JOINT STATEMENT BY 195 REVOLUTIONARY FORCES AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS ON THE SITUATION IN NORTHERN RAKHINE
Calling on organizations and individuals in Rakhine and across the country to immediately stop exploiting the lives, property, and image of the oppressed Rohingya for political and military use
The terrorist military junta has consistently oppressed and committed torture, killings, genocide, and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya. Currently, with forced conscription orders, the military junta is forcibly using Rohingya as human shields and soldiers to perpetrate violence on its behalf.
In a significant incident, almost 100 Rohingya, who were forcibly abducted and taken into the fighting by the military during the battle with the Arakan Army (AA), were massacred in Angumaw, Rathedaung Township, Rakhine region, in March of this year.
In addition, the military junta is currently forcing Rohingya from the IDP camps in Buthidaung and Sittwe to protest the AA and is inciting a public misperception of Rohingya to cause further ethnic conflict.
In April of this year, the terrorist military junta used Rohingya who had been forcibly recruited under its conscription orders to burn down more than 200 homes of ethnic Rakhine people in Buthidaung Town, Rakhine region, to intentionally create an ethnic conflict between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities.
In addition to the fact that the military junta is working to create such ethnic conflict, the revolutionary forces and the public need to be especially prudent, aware, and understanding that the Rohingya people—who do not have a choice and face unparalleled hardships, having been locked down for many years—are being forced into patterns that the terrorist military junta wants to portray.
In this situation, it has been observed that organizations, media, and individuals are repeatedly using hate speech such as “Bengali terrorists” and “Muslim terrorists” to describe the Rohingya, as well as portraying all Rohingya as collaborating with the military junta. Such situations of indiscriminate accusations against an entire ethnic group and the religion they believe in are fomenting ethnic and religious conflict and increasing hatred among the public.