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Thursday, August 31, 2017

Rohingya militant group warns of 'war' against Myanmar Government; thousands flee clashes


Updated
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A militant group has warned of a "war" against the Myanmar Government, taking responsibility for attacks on police stations that have left more than 100 people dead.

On Friday, militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claims to be fighting for the rights of Rohingya people — a Muslim minority long-persecuted by Myanmar's Buddhist majority — attacked about 25 police posts in the country's west.

A new video posted on social media showed the group's leader Abu Ammar Jununi flanked by two masked men with assault rifles and saying the recent violence was in response to harassment from Myanmar's security forces and blockades of Rohingya villages.

He called on international aid groups to stay and help, but the United Nations is evacuating all non-essential staff for the region.
On Monday, Myanmar security forces reportedly intensified operations against the Rohingya insurgents, according to local authorities, in what is being treated as the worst violence involving Myanmar's Muslim minority in five years.

The fighting has killed 104 people and led to the flight of large numbers of Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist civilians from the northern part of Rakhine state.

The violence marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since October, when a similar but much smaller series of Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

The treatment of about 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has condemned the attacks and commended the security forces.

The Nobel peace laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out on behalf of the long-persecuted minority, and of defending the army's sweep after the October attacks.

'If ARSA is active, the situation will be tense': police

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The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.
"Now the situation is not good," police officer Tun Hlaing said, referring to the Rohingya insurgents.
"Everything depends on them — if they're active, the situation will be tense."
Rohingya villagers make up the majority in the area.

The latest unrest has again exposed the dark side of Myanmar's historic opening: an unleashing of ethnic hatred that was suppressed during 49 years of strict military rule that ended when the generals stepped back from direct rule in 2011.
The following year, hundreds of people, most of them Rohingya, were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine state and about 140,000 people were displaced.

ABC/Reuters

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