Amid media reports that the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) has seized control of the Buthidaung Township of the Rakhine State near Bangladesh border with the Myanmar junta's army in full retreat, the Asian Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has called upon the United Nations, ASEAN and wider international community to take urgent steps to prevent mass killing of Rohingya population now under siege by the AA. APHR said that since Friday (May 17), Rohingya civilians in Buthidaung town and surrounding villages have been under heavy gunfire and arson attack on houses by AA.
This raises fresh concern about the fate of the Rohingya population who remained in the Rakhine state of Myanmar following 2017's massacre at the hands of the Myanmar army that led to more than 700,000 of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. In February this year, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged both the Myanmar security forces and the AA to take immediate measures to minimise harm to Rohingya and other civilians caught in the crossfire following the resumption of armed hostilities between AA and Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) after a yearlong unofficial ceasefire. Myanmar junta's attitude towards the Rohingya is well-known. They would miss no opportunity to abuse, torture and kill the Rhingya people. Alarming reports were already coming from foreign media sources on how the Tatmadaw was orchestrating Rohingya protest against the AA. A news website, The Irrawaddy, run by Myanmarese exiles based in Thailand, in its March 22 report said how the Tatmadaw was trying to sow seeds of ethnic discord in the Rakhine state. Tatmadaw was rounding up Rohingya villagers and forcing them to stage demonstrations against the AA and using those fake demos through the propaganda media under Myanmar military's control. It is not that the AA is unaware of it. Even so, this age-old policy of playing one social group against another works and can cause the intended damage. To all appearances, the damage has been done. The Rohingya are now facing two adversaries at the moment-the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA). In this connection, the chief of the UN Human Rights,Volker Türk, last month warned that intensified fighting in the Rakhine State between the military and the AA was fuelling tension between the Rohingya and the ethnic Rakhine communities (majority of them being Buddhist) fearing that past atrocities might be repeated. Notably, even during 2017's Rohingya massacre members of the majority Rakhine ethnic community took part in the attacks on Rohingya population alongside the Myanmar military. As reported in April 2024 from UN sources, 15 out of 17 townships of the Rakhine State were affected by the fighting resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries and displacement of about 300,00 people. Being mainly Rohingya-dominated areas, they were obviously facing a grave risk. That was more so because, outraged by their defeat at the hands of the AA, the Myanmar military was forcibly conscripting, bribing and coercing the Rohingya men to join their ranks. That was evidently the cause for resentment of the AA and the majority ethnic group of Rakhine State against the Rohingya. Understandably, the development prompted the UN Human Rights chief to warn the international communities against the repeat of 2017 against the Rohingya community.
The Rohingya people are indeed caught between a rock and a hard place. It is unfortunate that though the Rohingya community constitutes the second largest chunk of the Rakhine State's population after the Buddhist Rakhines, they are the worst victims of persecution in that country. What is troubling is that unless there is any rapprochement between the Rohingya people still residing in the Rakhine State and the AA, we might again witness another wave of these people seeking refuge in Bangladesh because of the persecution.
In this context, can we expect any result from the call the Human Rights bodies including Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia has made urging UN bodies, international community and influential countries of the region to prevail upon the warring ethnic groups like the AA and the Myanmar regime for not starting another round of extermination campaign against the remaining Rohingya population in the Rakhine State of Myanmar? Since APHR has already (on May 18) reported on the indiscriminate attack by the Arakan Army on the besieged Rohingya population in the northern Rakine State, it is clear that the Myanmar military has succeeded in its mission to finish the task of annihilating the Rohingya from Myanmar's soil. It does not matter who does the work for them.
Already overburdened with all the Rohingya refugees that came here since 1970s, let alone the influxes of the 1990s and 2017, any fresh inrush of refugees would be the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. With the situation in neighbouring Myanmar going from bad to worse every passing day, the prospect of repatriating Rohingya refugees to their homeland is getting dimmer. For any negotiation towards Rohingya repatriation to take place would require a stable government in Naypyidaw. So, there is no scope on Bangladesh's part to sit out the ongoing crisis in Myanmar. Strong diplomatic efforts keeping backchannels open would be required to watch over developments as well as making deals with emerging forces in Myanmar. This is not just for an amicable settlement of the refugee issue. The government has also a huge stake in seeing that we have a friendly neighbour on the Southeastern border.
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