a.m., about 150 “extremist terrorists” divided themselves into two groups and attempted to infiltrate Light Infantry Regiment No. 552 where they were driven out by Myanmar army soldiers, according to the statement issued by the State Counselor’s Office.

Other local administrative staffers and villagers in several locales in the region were evacuated to military battalions, and police and border guard stations, the statement said.

Security force are evacuating civilians in Maungdaw township to safer places and carrying out area clearance operations, it said.

Myint Swe, a Muslim resident of Maungdaw’s ward No. 2, told RFA that he and his family left their home and sought shelter in downtown Maungdaw after they heard gunfire.

“Some other families are moving out to the places where they think it’s safe,” he said. “We have police and security guards in Maungdaw, but we can’t go around the town now.”

He said local residents had assisted the “terrorists” with their armed assaults.

“These terrorists came into our area, and some local residents helped them carry out the attacks,” he said. “They could not have done these attacks without help from the locals.”

Fighting between "extremists" and security forces is still occurring in some areas.

“We heard that minor fighting is still going on in [Maungdaw township’s] Maunghnama village,” said Rakhine State government secretary Tin Maung Swe.

A mine exploded near three border guard police vehicles in front of the village’s local mosque at 2 p.m. during a reinforcement mission, he said.

Bangladesh fears new influx

The violence and renewed security operations prompted a new exodus of Rohingya refugees to head towards neighboring Bangladesh to where more than 75,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine fled during a military crackdown following last October’s attacks.

"The new influx of Rohingya people will generate more problems. We request the Myanmar authority to be cautious in handling the issue. They should solve the problem politically, not militarily," Iqbal Sobhan Choudhury, Information Advisor to the Prime Minister told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, in Dhaka.

"Already Bangladesh is bearing the brunt of their conflict. Now Rohingyas will try to enter into Bangladesh. Those who are already staying in Bangladesh are causing big socio economic problem."

According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since last October's clashes, the Associated Press reported.

Bangladesh Foreign secretary Mohamndd Shahidul Haq told BenarNews on Friday that Bangladesh has issued a note of protest to Myanmar, citing that it is not possible to allow new Rohingyas anymore, though the country has allowed thousands of Rohingyas from the humanitarian ground for decades.

“We don’t think we will allow anymore new Rohingya now. It can’t happen again and again. We have issued a strong note of protest to Myanmar.”

Sariful Islam Jomaddar, Deputy Commander (Teknaf 2) Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said that there was a wave of Rohingya arrivals early Friday and that 146 of them had been detained from different points of the Naf river border. "And later on, we have sent them back with some humanitarian aid."

BenarNews sources in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh said ARSA militants had been crossing into Bangladesh.

“There are more than 150 members of Myanmar’s separatist Rohingya groups in Ukhiya-Teknaf areas, who go back and forth across the borders,” said a high-ranking source at a refugee camp who requested anonymity.

Asked about presence of ARSA in Bangladesh, Iqbal Sobhan said, “Anybody can make irresponsible claim. But that is not true."

"Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced zero tolerance to militancy or insurgency. Our government does not allow any insurgence group to use our land against the neighboring county like India and Myanmar. But if they have any authentic information about insurgence group, they can inform our security agency.”



In early August, the Myanmar government dispatched an army battalion to northern Rakhine state to provide additional security for ethnic Rakhine people following a spate of deadly attacks blamed on Muslim “terrorists” that began after the security operation ended in February.


Annan, rights groups weigh in

The latest spate of violence in northern Rakhine could elevate the current level of repression to which the Rohingya have long been subjected since communal violence directed against them by Buddhists in 2012. At the time, more than 200 people died, and 140,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes into internally displaced persons camps.

On Friday, Annan, who is chairman of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, said: “I am gravely concerned by, and strongly condemn, the recent attacks.”

“I strongly urge all communities and groups to reject violence,” he said. “After years of insecurity and instability, it should be clear that violence is not the solution to the challenges facing Rakhine state.

London-based rights group Amnesty International said the fresh attacks signal a dangerous escalation in the turmoil in northern Rakhine.

“These attacks are a dangerous escalation in violence and could put ordinary people in Rakhine state at risk, in particular as tensions have been reaching a boiling point in the region recently,” said Josef Benedict, the group's international deputy campaigns director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “We urge all sides to show the utmost restraint and ensure that ordinary people are protected from human rights violations and abuses.”

Amnesty international was one of the right groups that documented unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other sexual violence inflicted upon the Rohingya by security forces during the four-month crackdown following the October 2016 attacks.

Benedict cautioned that the new violence “cannot lead to repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages.”

“Although the government has an obligation to protect people, this cannot be seen as giving the army a blank cheque to commit atrocities against parts of the population,” he said, adding that it is crucial for the government to address the systematic discrimination in Rakhine state, which has left people trapped in violence and destitution.

He called on the government to implement the recommendations outlined in the final report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.

Similarly, Charles Santiago chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and a member of Malaysia’s parliament, expressed alarm about the latest violence in Rakhine.

