As It Loses Control of Rakhine, Myanmar Junta Resorts to Stoking Religious Hatred

The Irrawaddy
by Nayt Thit
May 14, 2024

Myanmar junta soldiers are seen on Armed Forces Day in 2021.

After suffering humiliating defeats and territorial losses to the ethnic Arakan Army (AA)’s ongoing offensive in Rakhine State, the Myanmar junta is again utilizing its old tactic of fueling racial and religious tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim residents in some townships in the north of the state, according to military analysts and the ethnic rebel army.

Rohingya being forcibly conscripted in battle between Myanmar and rebels

The Guardian
Kaamil Ahmed
Tue 14 May 2024 

Myanmar military has conscripted 1,000 Rohingya men and boys since February, with fears some are being used as human shields, according to NGOs

Rohingya passengers get off the train ahead of Sittwe, Rakhine state, as they are not allowed to disembark at the main station. The ethnic minority fear going out in case they are conscripted. Photograph: Riva Press

For more than four hours Abdullah* waited in the darkness as soldiers marched 30 of his neighbours from their homes in the Myanmar border state of Rakhine and forced them by gunpoint to join him on the truck that would take them all to a military base.

Arakan Army captures hundreds of junta soldiers in Rakhine

Dhaka Tribune
AFP
Publish : 06 May 2024,

• Clashes between the Arakan Army and the military have intensified since November
• The conflict has resulted in significant displacement and casualties
  

File photo: Arakan Army fighters raise their flag over an artillery gun after seizing a junta outpost in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township. Photo: Collected

A Myanmar ethnic armed group said on Monday it had captured a military command and taken hundreds of junta personnel prisoner in western Rakhine state, the latest blow to the military.

Myanmar: The junta’s forced conscription of Rohingyas

the interpreter
Md. Himel Rahman
Published 2 Apr 2024 

The implications of this cynical act for people already oppressed could reverberate for neighbouring Bangladesh and across the region. 

 

Six years ago, a calculated “cleansing operation” conducted by the Myanmar Armed Forces and aided by local militias resulted in the expulsion of more than 750,000 Rohingyas from the northern Rakhine State in Myanmar. Now, the same Myanmar Armed Forces are forcibly conscripting the Rohingyas in order to fight against the Rakhine insurgents. This cynical exploitation carries implications for all involved – including neighbouring Bangladesh, host to most Rohingya refugees.

AA unable to confirm reported deaths of 100 Muslims at battlefront

Narinjara
Date: 15 March 2024 

The Arakan Army (AA) is yet to confirm the reports claiming that 70 to 100 Muslims, who were forcibly enlisted and deployed at frontlines, were killed at Ah Ngu Maw battlefront in Rathedaung township of Rakhine State.

Myanmar junta shelling kills eight displaced Rohingya people in Sittwe

Myanmar Now
Yaung Ni
March 11, 2024 

Rohingya people mooring their boats near Thea Chaung village, Sittwe Township, trying to prepare for Cyclone Mocha in early May 2023 (Photo: Myanmar Now)

Eight Rohingya civilians were killed and nine injured around 9pm on Saturday by a heavy artillery shell fired by junta forces into the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, local sources said.

Myoma market in Sittwe struck by junta’s shelling, kills 12 , injures 30 others

Narinjara
Date: 29 February 2024

Breaking News

An artillery shell fired by junta forces struck Myoma market in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, resulting in the killing of Twelve people and injuring 30 others.

Rohingya Men in Myanmar Are Being Forcibly Recruited by The Junta’s Military

The Irrawaddy
Hein Htoo Zan
February 23, 2024

A IDP camp for Rohingya people near Rakhine State’s capital Sittwe. / The Irrawaddy

 

Myanmar’s military is forcibly recruiting Rohingya men from villages and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rakhine State and it is feared they will be used as human shields, activists and residents of the state warn.

4 Muslims youths from Sittwe sold to human traffickers

Narinjara
Date: 25 August 2023 

Four Muslim youths hailing from Sittwe township of Rakhine State were sold to the human traffickers even though a broker wrongly claimed that they would get jobs, alleged by the family members.

The youths have been identified as Mar Mauk Solin (16) from Owntawgyi (north) Muslim refugee camp, Halaya and Soyouk Tamin from Khaung Dukkar village and Tahay from Bodufa village.

Scores of Rohingya refugees drown in a boat capsizing in the Bay of Bengal

VTICAN NEWS
By Edoardo Giribaldi
14-08-2023

Rohingya people in Myanmar (Reuters)

17 people died and some 30 are still missing after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal. The authorities report that the exact time and the causes of the incident are still unknown.

Bodies of 15 Rohingya from sunken boat found near coast of Rakhine’s Sittwe

mizzima
10 August 2023

Fifteen bodies of Rohingya people were found after their boat sank near Rakhine’s capital city Sittwe on 7 August.

