Ethnic minority insurgents in western Myanmar killed more than 100 junta troops and captured dozens in a three-day battle that has brought them close to victory in the region on the Bangladesh border, the force said.
The Arakan Army, or AA, has been fighting to take control of Rakhine state from the junta that seized power in a coup three and a half years ago. But fears have been mounting for the fate of the state’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority caught up in the fighting.
The AA, which draws its support from the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority, has been making significant gains against junta forces since abandoning a ceasefire late last year.
The latest battle took place in Maungdaw, on the border with Bangladesh, with the AA saying they were close to capturing all of the military’s positions in the town where more than 100 junta soldiers were killed from Saturday to Monday.
“Only a few junta defense positions remain,” the group said in a statement. “These junta areas will soon be under the complete control of the AA.”
“Dozens of military junta soldiers and junta-armed Muslim militias were captured during the fighting,” it said.
The AA gave no details about casualties on its side.
RFA contacted Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, and the AA’s spokesperson, Khaing Thu Kha, for information about the fighting but neither returned calls by the time of publication.
Residents told Radio Free Asia that as of Monday, the junta’s last stronghold in the township was Border Guard Post No. 5.
The junta’s defeat in Maungdaw would be a significant blow for the military which is facing setbacks at the hands of other, allied insurgent factions in several other parts of the country.
RELATED STORIES
[ Attacks against Rohingya now ‘worse than in 2017’Opens in new window ]
[ Rohingya refugees drown fleeing Myanmar’s war as concerns mountOpens in new window ]
[ Violence against the Rohingya explained Opens in new window ]
‘Serious rights violations’
Aid organizations have warned of dire conditions in Maungdaw with the fighting and junta blockades making the delivery of help impossible.
Since fighting surged in early August, about 23,000 civilians have fled from the town and surrounding villages, according to residents’ estimates, seeking safety deeper in Rakhine state, or over a border river in Bangladesh.
But as many as 200 Rohingya civilians hoping to flee to Bangladesh have been killed this month, most of them in attacks that survivors have blamed on the AA.
Rohingya Muslims have been denied citizenship and faced persecution in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for years. Some 750,000 of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on Muslim rebels.
This year, they have become caught up in the fighting between the AA and the junta, particularly after the junta began recruiting Rohingya to its ranks.
The AA has denied attacking Rohingya civilians but international rights group and U.N. officials have expressed growing alarm in recent days.
The International Crisis Group said on Tuesday there was evidence to justify those fears.
“There is significant evidence to back claims by Rohingya and human rights investigators that the Arakan Army is responsible for serious rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” the think tank said in a report.
The group Fortify Rights called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the AA's "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attacks on Rohingya fleeing Maungdaw, in particular on Aug. 5-6 when witnesses said scores of people were killed in bombings as they waited to cross the Naf River to Bangladesh.
“Arakan Army commanders found responsible for these attacks on civilians should be held criminally accountable,” the group’s chief, Matthew Smith, said in a statement.
Khin Maung, the director of the Rohingya Youth Association in Bangladesh’s Thinkhali Refugee Camp, said Rohingya facing severe hardships and being murdered by both sides.
“The Rohingya are the fodder between the two warring sides,” he said.
“I’m calling on the international community to provide enough aid for everyone in need.”
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.