“The events of the past 24 hours cast in stark relief the urgent need to take immediate measures to deescalate conflict and chart a path toward long-term peace, and the recommendations delivered to the government by the [Advisory] Commission [on Rakhine state] are an ideal place to start,” he said in a statement.

“The latest developments reinforce the need, emphasized the commission’s report, for the government and security forces to act to ensure that basic human rights, including freedom of movement and access to basic services, are afforded to all people in Rakhine state, and that accountability exists for human rights violations,” he said.

The United States embassy in Yangon also condemned the attacks.

“We recognize the government and security forces have the responsibility to act to apprehend the perpetrators and prevent further violence, and we urge them to do so in a way that protects all innocent civilians,” said a statement issued on the embassy’s website.

“We also urge all communities to ensure their rhetoric and their actions contribute to restoration of peace and stability,” it said.

Attacks in Myanmar?s Volatile Northern Rakhine State Leave 71 Dead, 11 Injured

Uploaded today
Published on Aug 26, 2017
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing the renewed crackdown in Myanmar become stranded at the border with Bangladesh.

6 days ago.
Published on Aug 20, 2017
The recent security operation launched by Myanmar's security forces is raising new concerns for the safety of Rohingya Muslims.

Posted today
Published on Aug 25, 2017
Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Friday, and at least 77 of the insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed, the army and government said | The fighting, still going on in some areas, marked a major escalation in a simmering conflict in the northwestern state since last October, when similar attacks prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses || ETV TS

Published on Aug 25, 2017
A militant group of ethnic Rohingya Muslims has attacked police and military posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, resulting in 71 deaths.

Published on Aug 25, 2017
Eleven policemen have been killed in an attack on Myanmar police. This has raised a question that are Rohingyas turning to insurgency?

Rohingya mothers and children hiding in the forest to escape from killing brutal Myanmar security forces

Rohingya women and children escaping from atrocities of Myanmar brutal army 26/8/17.

Rohingya rebels caught by the Myanmar army.

Rohinghya Entering in Bangladesh through crossing Naf river.

Myanmar army burning down Rohingya houses and villages.

Notice the variety and scope of growing civil and cultural conflicts since the change over a couple years back?

So much for a unified future of stability.

Published on Aug 26, 2017
In Myanmar, thousands of Rohingya Muslims are trying to flee to Bangladesh after reports that 89 people were killed in a government crackdown.

Fighters in Rakhine state are being targeted by Myanmar's military, but witnesses say civilians are also under attack.

Many Rohingya are trapped on the border with Bangladesh, which is refusing them entry.

Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis reports

There are many videos on this tragic genocide. Much more than I've seen in a long, long time. I think this is because the UN are involved. Will Aung Sang Suu Kyi stand up for Rohingyas? Someone needs to.

Thank you, for posting this (uninterrupted, for a change) information litany on what's really happening in Myanmar.

98 dead in Rakhine

YANGON/COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh – Myanmar authorities have evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said, while thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said. The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.

Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.

more Thousands flee or are evacuated after Rakhine violence | Bangkok Post: news

Published on Aug 27, 2017
Pope Francis calls for "full rights" for Rohingya Muslims as dozens die in Myanmar fighting. Report by Adam Page.

Originally Posted by DrB0b

In our view this is not only unfair and deplorable but is in conflict with the call of humanity and humanitarian sympathy.

brought to you by:
"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan"
or
"The Voice of Jihad"

left something out

The conflict that started about a century ago has gradually escalated since 2011, hitting its peak in 2012 when thousands of Muslim families sought asylum in the special refugee camps on the country's territory or fled to Bangladesh. Yet another escalation started in 2016.

We seem to have seen this behaviour before.

Some good background here :

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.ec15b1191475

Outside meddling, now where have we seen that before?

Beijing endorses a harsh clampdown on Rohingya Muslim insurgents the United Nations says represents 'ethnic cleansing'

China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said on Thursday, as the UN secretary-general described the operation, forcing nearly 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing.”

“The stance of China regarding the terrorist attacks in Rakhine is clear, it is just an internal affair,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Thursday quoted China’s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling top government officials.

“The counter-attacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed.”

China competes with the United States for influence in Myanmar, which in 2011 began emerging from nearly 50 years of strict military rule and diplomatic and economic isolation.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration called for protection of civilians.

more China backs Myanmar repression in Rakhine | Asia Times

A Million Rohingya Could Flee to Bangladesh by Year's End: United Nations



One million Rohingya refugees – or the entire Muslim population of Myanmar’s Rakhine state – could flee from there to Bangladesh by year’s end, senior U.N. officials warned Thursday as they called on the international community to do more and be prepared in responding to a fluid humanitarian crisis.

So far, an unprecedented influx has seen almost 400,000 refugees pour into southeastern Bangladesh since Aug. 25 amid a resurgence of violence in Rakhine, U.N. officials told a press briefing in Dhaka, adding that this number could go much higher.

As many as 10,000 to 20,000 refugees were crossing the border every day, they said.

