Rising Rakhine risks reshaping regional realities

daily sun
Simon Mohsin
Publish: Wednesday, 05 March, 2025

The rise of the Arakan Army in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has significantly altered the region’s geopolitical landscape. With the group now controlling the entire 271-km border with Bangladesh, its ascendancy poses a dual challenge—both a national security threat and a humanitarian crisis for Dhaka. Yet, despite this shifting reality, Bangladesh remains indecisive, relying on traditional diplomatic approaches that have yielded limited results. The need for a recalibrated, pragmatic approach is more urgent than ever.

Rohingyas’ return to Myanmar uncertain, despite rebel control of Bangladesh border

mizzima
January 6, 2025 

RFA

The dream of returning home to Myanmar remains uncertain for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh despite rebel control of the border, members of the ethnic group said Friday.

Tormentors Change, but Not the Torment

The NewYork Times
By Hannah Beech
Photographs by Adam Ferguson
Reporting from Teknaf, Bangladesh
Dec. 28, 2024 

 Rohingya refugees Shamshida, 25, left, and Manwara, 19, in their tent in Teknaf, Bangladesh. 

Brutally persecuted for years by the military in Myanmar, the Rohingya ethnic minority has now become the target of one of the junta’s most formidable rivals in the country’s civil war.

Arakan Army is also killing and torturing Rohingya, says leaders at rally

bdnew24.com
Cox's Bazar Correspondent
Published : 26 Dec 2024,

Rohingya leaders call for international intervention to ensure safe return, as over 60,000 flee to Bangladesh camps

Rohingya refugees, who fled Myanmar to escape persecution and genocide, have called for their return to their homeland, describing their life in Bangladesh as that of "birds in a cage”.

To reckon with the Rohingya genocide, Min Aung Hlaing’s arrest is a critical start

almayadeen
Hannan Hussain
Source: Al Mayadeen English
18 Dec 2024

Given the unspeakable brutality, condemnation, and injustices directed toward Rohingya Muslims, a warrant against Hlaing is a bare minimum of what ought to follow. 

Min Aung Hlaing's arrest is a cretical start to reckon with the Rohingya genocide ( illustrated by Batoul Chamas )

Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s de-facto military ruler, was the commander in chief during the 2017 Rohingya genocide. It was under his watch that Rohingya Muslims were subject to a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign that entailed rape, mass murder, and demolition of villages. Scores of children were beaten to death, and mosques were targeted.

Gunfire from Myanmar echoes once again in Saint Martin's

DhakaTribune
Tribune Desk
Publish : 18 Dec 2024,

Residents reported intermittent gunfire from Wednesday morning until 1pm, with sporadic sounds continuing afterward

Photo: Collected

After the capture of Myanmar's Maungdaw city in Rakhine by the rebel group Arakan Army (AA), loud explosions were once again heard from the border areas, including Shapuree Dwip and Saint Martin's Island in Teknaf upazila, Cox's Bazar.

Residents reported intermittent gunfire from Wednesday morning until 1pm, with sporadic sounds continuing afterward.

Dhaka won't take any hasty steps over Rohingya issue: Dr Khalil

daily observer
Saturday, 14 December, 2024

 

Dr Khalilur Rahman, High Representative on Rohingya Crisis and Matters of Priority to the Chief Adviser, on Friday said Bangladesh would not take any hasty step over Rohingya issue without any proper assessment regarding the emerging situation in Rakhine state of Myanmar.

"We're keeping watch on the emerging situation in Rakhine….. We don't want to do anything hastily. We'll not take any step without deep consideration," he said, joining a discussion here in the capital through a virtual platform.

China Compels Myanmar Rebel Groups To Negotiate With Junta – OpEd

eurasiareview
By Subir Bhaumik
December 10, 2024

China has forced two powerful armed rebel groups in north Myanmar to start negotiations with the Burmese military junta and call off the 1027 offensive they started October last year.

Experts say this might well be the most decisive Chinese intervention to stop a conflict in its neighborhood and might well set the tenor for a more proactive future policy on such issues.

Myanmar PDFs face a closing window of opportunity

ASIA TIME
by Anthony Davis
November 5, 2024 

A People's Defense Force (PDF) soldier in a liberated area of northern Myanmar. Photo: X Screengrab

As torrential monsoon rains give way to the year-end cold season, a central question looms heavily over the war in Myanmar: is time on the side of federal-democratic forces battling the State Administration Council (SAC) military coup regime? Or, rephrased, can the remarkable military momentum achieved by those forces over the last year be maintained in the year to come?

Create ‘safe zone’ for the displaced people in Rakhine

The Daily Star
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Tue Oct 15, 2024 

Yunus urges UN to find ways to support them

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in a meeting with Thomas Andrews, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, at the former’s Tejgaon office yesterday. Photo: PID

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has proposed creating a "safe zone guaranteed by the UN" for the displaced people in Myanmar's Rakhine State and finding ways to support them.

"This will be the best way to get aid to them," he said when Thomas Andrews, Special Rapporteur of the UN on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, called on the chief adviser at his Tejgaon office yesterday.

Chief adviser seeks ‘safe zone guaranteed by UN’ for displaced people in Rakhine

prothomalo
BSS Dhaka
Published: 15 Oct 2024, 

Special rapporteur of the UN on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews calls on chief adviser professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus at his Tejgaon office in Dhaka on 14 October 2024BSS

Chief adviser professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus Monday called for creating a “safe zone guaranteed by the UN” for the displaced people in Rakhine and finding ways to support them.

