Close to 1,000 Rohingya people arrive in Sittwe after prison release

Hundreds of Rohingya people who had been freed from prison in Yangon arrived by boat on Wednesday in the capital of Rakhine State, where clashes between the junta and Arakan Army (AA) seemed imminent. Most of the nearly 1,000 travellers, who had been released three days earlier, had been charged with violations of immigration law and held in Yangon’s Insein Prison, according to local sources. Authorities do not recognise Rohingya people as full citizens of the country and enforce immigration laws against them despite the fact that they are native to Myanmar, severely restricting their movements. Along the released individuals, around 100 are Sittwe residents, primarily from areas now controlled by the Arakan Army (AA). The AA currently controls more than half the townships in Rakhine State, with the military regime retaining control only in the townships of Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and Manaung in Rakhine State, which is in Myanmar’s west on the Bay of Bengal. On Tuesday, the military council’s state-level administration in Rakhine State held meetings with international humanitarian aid organisations, including some connected with the United Nations (UN), to plan for the placement of released Rohingya people in displaced people’s camps in Sittwe Township, according to a local Rohingya activist. “The World Food Programme (WFP) will need to provide food. UN aid organisations will have to coordinate to build shelters, and there’s also a request for essential non-food household items,” the activist said. He also expressed concern about the potential for forced recruitment of the released Rohingya under the junta’s conscription law. “If there was a genuine intention to return these people to their homes, UN organisations could facilitate their return with the AA’s assistance. However, the military council’s intentions remain unclear,” he said. “If they keep these people here, they will certainly use them, potentially as batches of recruits for military service.” Sources indicated that among the 936 individuals freed from prison, most had been granted early release. They were transported from Insein Prison to Yangon via seven passenger buses before being sent to Rakhine State. Thike Htun Oo, from the Political Prisoners Network Myanmar (PPNM), said the junta had released the prisoners quietly during a public holiday, with no official announcement. He expressed concern about the released Rohingya’s fate, noting the lack of follow-up information provided by the authorities after their arrival in Rakhine State. “If this release was genuine, they should have officially announced how many Rohingya were released and under what conditions,” he said. The freeing of the Rohingya prisoners came shortly after an Argentine court issued arrest warrants for 25 individuals, including Myanmar’s military coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing, in connection with a wave of genocidal attacks on Rohingya people in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in 2017. Tun Kyi, a spokesperson for the Former Political Prisoners Society (ExPP), highlighted that the released prisoners’ destination was a conflict zone. “The war is breaking out here, it’s an unimaginable situation. These people are known for their ruthless tactics,” he said, referring to the military. “With fighting in Sittwe, the possibility of young people being used as human shields cannot be ruled out. No one can guarantee their safety.” Since the 1962 military coup led by General Ne Win, the military government has designated the Rohingya living near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border as “undocumented people,” restricting their movement beyond Rakhine State. Following intercommunal violence in Rakhine State in 2012, many Rohingya people’s homes were destroyed, forcing them into refugee camps. In 2017, a military crackdown caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, which now hosts over one million refugees in the world’s largest refugee camps. Many Rohingya in refugee camps attempt to flee to Thailand and Malaysia but often face arrest and imprisonment for crossing borders illegally. Currently, nearly 2,000 Rohingya remain incarcerated in Myanmar prisons, facing deprivations that are harmful to their health, such as insufficient food and inadequate medical care.

Close to 1,000 Rohingya people arrive in Sittwe after prison release

Humanitarian workers and activists said that the junta authorities’ motives for releasing the prisoners were suspect, noting that they were returning to a conflict zone and were vulnerable to forced recruitment or use as human shields

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