Ethnic Rakhine in Bangladesh Protest against Myanmar’s ‘Military Aggression’

RADIO FREE ASIA

Sharif Khiam
Dhaka
2020-10-12

Members of the ethnic Rakhine community in Bangladesh hold banners as they protest in Dhaka against what they say is Myanmar’s military aggression in Rakhine state, Oct. 11, 2020.
Sharif Khiam/BenarNews

Hundreds of Bangladeshis from the mainly Buddhist, ethnic Rakhine minority group staged a rare, if not unprecedented, protest over the weekend against Myanmar’s alleged military aggression in Rakhine state, saying their community there faces operations aimed at ethnic cleansing, much like the stateless Rohingya.

An armed conflict between Myanmar government forces and the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine rebel group fighting for greater autonomy for the Rakhine people, intensified in early 2019. This past March, Myanmar declared it a terrorist organization.