As the Arakan Army, an armed insurgent group fighting the Burmese military junta, completes its takeover of most of northwestern Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, it has taken, Tuesday, June 25, the very famous seaside town of Thandwee – concerns persist about the abuse and violence suffered by the Rohingya, the persecuted and stateless Muslim minority in Burma, from both camps.
The Burmese army is, throughout the country, in retreat in the face of the offensives carried out since the end of 2023 by a coalition of ethnic groups and resistance forces opposed to the 2021 coup d’état of which the Arakan Army is a part. However, the Burmese soldiers are accused of having recruited Rohingya into their ranks to fight the Arakan Army on their territory. And the latter, which is fighting for the creation of an autonomous or even independent Arakanese state, would have targeted the Rohingya communities in the areas it occupies in retaliation.
Vexations and constraints
Thousands (9,000, according to Doctors Without Borders) of Rohingya were massacred in the north-west of Rakhine State, in 2016 and 2017, by the Burmese army, and 750,000 of them chased to Bangladesh neighbor, where they survive in the makeshift camps of Cox’s Bazar. The 650,000 Rohingya remaining in Burma have continued to suffer harassment and constraints from the Burmese authorities.
Most of the fighting in Rakhine State is now concentrated around the township of Maungdaw, where the Arakan Army offensive allowed it to seize around ten Burmese army bases. these last two weeks.
The Bangladesh border town is on the verge of falling, but regular army units are still entrenched in some areas and the Arakan Army warned on June 16 on its Telegram channel that urban fighting would be intense. It called on all residents today to evacuate. Many of them are indigenous Rohingya or those who fled the fighting in the surrounding area.
“I am very concerned about the situation in Maungdaw”expressed alarm on June 18 before the Human Rights Council meeting in session in Geneva, Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. “I fear that we are, once again, on the verge of witnessing displacement, destruction and abuse”he continued, referring to the case of another township in Rakhine State populated mainly by Rohingya, Buthidaung, taken in May by the Arakan Army.
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