According to Rohingya sources, the Myanmar military may have known about the attacks on police outposts and intentionally allowed it to happen on August 25, in order to serve their agenda of branding the Rohingya as terrorists.

Furthermore, they claimed that the army had begun harassing the Rohingya under the guise of searching for terrorists as early as in the last week of July, rather than after the attacks on August 25.

“Generally, the Rohingya need to face all check posts in our areas. But for an unknown reason, on that day (August 24) when so many ARSA fighters were moving frequently, they were not stopped,” said a Rohingya religious scholar, many of whose students were members of ARSA.

“History says they (the Myanmar military) know everything. If there is a bullet in a house, they know where it is located. As the military has plans to destroy all the Rohingya and they have informers among the Rohingya as well, they know everything. They also let Ata Ullah (chief commander of ARSA) conduct the attack (on August 25) so that they can show that the insurgency is a terrorist organisation and brand all Rohingya as such,” the religious scholar claimed, saying the military probably also knows where Ata Ullah lives and operates.

He added that the attack by ARSA seems to not have been the best way to fight the Myanmar military as, despite strong support for the insurgent group at the time, it only seems to have served the military’s agenda.

“Of course we need to stand up against the oppressive Myanmar government, but at the same time we also need to think about how the whole world is observing Muslims now and trying to tag us as terrorists. The Rohingya are also Muslims, and the Myanmar military was ready to destroy us. So what ARSA did, that is not the right way I think,” he said.

Though some of the older members of the Rohingya community are questioning the effectiveness of the attack in this manner, many of the younger members of the community remain in support of ARSA.

“When we receive the Ameer’s (Ata Ullah’s) instruction, we are ready to go and fight,” two youthful ARSA members said.

They added that many ARSA with similar levels of conviction were still waiting for orders from Ata Ullah in Myanmar.

Meanwhile, ARSA sources also said that the attack had originally been planned for August 26, but was expedited after accidental detonations of explosives on August 24.

“A group of our members, led by Senior Commander Mufti Jiyabur Rahman, were planting explosives for the planned attack at Gow Zon Dia (Alel Than Kyaw Ka Nyin Tan) on August 24. However, the bombs exploded ahead of time, killing seven ARSA members and injuring Commander Rahman,” an ARSA member said.

Local Rohingya people in Nurullah Fara, Bagguna and Sarfaddibill, all areas near Gow Zon Dia, confirmed hearing the bombs explode around 11pm on August 24.

ARSA members said that Ata Ullah subsequently issued an order through their dedicated Whatsapp groups, calling for the attacks to be brought forward to August 25, as the Myanmar military would have heard the explosions.

“The orders to attack came around 12am in some areas, and at 3:00am in others, as we have many different Whatsapp groups to make it more difficult to track us,” an ARSA source said.

Furthermore, they said they had received a hint that an operation was in the works even before the announcement, as they had observed an increase in the activity of their best trained and most informed members.

In addition, ARSA, on their official twitter account, had repeatedly called for the military to stop persecution of the Rohingya throughout August, after security forces had detained several members of the minority from Razar Bill (Auk Nan Yar) and Shoap Prang (Chut Pyin) of Rathedaung township of Myanmar in the last week of July.

The detained Rohingya, mostly young men, were never heard from again, Rohingya sources said.

Neyamutullah, a young Quran E Hafej from Chut Pyin who is now living in Balukhali camp, said: “The security forces suddenly started looking for ARSA people in our villages and barred villagers from going to market to buy essentials, alleging that we are all terrorists.”

Later, on August 4, the bodies of six people from the Buddhist Mro community were found with gunshot and machete wounds in the Mayu Mountain range near Maungdaw, and the military returned to Chut Pyin.

In this instance, when the military again came to detain members of the Rohingya minority from the village, Jolil, another former inhabitant of Chut Pyin, said the villagers stopped them and the military left empty handed.

However, Jolil added that security forces later returned and opened fire on the villagers, and there was a significant escalation of military presence in the area since the incident.

After this attack, on August 16, ARSA issued a statement on their twitter account, calling for the international community to put pressure on Myanmar to stop them from “confining the people of Rathedaung.”

As atrocities against the Rohingya people did not stop, ARSA members said they were compelled to carry out the attack on August 25. On the night, ARSA members attacked 30 security outposts in what they said was defensive action against the Myanmar military’s efforts to wipe out the Rohingya.

ARSA members also said they received widespread support from the Rohingya people on the night of the attack.

Earlier, on August 24, Rohingya activist Nay San lwin shared a number of videos on his Facebook page which showed the detention of people in Rauthedaung by Myanmar military, as well as many having received gunshot wounds from security forces.
 

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On Thursday September 7, I decided to go into Myanmar following the same routes the Rohingya were taking to escape to Bangladesh.

My journey started from Lomba Beel, a remote village in Howaikong union in Teknaf. From here, it takes an hour to walk to the Naf, where the three hour-long boat journey begins, ending with another hour spent trudging through the boggy coast of Myanmar.

