Insurgents claim responsibility for attack in northern Rakhine state, saying they are fighting ‘Burmese state-sponsored terrorism’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Rohingya Muslim have said they have “no other option” but to fight what they called Myanmar’s state-sponsored terrorism in order to defend their community.



On Sunday the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence.

Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August when a series of insurgent raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the United Nations says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Q&A Who are the Rohingya and what happened to them in Myanmar? Show Hide Described as the world’s most persecuted people, 1.1 million Rohingya people live in Myanmar. They live predominately in Rakhine state, where they have co-existed uneasily alongside Buddhists for decades. Rohingya people say they are descendants of Muslims, perhaps Persian and Arab traders, who came to Myanmar generations ago. Unlike the Buddhist community, they speak a language similar to the Bengali dialect of Chittagong in Bangladesh. The Rohingya are reviled by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and suffer from systematic discrimination. The Myanmar government treats them as stateless people, denying them citizenship. Stringent restrictions have been placed on Rohingya people’s freedom of movement, access to medical assistance, education and other basic services. Violence broke out in northern Rakhine state in August 2017, when militants attacked government forces. In response, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation” that ultimately killed at least 1,000 people and forced more than 600,000 to flee their homes. The UN’s top human rights official said the military’s response was "clearly disproportionate” to insurgent attacks and warned that Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority appears to be a "textbook example” of ethnic cleansing. When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar's entrenched ethnic divides. But she has been accused of standing by while violence is committed against the Rohingya. In 2019, judges at the international criminal court authorised a full-scale investigation into the allegations of mass persecution and crimes against humanity. On 10 December 2019, the international court of justice in The Hague opened a case alleging genocide brought by the Gambia. Rebecca Ratcliffe Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes.

Since the August raids, which left at least a dozen dead, the shadowy, poorly armed Arsa has launched few if any attacks – until Friday morning, when the army reported that “about 10” Rohingya militants ambushed a car with handmade mines and gunfire, wounding two officers and their driver.



The militants claimed responsibility for the ambush in a rare post from an official Twitter account on Sunday. The statement did not provide any more details about the attack in the northern Maungdaw township.

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“Arsa has … no other option but to combat ‘Burmese state-sponsored terrorism’ against the Rohingya population for the purpose of defending, salvaging and protecting the Rohingya community,” the group said in the statement signed by its leader, Ata Ullah.

A Myanmar government spokesman declined to comment, saying he had yet to read the statement. A military spokesman would not comment about the security situation in the north of Rakhine state.

The area is largely off limits to reporters. Authorities have previously said attacks by the insurgents would be met with force and they ruled out any negotiations with “terrorists”.

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Arsa dismisses any links to Islamist militant groups and says it is fighting to end the oppression of the Rohingya people.

Rohingya have been denied citizenship, freedom of movement and access to services such as healthcare. The Myanmar government regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Serious communal violence between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in 2012 and sporadic unrest followed.

Arsa did not say where Ullah was but the government suspects the insurgents flee into Bangladesh then slip back into Myanmar to launch attacks.

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Any increase in violence in Rakhine will deepen concerns about plans to begin repatriating refugees later this month. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement in November allowing for repatriations from 23 January.

But many aid groups and diplomats have expressed doubt that fearful Rohingya will agree to return to country where they face severe discrimination from other communities and the state.

The refugees complain that they have not been consulted about their repatriation.