The Arakan Rohingya National Council has called on the international community to take immediate and decisive action
Citing multiple recent incidents, including arbitrary detentions, torture, forced displacement, and alleged killings, the council has called on the international community to take immediate and decisive action.
“These are only a few incidents among numerous other atrocities that highlight the AA’s use of mass detention, economic coercion, arbitrary killings, and fear tactics to dominate and displace Rohingya populations,” the ARNC said in its official press release on Thursday.
In one such incident, nearly 60 Rohingya farmers were reportedly detained by the AA on July 25, while tending to their own farmland in Sein Hnyin Pyar and Tha Peik Taung villages of Buthidaung Township. According to the statement and as first reported by Arakan Now on Monday, no prior warning or justification was provided for the arrests.
“The detainees, including four members of a single family, were initially held in Kyauk Sar Taing, an AA-controlled village, before being transferred to an undisclosed location. Their whereabouts remain unknown, prompting fears of enforced disappearance.”
The ARNC press statement also highlighted the case of 22-year-old Arshad, a Rohingya youth detained by the AA for eight months. According to ARNC’s investigation, Arshad endured severe torture, including the administration of an injection that caused his flesh and bones to decompose. He died on July 26 after reaching Bangladesh.
In another incident, the body of 35-year-old Shunamia was found near a Rakhine village under suspicious circumstances after he was detained by the AA for nearly two weeks. The AA later claimed he had escaped custody, but community members were reportedly denied access to recover his body.
The ARNC paints a grim picture of life under AA control. One Buthidaung resident is quoted in the press release saying: “Most people are starving. Some even beg from others. There’s no work, no opportunities, no hope. We are forced to pay 50,000 MMK every month as labor and village guard fees. If we don’t pay, we’re punished.”
According to the ARNC, such conditions have led to an exodus of Rohingya from northern Arakan. A May 10 tragedy, in which two boats carrying over 500 Rohingya capsized while fleeing AA violence, left more than 400 people dead or missing. The survivors allege that the boats were deliberately pursued by AA forces, further fueling concerns about an orchestrated campaign of terror.
The ARNC revealed that a five-member Rohingya family that had voluntarily returned from Bangladesh was forced to flee back across the Naf River after the AA allegedly tortured family members and demanded a 5 million kyat extortion payment.
Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman confirmed the family’s return to Cox’s Bazar, attributing it to “torture and threats from the AA.”
The ARNC notes that since the AA assumed control of much of northern Rakhine, more than 2,500 Rohingya have been killed and over 150,000 forced to flee to Bangladesh.
In its statement, the ARNC urged the international community to:
-
Convene a special UN Security Council session to address violations of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) provisional measures
-
Recognize the Arakan Army’s culpability in genocide and crimes against humanity
-
Impose targeted sanctions on AA/ULA leadership
-
Launch a UN-mandated international investigation into crimes committed by both the AA and Myanmar’s military
-
Disrupt illicit arms and financing networks that enable such atrocities, among other demands.
