Everyone should be held accountable for the atrocities they commit. Respect for international law is not optional, and true justice cannot be selective . 
“The brutal military government has treated the Rohingya like animals -- that’s what we are fighting against,” Ata Ullah Abu Ammar Jununi, commander-in-chief of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), recalled the military’s genocidal attacks in 2016 and 2017.
“The brutal military government has treated the Rohingya like animals -- that’s what we are fighting against,” Ata Ullah Abu Ammar Jununi, commander-in-chief of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), recalled the military’s genocidal attacks in 2016 and 2017.
Years later, in 2023, a senior leader of ARSA I met in Bangladesh told me, “We are freedom fighters.” We were seated outside the sprawling refugee camps, away from prying eyes. The militant had only reluctantly agreed to meet with me after several attempts.
“Ata Ullah and ARSA, who are in Myanmar, are fighting to restore our [Rohingya] citizenship. That’s why we also train our people with weapons to fight,” the man told me. Then, as the Muslim call to prayer echoed, he paused the interview to pray.
That moment stayed with me. The man’s religious and ethno-nationalist conviction, like Ata Ullah’s, was palpable -- a deep sense of duty to his people, long persecuted and survivors of a recent genocide.
But conviction, no matter how deeply felt, does not shield anyone from accountability for atrocities they themselves commit. In the case of the ARSA militants, it is the abuses they have committed against the very people whose freedom they claim to be fighting for -- the Rohingya -- that long for justice.
Over the past decade, Myanmar has seen its fair share of brutality. During this time, I have documented human rights violations across Myanmar and its borderlands. I have met survivors of genocide, spoken with parents who buried children too soon, and sat with community leaders trying to hold onto hope in the face of ongoing atrocities.
The main perpetrator of unlawful violence in Myanmar is the military regime, but in the last few years, my colleagues and I have documented a growing number of abuses committed by Rohingya armed groups, both in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh.
Recently, Fortify Rights released a report documenting serious crimes committed by Rohingya armed groups, including ARSA and others -- murders and assassinations, torture and mutilation, forced recruitment of fighters, and death threats against anyone who dared to criticize them.
The report found reasonable grounds to believe that certain crimes committed in Bangladesh are sufficiently linked to the armed conflict in Myanmar, so that they could be considered war crimes under international law.
The day we launched the report in Dhaka, Bangladeshi security forces announced the arrest of Ata Ullah -- a figure feared and revered. Some Rohingya consider Ata Ullah a freedom fighter and pushed back strongly against his arrest.
Ata Ullah was reportedly born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, to a family of Rohingya refugees, later moving to Saudi Arabia. He returned to Rakhine state sometime after 2012, following a wave of state-sponsored communal violence primarily targeting the Rohingya.
In Rakhine, Ata Ullah started building the group that he would later lead, Harakh al Yaqin, or “Faith Movement,” which later became ARSA. Although ostensibly established to fight for the rights and survival of the Rohingya people, ARSA has morphed into splinter groups with criminal elements and has waged a campaign of terror against the very people it claims to represent.
Since the 2021 military coup that overthrew Myanmar’s democratically-elected government, a broad-based revolution has emerged to resist the illegal junta. This resistance movement is just and necessary, and mostly strives for a democratic, rights-respecting future for their country.
I recognize the long-standing history of armed resistance in Myanmar and support the right of ethnic communities, including the Rohingya, to build their own governance structures and armed forces in support of the revolutionary struggle against the junta.
But respect for international law is not optional, and true justice cannot be selective. We cannot call for accountability only when the perpetrators wear Myanmar military uniforms. We must also speak out when abuses are committed by persecuted communities themselves.
This is why, for example, Fortify Rights has documented the crimes of groups like ARSA and others. Likewise, this is why we have also extensively documented and spoken out publicly about the crimes of the Arakan Army, an anti-junta ethnic armed organization based in Rakhine, which has often persecuted the Rohingya. And why we’ve documented crimes committed by Karen resistance groups and others.
Our aim in all of our work is very simple: To protect the people of Myanmar from human rights abuses, regardless of who commits them.
We chose to side with those struggling for democracy, justice, and a more human rights respecting future for Myanmar. But as a human rights movement, we cannot turn a blind eye to acts of injustice, even when the overall cause is a just one. To fight for democracy, justice and human rights also means respecting those rights while fighting for them.
There is no doubt that Rohingya people need and deserve their own resistance to the Myanmar military’s or other groups’ oppression, and whether Ata Ullah is a freedom fighter is not for me to determine. What matters is this: He commanded, oversaw, and enabled serious crimes against the very Rohingya people he claimed to defend.
To move toward justice for his victims, Bangladesh should cooperate with the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Ata Ullah and others responsible for war crimes, not only in Myanmar but within its borders such as the murders, torture, and forced recruitment we documented in the camps.
