Kidnapped and conscripted: Rohingya taken from Bangladesh refugee camps, handed over to Myanmar military

The names of sources quoted in this story have been changed to protect their security. Threats of abduction and conscription by the junta and shadowy local militia groups have now spilled over into neighbouring Bangladesh, as Rohingya refugees describe how they and their relatives have been taken back across the border to Myanmar as forced recruits to the military. Bolstering its troop numbers by recruiting from within the same community it has targeted with genocide, the Myanmar army has recently conscripted at least 2,000 Rohingya men. Many were taken from internally displaced persons camps in Rakhine State, as the military, which is engaged in intense fighting with the Arakan Army (Arakha Army or AA), increasingly loses territory to the powerful Rakhine ethnic armed organisation. After pressing young Rohingya men from the camps into service, the military has sent them into battle against the AA, sometimes after only rudimentary training. At least five Rohingya men forcibly recruited from camps near Sittwe died in March while fighting as part of the junta force that attempted to defend Rathedaung Township from an AA takeover. Some sources have claimed that the junta has been aided in forced recruitment practices by armed groups operating in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, home to 1 million Rohingya people. Namely, these groups include the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), and Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA). Little is known about the Rohingya militias, which reportedly operate similarly to crime syndicates in the camps, profiting from extortion, drug trafficking, and human trafficking including the abduction of refugees. According to the research group United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the safety of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is threatened by a “bitter turf war” between ARSA and RSO. A relatively new group established in 2020, the ARA reportedly has a presence in both the Rakhine State and in Bangladeshi camps. Muhammad—a father of three in his 30s living in one of Bangladesh’s refugee camps—was taken captive by members of the RSO on the morning of April 21, his own 65-year-old father claimed. Muhammad’s father said his son was abducted along with other Rohingya refugees, and that before he was transported to Rakhine State, he was able to make one call to his wife and tell her that the RSO had captured him. The next morning, Muhammad was handed over to the Myanmar military in Rakhine State, and was able to call his family to tell them. “He told me that they were not giving them wholesome, halal food,” the man’s father told Myanmar Now. The Myanmar military has sent him to the battlefield to attack a Rakhine village as well to fight the AA, he said. A video circulated online earlier this month showing what appeared to be an arson attack on a village in Maungdaw Township by armed Rohingya men in military fatigues. (Still images: Western News) “I am worried I will not see him ever again, before I die,” he said, explaining that he suffers from kidney disease. “I miss him very much.” He said he is originally from a village in Buthidaung Township, from which he and his family fled a 2017 scorched earth campaign in which the Myanmar military razed villages, committed extrajudicial killings, and widespread acts of sexual violence against the Rohingya. “We want to go back to live in Rakhine State, but to live in peace,” he added. Abdul, a 23-year-old Rohingya man with a wife and six-month-old child also living in a Bangladesh refugee camp, told Myanmar Now that he escaped a similar capture by the RSO. He recalled that he was sitting with his friends in the camp on May 2 in the afternoon when armed members of the group forced him at gunpoint to go to a shop with them. “They told me we needed to go to Myanmar along with them to fight for our rights,” he said. In broad daylight, the men then removed him from the camp, along with 13 other young Rohingya people, of whom three were allegedly minors. “When I saw the [Bangladeshi] police, I was happy, thinking they might free us, but unfortunately, they didn’t even notice us,” Abdul said. At midnight, the group of 14 was taken to Maungdaw by boat and handed over to the Myanmar military, after which soldiers took them to a base camp, gave them a room and fed them. A video circulated online earlier this month showing what appeared to be an arson attack on a village in Maungdaw Township by armed Rohingya men in military fatigues. (Still images: Western News) According to Abdul, basic training began immediately, and within days the military sent them into combat against the AA. Abdul himself went to the frontline on the fifth day, and was able to escape along with some friends during a battle. “After the whole night of walking through jungle, mountains, and villages, I made it back to my camp,” he told Myanmar Now. Despite his escape, he said, he no longer feels safe and believes the RSO will track him