The boat sunk near Basara Village as it was carrying at least 50 Rohingya apparently heading for Malaysia.

17 dead after Rohingya boat from Myanmar capsizes on the way to Malaysia

CNN
By Su Chay, Heather Chen and Mihir Melwani, CNN
Thu August 10, 2023

CNN- Rescue teams have found at least 17 bodies on Myanmar’s shores after a Rohingya boat capsized while on its way to Malaysia on Monday, officials told CNN.

Among the dead were 10 women and seven men – all of whom were Rohingya Muslims, said Bya Latt, a spokesperson for the Shwe Yaung Matta Foundation rescue group.

‘They ignore us on purpose’: Cyclone deepens Rohingya suffering

Frontier Myanmar
June 15, 2023

Rohingya children stand by destroyed houses at Ohn Taw Chay camp in Sittwe on May 16, two days after Cyclone Mocha's landfall. (AFP)

 

The persecuted Muslim group made up the bulk of the death toll from Cyclone Mocha, with survivors accusing the military regime of failing to prepare adequate evacuations and issuing warnings at the last minute. 

 

When Cyclone Mocha barrelled through Rakhine State last month, Ko Tun Myint* and his family were unprepared.

“It was announced that there would be a storm, and they told us to relocate, but most of us thought Mocha wasn’t serious,” he said. “That’s why many of us stayed in the village.”

Cyclone Mocha Claimed 400 Lives in Myanmar

eman channel
18.05.2023

Cyclone Mocha Claims Over 400 Lives in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

Myanmar’s Rakhine state has been devastated by Cyclone Mocha, resulting in the tragic loss of more than 400 lives, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (RNA), a rights group. The cyclone made landfall on Sunday, hitting the coast between Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district and Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu township.

Muslim students in Sittwe donate cash for Rakhine IDPs

Narinjara
Ein Soe Hpyu
Narinjara News,
24 July 2020

Muslim students in the state capital Sittwe have donated 300,000 kyat towards helping Rakhine people displaced by the conflict. They presented the donation at Sittwe University student union at noon today. Ko To To Aung, chairman of the student union, commented that this was a humanitarian gesture and had been recognized by the union as a good deed.

Harrowing stories remain unheeded

theSundaily
Nutmeg Verses - Himanshu Bhatt  

19 Jul 2020

MUNAWIR, a Rohingya man in his 20s, was at home in Sittwe, a district in Rakhine state of Myanmar, when his neighbourhood was attacked and houses there burnt by assailants. Eighteen people were killed in the ensuing massacre, including his two brothers.

Seeing his desperation, an agent later persuaded him to board a ship to Malaysia, promising him a better life and assuring that he did not have to pay anything.

However, once Munawir was on the small vessel, a gang approached his mother in Sittwe to demand 600,000 Burmese kyat (RM2,000) for his journey, which she fearfully paid. 

Myanmar’s Rakhine State Revokes Order Evicting Squatters From Rohingya Land

RADIO FREE ASIA
2020-05-26 

Structures built in Sittwe township's Seyton Su ward in Myanmar's Rakhine state are shown in a file photo.

Authorities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state have revoked an order requiring Rakhine Buddhist families to vacate land in a former Rohingya Muslim area of Sittwe township that was razed eight years ago during a flare-up of sectarian violence.

The May 14 order was revoked on May 19, frustrating members of the Rohingya community originally displaced from their homes in Sittwe’s Seyton Su Muslim quarter, who called the rescinding of the order evicting thousands of squatters from their former land evidence of a lack of the rule of law in the conflict-torn region.

“When I Think About it, I Get Heart Sick”

RADIO FREE ASIA
2020-02-25


-RFA spoke to Rohingya Muslims in displacement camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. They are among the 120,000 Rohingya who were forced from their homes after communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012 left more than 200 people dead.


Link :https://www.rfa.org/english/video?v=1_pjt8p49z

Villager Dies in Military Custody in N. Rakhine

The Irrawaddy 
By Min Aung Khine
26 June 2019

Family members retrieve the body of a man who died during military detention from Kyauktaw Township Hospital. / Ko Kyaw Hla Myin

SITTWE—A resident of the village of Pauk Taw Pyin in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township died while being taken to a hospital by the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) on Tuesday, four days after soldiers arrested him.

Family members said they only became aware of the man’s death after his body arrived at Kyauktaw Township Hospital.

AA Naval Attack Kills 2 Tatmadaw Fighters

The Irrawaddy 
By Htet Naing Zaw
24 June 2019

A piece of artillery shell that fell in the village of Kyay Taw Ywa Ma, opposite a creek from Sittwe. / Aung Than Wa / Faceboo

 

NAYPYITAW—The Tatmadaw (or Myanmar military) suffered two casualties in a navy tugboat attack by the Arakan Army (AA) in the creek of Set Yoe Kya, near Sittwe, in Rakhine State.

The attack is the first on a navy vessel in the state, Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy, adding that two died and one was injured in the attack.