Experts sound alarm on new Rohingya crackdown in Myanmar

FILE - Rohingya Muslim children refugees, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait squashed against each other to receive food handouts distributed to children and women by a Turkish aid agency, Oct. 21, 2017, at Thaingkhali refugee camp, Bangladesh. - Photo: AP file

COX'S BAZAR, (Bangladesh): The persecuted and stateless Rohingya minority is caught in a new violent crackdown in Myanmar, with children among those killed, two reports from influential expert groups warned Tuesday (Aug 27).

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

But around 600,000 remain in the country's western state of Rakhine, where they have found themselves in the middle of an escalating conflict between junta-run Myanmar's armed forces and the rebel Arakan Army.

The situation has been inflamed further by the Myanmar military's forced recruitment of Rohingya to battle the rebel group, including reportedly more than 2,000 from Bangladeshi refugee camps.

Watchdog Fortify Rights said its interviews with eyewitnesses established that the Arakan Army had this month launched a drone and mortar attack on Rohingya civilians.

The bombardment killed more than 100 Rohingya men, women and children on the border with Bangladesh, Fortify Rights said.

"The fact that the AA first sent a surveillance drone before launching the massive attack shows clearly that the group intentionally attacked a civilian crowd," the group said.

The Arakan Army denied responsibility for the assault in an August 7 statement and again through its political wing 10 days later.

The International Crisis Group think tank said that many Rohingya on the ground blamed the rebel group for the attack, along with other acts of violence and persecution.

"The combination of words and alleged deeds have fuelled polarisation and driven greater numbers of Rohingya to volunteer for the military or armed groups," it said.

- 'Moral duty' -

The reports come days after the UN Human Rights Office said it had information showing the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army had both committed serious abuses against the Rohingya.

They included extrajudicial killings, abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of villages and arson attacks.

"Recurrence of the crimes and horrors of the past must be prevented as a moral duty," UN rights chief Volker Turk said.

The Arakan Army, which says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in Myanmar, has made steady territorial advances this year near the Bangladeshi border.

Bangladesh is home to around one million Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled the 2017 crackdown.

Further complicating the security situation for Rohingya there was the ousting this month of autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India.

Hasina was replaced by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading an interim government ahead of expected elections.

He pledged to continue to support Bangladesh's population of Rohingya refugees, but said his country needed "the sustained efforts of the international community" to do so. - AFP