THE Rakhine State is facing a terrifying situation similar to the run up to “genocidal violence” eight years ago against the persecuted Rohingya minority, a UN expert warned.
Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday, Thomas Andrews, the special rapporteur on the situation in Myanmar, voiced deep alarm at recent events in the western region.
“The situation in Rakhine State, where the junta is rapidly losing territory to the Arakan Army, is terrifying,” he said.
“For Rohingya people – oppressed, scapegoated, exploited and stuck between warring parties – the situation carries echoes of the lead-up to genocidal violence in 2016 and 2017.”
Clashes have rocked Rakhine State since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked forces in November.
That ended a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021 after a short-lived experiment with democracy.
AA fighters have seized swaths of territory, piling pressure on the junta with opponents elsewhere.
Andrews, an independent expert appointed by the rights council who does not speak on behalf of the UN, said the military had been conscripting “thousands of Rohingya youth and mobilising them against the Arakan Army”.
“Even though many Rohingya young men have been taken to the front lines of the conflict against their will, the potential for retaliation by members of the Arakan community and a downward spiral of violence is enormous,” he cautioned.
Andrews said there were reports linking AA soldiers to rights violations against Rohingya civilians, at a time when the humanitarian situation for both Rohingya and Rakhine people was “extremely dire”.
He said “tens, if not hundreds of thousands, have been displaced in Rakhine State”.
In May, the AA said it had seized Buthidaung in northern Rakhine, home to many Rohingya Muslims.
Several Rohingya diaspora groups later accused the AA of forcing Rohingya to flee and then looting and burning their homes – claims the AA called “propaganda”. — AFP