He made the call when Thomas Andrews, the special rapporteur of the UN on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called on the chief adviser at his Tejgaon office in the city.

Road from Rakhine: The uncertain fate of Rohingyas

ORF ( OBSEVER RESEACH FOUNDITION )
Author : Sreeparna Banerjee
Expert Speak Raisina Debates
Published on Oct 05, 2024

The escalating violence against the Rohingya by the Arakan Army underscores the reality that, regardless of who assumes power, the future of the Rohingyas remains uncertain 

Image Source: Getty

The rise in deadly attacks on Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since May 2024 bears a chilling resemblance to the atrocities committed in August 2017, when the military forced Rohingyas to flee by attacking and burning down settlements. Nearly seven years later, similar scenes of Rohingya men, women, and children being slayed or escaping to neighbouring nations are unfolding, reflecting a continued erasure of Rohingya history and identity. Only this time, the preparator is an ethnic armed group.

A new genocide being committed in Rakhine

daily obsever
Md Mustakim Ahmed
Published : Monday, 9 September, 2024 

Before the memory of the '2017 Rohingya genocide' fades, the world is regrettably witnessing a new wave of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people, one that is perhaps more vicious and brutal.

The military of Myanmar unleashed a ruthless offensive against the Rohingya people in 2017, sparking the most brutal wave of anti-Rohingya persecution. Subsequently, the head of the UN agency for human rights described the military's actions as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing," "acts of horrific barbarity," and an "acts of genocide." About a million Rohingya were compelled to escape to Bangladesh, a neighbor, as a result of the persecution.

In a study conducted in January 2018 with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, a UN Fact-Finding Mission estimated that the military and the local Rakhine Buddhists had killed at least 25,000 Rohingya and committed gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. According to their estimates, 36,000 Rohingya were burned alive and 116,000 others were beaten, an atrocities unseen since 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“End the Impunity”: Rohingya Muslims Under Attack by Both Burmese Army and Rebel Group

DEMOCRACY NOW
StoryAugust 15, 2024 

Topics

Burma
Rohingya
Bangladesh

Guests

Nay San Lwin
co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition.

Up to 200 Rohingya Muslims were killed in drone strikes last week in Burma as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh. This comes amid intensifying conflict between the military junta and the Arakan Army, a rebel armed group. Human Rights Watch says the military and the Arakan Army have both committed extrajudicial killings, unlawful recruitment for combat, and widespread arson against Rohingya civilians. “They are the enemy of each other, but when it comes to the Rohingya issue, they have the same intention,” says Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. Only about 600,000 Rohingya remain in Burma, down from about 1.4 million before a campaign of ethnic cleansing began in 2016, though Nay San Lwin says the Rohingya genocide goes back even further to 1978. 

Overlapping Atrocities

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
By Andrew Stroehlein
August 13, 2024 

The crisis in Rakhine State, in the west of Myanmar, rages on. Recent months have seen yet more atrocities against civilians.

Both the forces of the military junta and the opposition Arakan Army are to blame. They are both attacking civilians and using massive, widespread arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing.

UN Human Rights Council adopts unanimous resolution calling for repatriation of Rohingyas

daily sun
Daily Sun Report, Dhaka
Publish: Wednesday, 10 July, 2024 

Over a million Myanmar nationals, popularly known as Rohingya, sheltered in Bangladesh amid military brutality in August 2017.

Photo : Collected

 

The 56th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday (10 July) unanimously adopted a resolution on repatriation of forcible displaced Rohingya population to Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Escaping inferno: Rohingya flee as violence escalates in Rakhine

BIG NEWS NETWORK
Khalid Umar Malik
16th June 2024, 

RAKHINE, Myanmar - Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has risen in the western province of Rakhine in recent days, putting thousands of predominantly Muslim Rohingya residents at risk.

According to discussions with Rohingya activists who spoke with witnesses in Buthidaung, there have been large fires throughout the town in recent days.

Myanmar’s Rohingya ‘trapped between hammer and anvil’ as junta, rebels sow terror in Rakhine

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Published: 6 Jun 2024

• Muslim minority residents ‘pushed to the wall’ as security forces and the Arakan Army target villages with arson attacks and killings 
  

A woman cooks next to destroyed houses and burned trees following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in a village in Rakhine state on May 21. Photo: AFP

A fierce gunfight between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) rebels in Rakhine state has thrust Rohingya Muslims into a fresh spiral of organised violence as alleged beheadings and arson attacks rattle the persecuted community.

Rohingyas bear the brunt as violence escalates in Myanmar

The South Asia Times
Friday, 24 May, 2024 

About 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine state. (Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons) 

 

New York: Having faced decades of discrimination and repression under successive Myanmar authorities, the situation remains dire for the Muslim minority Rohingyas who have been bearing the brunt of fighting between the military and an ethnic armed group.

Escalating conflict in Myanmar: joint statement by UK and partners

GOV.UK
From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Published24 May 2024

 Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States released a statement on the escalating conflict in Myanmar.

We, Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, are deeply concerned by the escalating conflict in Myanmar and in particular the increasing harm to civilians, which are driving a worsening and devastating human rights and humanitarian crisis across the country.