Thousands of Rohingya swarmed the roads, desperate to find shelter. They had haunted expressions and downcast, fearful eyes, aching to tell their stories of being chased away from their lands. Everyone had a story to tell, to anyone who would listen.

The march from the Naf to Lomba Beel is a stern testimony to the horrors that have driven over 270,000 people over two weeks.

Nothing like a humanitarian crisis to get rich quick

On the banks of the Naf, the fleeing Rohingya arrived in groups of ten to twelve on small fishing boats. The boats shook tumultuously, even ten people too much for them.

But there were too many boats with well over a dozen passengers each. It comes as no surprise that there are so many Rohingya reported dead during the crossing.

They are operated by Bangladeshi boatmen who have found a lucrative niche in this corner of the world.

The boatmen charge Tk10,000 ($122) per head to ferry each Rohingya from Rakhine to Teknaf.

When asked about the exorbitant rates, a boatman glumly replied: “Our humanity compels us to help our fellow human beings. If we did not provide a route to escape, they would never be able to escape to Bangladesh.”

The humanity is there, but it does not come cheap. The sympathy of the boatmen doesn’t extend to offering the fleeing Rohingya a way across the river for free.

After a boat arrived with a dozen Rohingya, including a month-old baby, all from Buthidaung, I asked the boatman to take me to Myanmar. At first he refused, but the incentive of cash encouraged him to oblige my request.

The Rohingya refugee have but one aim in mind, to survive the onslaught they have left behind | Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

The boatman pushed away from the coast with all his might leveraged with the oar. He quickly rowed to get to the other side. I asked him what his hurry was. He replied it was to get into the Myanmar waters and away from Border Guard Bangladesh patrols.

As we cruised into international waters, a flotilla of boats, perhaps over a hundred boats – of the same size as the one I was on – filled the horizon. Thousands of Rohingya were huddled on these boats in their desperate attempt to escape the violence in Rakhine.

On my right, a BGB trooper stood like a sentinel atop an outpost, looking out over the flotilla.

After over 40 minutes of sailing, the boat slowly drifted into a canal flanked by border fences in Myanmar. The heart of the canal was crowded with empty boats, ready to ferry the Rohingya to Bangladesh, for a hefty price.
 

“You do not need to be worry about their Border Guard Police or the Tatmadaw here. This area is under the control of Harakat al-Yaqeen (the former name of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army),” my boatman tells me.

He points towards an outpost and tells me it used to belong to the Myanmar BGP until August 25. ARSA had captured it and driven the BGP away. I gazed at the concrete structure in awe. This is what sparked the wildfire that was consuming the lives of hundreds of thousands.
 

The much vaunted Myanmar border outpost now overlooks Rohingya fleeing the country | Adil Sakhawat/Dhaka Tribune
 

It was hard to tear my gaze away from the outpost. But as I did, I saw hundreds of people scrambling for the boats. In the light of the setting sun, the lines of hardship on their faces seemed to be getting more and more distinct.

A small bridge arched over the canal connects the two village tracts of Shilkhali and Kurkhali. Two men carrying staves stood guard over the bridge. The boatmen pointed towards them and whispered: “They are ARSA.”

The area is less of an insurgency camp and more of a getaway hub for fleeing refugees | Adil Sakhawat/Dhaka Tribune
 

These two haggard-looking men in shirts and lungi looked more like farmers or fishermen than armed insurgents. But the wooden sticks they carried would at least help them shepherd the Rohingya away from the violence, if not combat the armed forces outright.

It was an endless stream of people. Desperate people. Frightened people. A people without a land. For all their bonds to their homes in Rakhine, they were now forced to flee to Bangladesh.

My boatman introduced me to one Rashid Ahmed, an ARSA member, and took off, pleading his urgency to ferry another boatload of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh.
 

Where the army fears to tread

Rohingya refugees trudge across the mudplains to get to the shores of the Naf to embark on boats to take them to Bangladesh | Adil Sakhawat/Dhaka Tribune
 

Rashid told me that the bridge is a crucial point for ARSA and the Rohingya alike. The two villages it connected were controlled by ARSA. The canal was one of the major, if not the only, point of contact for the boatmen and the refugees.

I asked him how he felt about the conflict. He responded that the Rohingya had been oppressed by the Myanmar government for decades and the armed struggle was the only way they could resist. He hinted about another possible ARSA attack soon, but refused to reply to any further queries along these lines once he realised his slip.

I inquired about how far the Myanmar forces are. He confidently replied they were three kilometres away.

I walked two kilometres upriver along the border fence, and found no end to the stream of Rohingya refugees. It was exhausting, to even see so many people arrive at the shores ragged and weary.

After all the perils they had braved, too many people remained stranded because they could not afford the Tk10,000 to make the crossing. But at least they were safer here, in ARSA territory, than their villages which burned on the horizon.

My excursion to Myanmar was over. I sought a boat to take me back to Bangladesh.

As the sun began to set behind me, I could not help but wonder how many of the fleeing Rohingya will ever see another sunset in Rakhine. 

Republished with permission from Dhaka Tribune.
 

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