Express View: Rumbles in Rakhine

Close to 200 civilians, most of them from Myanmar’s marginalised Rohingya community, were killed earlier this week in an artillery and drone attack on the country’s Rakhine province. The survivors have blamed the Arakan Army, the armed wing of the Rakhine Group, one of the main ethnic outfits resisting Myanmar’s Tatmadaw regime, for the atrocity. The militant group has denied responsibility, offered condolences, and blamed the junta. However, by all accounts, the needle of suspicion of most observers points to the predominantly Buddhist Arakan Army. In the last six months, as the hold of the junta has weakened in large parts of Myanmar, the Arakan Army has replaced it in targeting the Rohingya. The Rakhine outfit has, reportedly, torched entire villages, at least three in the past six months. The last attack happened while a Rohingya group was trying to cross over into Bangladesh.

In the past seven decades, ethnic armed groups have fought variously for independence, autonomy and federalism in Myanmar. In the country’s latest spell under military rule, these groups have emerged as among the most serious challengers to the junta. The Arakan Army has been steadily carving out areas independent of the Tatmadaw. It claims to speak for the entire Rakhine region. However, unlike some other opponents of the military regime, it views federalism as a subterfuge for imposing the rule of the gun. In more than one way, it copies the practices of the Tatmadaw. For instance, like the military regime, the Arakan army and its close ally, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MDAA), use a combination of force and incentives — the promise of citizenship, for instance — to recruit the Rohingya. In April, some Rohingya conscripts to the Myanmar Army reportedly burnt down the homes of Buddhist families. The incident provoked another attack on the predominantly Muslim villages, and again, the Arakan Army denied responsibility.