down and send him back to Rakhine State. Although he is worried for his wife and child, he feels it would be better for their safety if he were to leave the camp. “I’m going to sell my wife’s gold and set out for somewhere else,” he said, referring to a boat trip to another country, an option many Rohingya have chosen to escape persecution or other desperate circumstances. “Please pray for me and for my family. Save us from the Myanmar military,” he added. When reached for comment about the allegations that they were helping the Myanmar military press displaced Rohingya men into service, a spokesperson for the RSO told Myanmar Now, “This is completely baseless propaganda against us to create confusion among our community, we condemn such things by making clear our stance that we always stand against all oppressors.” The Rohingya armed groups claim to represent the interests of the Rohingya people and have opposed the AA’s attempts to gain power in the state; Rohingya community members have repeatedly said that these groups do not represent them. The AA—which changed its name to Arakha Army on April 10, allegedly to reflect the group’s mission to represent all ethnic communities in the state and not only the Buddhist Rakhine—initiated an offensive against the Myanmar military in mid-November 2023. The move ended a ceasefire that had been in effect for a year, and since then, the AA has taken control of eight of the state’s townships from junta forces: Pauktaw, Myebon, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Rathedaung, and Ramree; as well as Chin’s State Paletwa Township. The AA has also faced accusations of forcibly recruiting Rohingya people. On May 10, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha denied this, saying, “We have not taken any Muslims or any others by force; it’s just incorrect.” As the AA captures key junta bases and engages in fierce battles for control of Rakhine State’s two northernmost townships along the Bangladesh border—Buthidaung and Maungdaw—a Rohingya civilian in Buthidaung told Myanmar Now he was hoping for the quick seizure of both his own township as well as Maungdaw by the Rakhine armed group. Under the administration of the AA, he speculated, the Myanmar military and Rohingya militias would no longer be able to force men from his community into service. He explained how his own family member, a 24-year-old named Ali and the youngest man in his household, had resorted to hiding in his home to escape conscription but was discovered and abducted in a raid, reportedly by ARSA. “A group of armed men—ARSA men dressed partially in uniform—raided the house at night and took Ali from where he was hiding,” the Buthidaung man said. “Nobody could stop them from what they were doing. They were armed and they could kill you. They took him to the military’s strategic post in Buthidaung.” “It is highly unlikely that we will ever see him again because the military will send him and the others into battle,” he added. “Actually, they took them to be killed.” Tensions rose in the region after a video clip circulated online on Monday showing a group of armed men in Myanmar army fatigues speaking the Rohingya language as they carried petrol containers out of a burning civilian house. In the video, one of the men states that they are in Maungdaw Township and adds, “Look brothers! We’ve just set fire to Rakhine houses in revenge for what they did before.” Local media outlet Western News reported that these men were Rohingya Muslim recruits belonging to a junta unit that had set fire to 50 houses belonging to ethnic Rakhine people in the villages of Shwe Yin Aye and Wai Thar Li, around two miles east of Maungdaw town, on May 9. The article also said that the forces had shot and killed a Rakhine woman in her 30s. Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the Western News report. Last month, more than 200 homes belonging to ethnic Rakhine people were also torched in Buthidaung Township by junta forces that reportedly included newly trained Rohingya recruits. The residents had mostly fled the township to escape ongoing battles. Responding to the reported arson attacks, prominent Rohingya activist Tun Khin wrote on the social media site X—formerly Twitter—on Monday, “I totally condemn the actions we see in the video circulating.” “These men appear to be Rohingya conscripts in the Myanmar military uniform,” he added. “We do not know the exact circumstances. But we can say with 100 percent certainty that their words and actions do not represent the Rohingya community.” Another Rohingya activist, Ro Nay San Lwin also responded with a post on the same platform. “I watched a short video of a Rakhine house being set on fire, believed to be by a group of Rohingya conscripts in the Myanmar military,” he wrote. “Regardless of who they are, and whether it was staged, forced, or anything else, as a Rohingya, I condemn this unkind act [in] the strongest possible terms.”

Kidnapped and conscripted: Rohingya taken from Bangladesh refugee camps, handed over to Myanmar military

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