Human Rights Watch has accused the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) of committing grave abuses against the Rohingya population in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
In a statement released Monday, the rights watchdog said that after seizing territory in Rakhine State, the ethnic armed group has imposed movement restrictions, carried out looting, arbitrarily detained and mistreated civilians, and committed unlawful forced labor, recruitment, and other abuses against the Rohingya.
Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director said that the AA is carrying out “policies of oppression” against the Rohingya similar to the those long imposed by the Myanmar military in the state.
“The Arakan Army should end its discriminatory and abusive practices and comply with international law,” she said.
Citing the accounts of 12 Rohingya who had fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township, HRW said Rohingya people are caught between the Myanmar military and the AA, with both forces committing grave abuse, including extrajudicial killings, widespread arson, and unlawful recruitment.
The interviewees testified that Rohingya people are barred from working, fishing, farming, or even moving without permission and face extreme food shortages, “with most people begging from one another.”
The rights group said that AA’s “restrictions on livelihood and agriculture, combined with extortion and soaring prices, have exacerbated the severe food shortage and the junta’s blockade on aid” imposed in late 2023.
The ethnic army is also accused of using forced labor without compensation and seizing Rohingya-owned farmland, homes, livestock, fishing hauls, firewood, and even cemeteries.
The report said it is forcibly recruiting Rohingya people for military service, prompting many to flee to Bangladesh to evade conscription.
Any Rohingya suspected of working with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which fought for Myanmar military in Rakhine State, are severely mistreated by the AA, HRW said.
Since late 2023, when the AA launched a major anti-regime operation in Rakhine State and parts of neighboring Chin State, over 400,000 people have been internally displaced, with as many as 200,000 have fled to Bangladesh, the rights group said.
Bangladesh has registered 120,000 new arrivals in camps since May 2024, while tens of thousands more remain unregistered and recent arrivals have not been provided with official aid or support, it added.
Ironically, both the AA and Rohingya armed groups reportedly profit from the exodus by working with people smugglers.
HRW urged donors and influential governments to do much more to protect the Muslim-majority Rohingya people’s rights to safety and freedom, be it in Myanmar or Bangladesh.
The Irrawaddy has reached out to AA spokesman Khaing Thu Kha for comment but received no response.
The AA has seized 14 out of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa township in Chin State and is now advancing on the state capital Sittwe and the coastal township of Kyaukphyu, where mega Chinese development projects are located.
It has also expanded operation in neighboring Magwe, Bago, and Ayeyarwady Regions.
Its political wing, the United League of Arakan, enacted National Defense Emergency Provision in March to allow the AA to conscript adults aged up to 45 for military service.
