Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.
About 5,000 internally displaced people have returned to the western Myanmar border town of Maungdaw after the insurgent group that captured it from the military finished securing the town, some of those going back told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
The return of the civilians to their homes will be widely seen as an indication of the stability that the Arakan Army, or AA, insurgent group has brought to the region on the border with Bangladesh that it captured last month.
It will also raise questions about prospects for the return to Myanmar of nearly a million members of the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority, who have fled across a border river to Bangladesh to escape persecution.
“The AA has given us permission to return to the town because they have cleared the bombs,” said one Maungdaw resident heading home.
“As far as we know, about 2,000 Rakhine people and 3,000 Muslims have arrived back.”
RFA tried to telephone AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha to ask about the situation in Maungdaw but he did not respond.
The AA, which now controls about 80% of Rakhine state, captured Maungdaw on Dec. 6 and began letting people return early this month after securing control of the area and the nearby border.
Residents said many homes had been destroyed in the fighting and people coming back needed food, clothing and help with rebuilding.
The AA draws its support from Rakhine state’s Buddhist majority and has been accused of committing rights abuses against Rohingya people, in particular when the AA was battling the military last year and accused the army of raising Rohingya militias to fight the AA.
The AA denied committing rights abuses.
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Questions over repatriation
During months of fighting last year, tens of thousands of people fled from Maungdaw, either across the border to Bangladesh or to safer parts of Myanmar.
The 5,000 who have returned home in recent days have come from other parts of Myanmar, not from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and the junta that seized power five years ago had been discussing repatriation of the Rohingya but made little progress, in part because members of the community said their safety could not be guaranteed under the military that targeted them in a 2017 crackdown that sent about 740,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
Although the AA’s takeover of northwest Rakhine state has rekindled hopes that the Rohingya might be able to go home, refugees in Bangladesh told RFA this month they remained uncertain – in part because it was not clear whether the AA would accommodate their return.
A major question is with whom should Bangladesh try to arrange a repatriation plan.
Bangladesh said last month it was urging Myanmar’s junta to “find a way” to settle the border dispute as it would “not engage” with the AA.
A week later, however, Bangladeshi security experts, former diplomats and scholars advised the Bangladesh government to engage with the AA directly. The status of the relationship remains uncertain.
The International Criminal Court applied for a warrant last month for the arrest of the junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, in connection with the 2017 violence. The United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar has also vowed to investigate abuses by the AA.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.