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The crisis in Rakhine State, in the west of Myanmar, rages on. Recent months have seen yet more atrocities against civilians.
Both the forces of the military junta and the opposition Arakan Army are to blame. They are both attacking civilians and using massive, widespread arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing.
Rakhine State has suffered conflict and has been in deep crisis for years. This is where, in 2017, Myanmar’s military committed crimes against humanity and acts of genocide against the ethnic Rohingya community, forcing more than 750,000 to flee, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh.
The 630,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State live under a system of apartheid. Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the junta has imposed severe movement restrictions on them and blocked aid to their villages and detention camps, where some 150,000 are held.
The junta also sometimes coerces Rohingya to join the army: they are forced to fight for their oppressors. The military’s unlawful recruitment of Rohingya men and boys has stoked communal tensions between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities.
On the other side of the conflict, fighting against Myanmar’s military, the Arakan Army is an ethnic Rakhine armed group. They’ve engaged in periods of heavy fighting with the military for control of Rakhine State since late 2018, and hostilities have surged since mid-November last year. So have atrocities.
The military has carried out indiscriminate attacks using helicopter gunships, artillery, and ground assaults.
A new HRW report also documents how, in April and May, as the Arakan Army was advancing, both sides committed atrocities against civilians.
In mid-April, the Myanmar military and Rohingya armed groups looted and set on fire ethnic Rakhine areas in Buthidaung town and villages to the south. In turn, from late April, the Arakan Army burned more than 40 Rohingya villages and hamlets east of the town of Buthidaung, partially or completely destroying them by fire.
People from the villages fled to Buthidaung, finding shelter in schools, homes, and the hospital. But on May 17, the Arakan Army shelled, looted, and set fire to buildings across the town, especially Rohingya neighborhoods. The capture of Buthidaung displaced an estimated 70,000 people, mostly Rohingya.
Clashes between the warring parties have since moved west to Maungdaw, where fighting has surged over the past week. There are more reports of killings and other abuses against Rohingya civilians there.
Since November, more than 300,000 people have been displaced. The junta has stepped up its blocking of humanitarian aid to civilians across Rakhine State, a form of collective punishment that violates international humanitarian law.
The conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State rages on, atrocities continue, and civilians are paying the price.