No one is above the law, regardless of the justness of the cause they claim to champion. Because real justice does not bend to ideology; it stands with victims and survivors, no matter the perpetrator.
John Quinley is a director at Fortify Rights, an international human rights organization. Follow him on X: @john_hq3
Link :Here
“Ata Ullah and ARSA, who are in Myanmar, are fighting to restore our [Rohingya] citizenship. That’s why we also train our people with weapons to fight,” the man told me. Then, as the Muslim call to prayer echoed, he paused the interview to pray.
That moment stayed with me. The man’s religious and ethno-nationalist conviction, like Ata Ullah’s, was palpable -- a deep sense of duty to his people, long persecuted and survivors of a recent genocide.
But conviction, no matter how deeply felt, does not shield anyone from accountability for atrocities they themselves commit. In the case of the ARSA militants, it is the abuses they have committed against the very people whose freedom they claim to be fighting for -- the Rohingya -- that long for justice.
Over the past decade, Myanmar has seen its fair share of brutality. During this time, I have documented human rights violations across Myanmar and its borderlands. I have met survivors of genocide, spoken with parents who buried children too soon, and sat with community leaders trying to hold onto hope in the face of ongoing atrocities.
The main perpetrator of unlawful violence in Myanmar is the military regime, but in the last few years, my colleagues and I have documented a growing number of abuses committed by Rohingya armed groups, both in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh.
Recently, Fortify Rights released a report documenting serious crimes committed by Rohingya armed groups, including ARSA and others -- murders and assassinations, torture and mutilation, forced recruitment of fighters, and death threats against anyone who dared to criticize them.
The report found reasonable grounds to believe that certain crimes committed in Bangladesh are sufficiently linked to the armed conflict in Myanmar, so that they could be considered war crimes under international law.
The day we launched the report in Dhaka, Bangladeshi security forces announced the arrest of Ata Ullah -- a figure feared and revered. Some Rohingya consider Ata Ullah a freedom fighter and pushed back strongly against his arrest.
Ata Ullah was reportedly born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, to a family of Rohingya refugees, later moving to Saudi Arabia. He returned to Rakhine state sometime after 2012, following a wave of state-sponsored communal violence primarily targeting the Rohingya.
In Rakhine, Ata Ullah started building the group that he would later lead, Harakh al Yaqin, or “Faith Movement,” which later became ARSA. Although ostensibly established to fight for the rights and survival of the Rohingya people, ARSA has morphed into splinter groups with criminal elements and has waged a campaign of terror against the very people it claims to represent.
But conviction, no matter how deeply felt, does not shield anyone from accountability for atrocities they themselves commitAt the helm of ARSA this entire time has been Ata Ullah. Whether or not he still sees himself as a liberator is irrelevant: The evidence points to him having command responsibility over grave violations of international law, for which he must be held accountable.
Since the 2021 military coup that overthrew Myanmar’s democratically-elected government, a broad-based revolution has emerged to resist the illegal junta. This resistance movement is just and necessary, and mostly strives for a democratic, rights-respecting future for their country.
I recognize the long-standing history of armed resistance in Myanmar and support the right of ethnic communities, including the Rohingya, to build their own governance structures and armed forces in support of the revolutionary struggle against the junta.
But respect for international law is not optional, and true justice cannot be selective. We cannot call for accountability only when the perpetrators wear Myanmar military uniforms. We must also speak out when abuses are committed by persecuted communities themselves.
This is why, for example, Fortify Rights has documented the crimes of groups like ARSA and others. Likewise, this is why we have also extensively documented and spoken out publicly about the crimes of the Arakan Army, an anti-junta ethnic armed organization based in Rakhine, which has often persecuted the Rohingya. And why we’ve documented crimes committed by Karen resistance groups and others.
Our aim in all of our work is very simple: To protect the people of Myanmar from human rights abuses, regardless of who commits them.
We chose to side with those struggling for democracy, justice, and a more human rights respecting future for Myanmar. But as a human rights movement, we cannot turn a blind eye to acts of injustice, even when the overall cause is a just one. To fight for democracy, justice and human rights also means respecting those rights while fighting for them.
There is no doubt that Rohingya people need and deserve their own resistance to the Myanmar military’s or other groups’ oppression, and whether Ata Ullah is a freedom fighter is not for me to determine. What matters is this: He commanded, oversaw, and enabled serious crimes against the very Rohingya people he claimed to defend.
To move toward justice for his victims, Bangladesh should cooperate with the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Ata Ullah and others responsible for war crimes, not only in Myanmar but within its borders such as the murders, torture, and forced recruitment we documented in the camps.
No one is above the law, regardless of the justness of the cause they claim to champion. Because real justice does not bend to ideology; it stands with victims and survivors, no matter the perpetrator.
John Quinley is a director at Fortify Rights, an international human rights organization. Follow him on X: @john_hq3
Link :Here
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