“We have to estimate the worst case is a scenario where everybody goes out [of Rakhine],” said Mohammed Abdiker Mohamud, director of operations and emergencies for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the U.N.’s migration agency.

Mohamud was responding to a question from a reporter for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, on whether the two agencies feared that Rakhine’s entire Rohingya population could spill across the border, if reported atrocities targeting Rohingya civilians went on unabated.

“And we cannot just put our heads in the sand and think everything will be OK,” he said.


800,000 refugees in Bangladesh

The 400,000 refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh during the past three weeks represent more than a third of Rakhine’s Muslim population, based on figures in a report published last month by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, a body appointed by Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The new arrivals also bring the total Rohingya refugee population in southeastern Bangladesh to more than 800,000, including those who fled earlier outbreaks of violence in Rakhine.

"[W]hat the country is facing is a quite serious humanitarian situation. As I said, 400,000 people in about two to three weeks is a very, very large number of people to have to respond to,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner George Okoth-Obbo, who had toured refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh a day earlier, told reporters as he sat with Mohamud at the briefing in Dhaka.

“We all acknowledge that, while a lot of work has been done, there is a lot more which still has to be done.

We have to step up the approach,” he said, although both officials commended Bangladesh for its efforts in letting in the wave of new arrivals, despite a huge number of refugees already sheltering in the southeast.

Asked whether the international community had done enough to respond to the situation, which U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday had described as “catastrophic,” Mohamud replied, “[M]y honest opinion is not yet. We like to see more be done.”

“Are we looking at 600,000? Are we looking 700,000? Are we looking at a million people arriving before end of this year?” the IOM official said, adding, “That is something putting all of us in a very difficult position in how we are going to respond to this crisis.”

When the influx began, humanitarian agencies originally predicted that as many as 80,000 refugees could cross into Bangladesh, but more than four times that figure have come over from Rakhine in less than three weeks, Mohamud said.


‘Unprecedented crisis’

Also on Thursday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bangladeshi officials would call for the Rohingya problem to be resolved when she attends the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Hasina’s government has called on Myanmar to stop the violence in Rakhine that has pushed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh, and to take back all the refugees.

“Bangladesh has been confronting an unprecedented crisis to provide humanitarian assistance to lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of Rohingya, and their repatriation to their own country,” Ali said in a statement, which was read out during a news conference at the foreign ministry.

“At this critical moment, Bangladesh will place its proposals at the General Assembly of the United Nations for the settlement of the Rohingya problem, raising the main causes of the crisis before the international community,” the minister said.


Diarrhea, other illnesses reported

Meanwhile, in southeastern districts of the country inundated by the wave of arrivals since late August, humanitarian agencies say they have been struggling to provide shelter and relief to refugees because the fast-moving volume of newcomers has strained resources.

According to a BenarNews correspondent in Cox’s Bazar district, the camps and makeshift settlements that are sprouting up on hillsides lack clean water and sanitation, and cases of diarrhea are spreading among the refugees.

“Eighty percent of the patients I have been treating are children and 90 percent of them have been suffering from diarrhea and fever,” Abdus Samad, one of two local volunteer doctors in the Tanbru area near the Me attributed the outbreak of illness to a lack of clean drinking water and people defecating in the open.

“Diarrhea can spread in an epidemic form unless potable water and proper sanitation systems are put in place,” Masud said.


ARSA denies terror links

Across the border, Myanmar security forces and militia in Rakhine have been accused of targeting Rohingya civilians in atrocities such as killings and burning of Muslim homes and villages, according to eyewitness accounts from refugees arriving in Bangladesh.

Defending itself against the allegations, the Myanmar government has blamed an insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), for much of the violence.

Coordinated attacks by ARSA insurgents on Myanmar border police posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered the latest cycle of violence.

On Sept. 10, ARSA declared a unilateral ceasefire for a month to allow humanitarian agencies and NGOs to deliver aid to affected parts of Rakhine, but Myanmar authorities rejected the offer of a truce.

On Thursday, ARSA issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” over reports of some 400,000 people having fled “horrors that are inhumane and beneath dignity of all human beings.”

The new statement came out two days after the global terrorist organization al-Qaeda announced that its fighters would come to the defense of Rohingya Muslims, according to security analysts, including BenarNews columnist Zachary Abuza.

“ARSA feels that it is necessary to make clear that it has no links with Al Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria … Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other transnational terrorist group, and we do not welcome the involvement of these groups in the Arakan [Rakhine] conflict,” ARSA said.

“ARSA calls on states in the region to intercept and prevent terrorists from entering Arakan and making a bad situation worse,” it added.yanmar border, told BenarNews on Thursday.

The International Committee of the Red Crescent has also been providing medical treatment to refugees in different parts of Cox’s Bazar.

“Over the last several days, our medical teams have given treatment to some 3,000 patients. Most of them have been suffering from diarrhea, fever and other diseases,” Dr. K.M. Abdullah Al Masud, a field officer with the Red Crescent, told BenarNews.
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A Million Rohingya Could Flee to Bangladesh by Year's End: United Nations