Burmese State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday accused Rohingya fighters of burning down homes and using child soldiers during a recent surge in violence in troubled Rakhine state, allegations denied by the militants themselves.
The impoverished western state neighboring Bangladesh has become a crucible of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Despite years of persecution and government restrictions, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.
Photo: AFP
However, sporadic armed clashes have erupted since October last year, when a previously unknown Rohingya militant group staged a series of attacks on security forces, sparking a massive crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which the UN believes may have amounted to ethnic cleansing.
A brutal round of fresh fighting has been raging since Friday when militants staged new coordinated ambushes.
More than 100 people, including some 80 militants, have been confirmed killed, and thousands of Rohingya civilians have fled toward Bangladesh, while local Buddhists and Hindus have sought sanctuary in towns and monasteries away from the clashes.
Both sides have accused each other of committing fresh atrocities in recent days, accusations that are difficult to verify because the fighting is taking place in inaccessible villages.
The State Counsellor’s Office has released a flurry of statements via Facebook, including grim pictures of civilians allegedly shot dead by militants.
“Terrorists have been fighting security forces by using children at the frontline [and] setting fire [to] minority-ethnic villages,” the office said yesterday in a statement.
It added that there should be “no concerns for civilians who are not linked with extremist terrorists” and called on Rohingya to not brandish “sticks, swords and weapons” when security forces approached.
The militant group behind the fighting — the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) — hit back with its own allegations yesterday.
“While raiding Rohingya villages, the Burmese brutal military soldiers bring along with them groups of Rakhine [Buddhist] extremists to attack Rohingya villagers, loot Rohingyas’ properties and later burn down Rohingya houses,” the group said via its Twitter account @ARSA_Official.
Myanmar’s assurances for Rohingya civilians appear to have had little effect, with a fresh influx of refugees heading to Bangladesh. Some have been turned back by Bangladeshi authorities.
In other developments, Pope Francis plans to visit Myanmar and Bangladesh in late November and early December, the Vatican announced yesterday.
It said he would visit Myanmar from Nov. 27 to 30, stopping in Yangon and in the capital, Naypyidaw. He would visit the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.
The announcement came hours after Bangladesh border guards pushed back thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing the worst violence in Myanmar in five years, and a day after Francis spoke out at what he said was “sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brother.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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