Mizzima-June 18
Since January 2024, the junta and the Arakan Army (AA) have steadily increased targeted attacks on and hate speech against Rohingya in Rakhine (Arakan) State, according to a statement by ALTSEAN-Burma and the Rohingya Maiyafuinor Collaborative Network (RMCN). It said that in May, the risks faced by Rohingya both in Cox’s Bazar camps and in Rakhine State reached their highest levels since conflict restarted in Rakhine, in Nov 2023. According to the statement, this escalation has taken place against a background of the junta’s persistent surveillance, arbitrary detention, and restrictions on mobility of Rohingya throughout Rakhine which have already left hundreds of thousands of Rohingya extremely vulnerable and disproportionately impacted the safety of women and girls. As fighting spread to the population centers of the majority-Rohingya Maungdaw District in May, Rohingya civilians throughout the state faced mass expulsion, forced conscription, murder, abduction, village torching, and a growing risk of starvation. Those in Bangladesh camps were also targeted with extrajudicial killings and abduction by armed groups, with abductees reportedly taken to Myanmar. HRW reported, during January-February 2024, clashes between the AA and junta in Rohingya-majority areas of northern Arakan State and forced recruitment of Rohingya left them “trapped between both sides of the conflict”. During this period, the junta and AA often either fought from positions in villages that put Rohingya civilians at immediate risk or directly shelled Rohingya and killed and injured hundreds of Rohingya civilians. Rohingya CSOs stressed that these attacks were already in violation of the International Court of Justice’s order for all parties to “take all measures within [their] power to prevent the commission of genocidal acts”. Since then, the amount of physical attacks and anti-Rohingya hate speech in Arakan State has only grown further. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2024/06/18/10937
