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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...r/news-story/14b4189a7f701936b458a6ec88a03ba6
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Full-blown insurgency on the horizon for Myanmar
Myanmar’s government calls the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army “extremist militant terrorists”. The group and its founder, Ata Ullah, say it is defending Muslim Rohingya, highlighting decades of repression they have endured in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most live along the border with Bangladesh.
The conflict is drawing the attention of foreign extremists. Al-Qa’ida’s central leadership urged Muslims to travel to Myanmar and support the Rohingya.
“In the coming year Myanmar will suffer from a full-blown insurgency unless it works with the international community to resolve an escalating conflict,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Indonesian Islamist groups are calling for volunteers to fight in Myanmar. In the southern Philippines, Islamist radicals are training militants from Southeast and South Asia for combat in Myanmar, an intelligence official there said.
Before the recent military purge, about one million Rohingya lived in Rakhine State. Myanmar’s government calls Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a throwback to British rule when migrants from the subcontinent began moving to what was then Myanmar. The Rohingya are denied citizenship as well as schooling and healthcare.
Army commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing recently called its campaign “unfinished business.”
Over the years, many Rohingya fled. Among them was the father of Mr Ullah, the ARSA founder, who made his way to Karachi, Pakistan, where Mr Ullah, now in his 40s, was born, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
The family later moved to Saudi Arabia, where Mr Ullah was educated in a madrasah, or Islamic school. In ARSA videos he speaks Arabic and the dialect used by Muslims in Rakhine State.
Then, in 2012, as tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists boiled over, Mr Ullah left Saudi Arabia.
Myanmar’s military says he attended a six-month guerilla-warfare training course with the Taliban in Pakistan. The International Crisis Group has interviewed ARSA members who said he might also have sought training in Libya.
When Mr Ullah returned to the border area of Bangladesh and Rakhine State around 2013, he began recruiting young fighters under the banner of Harakah al-Yaqin, or the Faith Movement, later to become ARSA, the military says.
Overseen by a committee of about 20 Rohingya exiles in Saudi Arabia, the group has adopted an Islamic slogan and taken a new insignia featuring two semi-automatic rifles crossed before a map of Rakhine State.
Security analysts estimate the group to number several hundred fighters. Initially they were equipped with a few old rifles, staves and knives.
As repression of the Rohingya worsened, ARSA grew more ambitious, carrying out deadly attacks in October last year.
Then, on August 17, Mr Ullah posted a video in which he accused Myanmar’s military of sealing off the town of Rathedaung and starving the mostly Muslim inhabitants. He warned the army of reprisals if it did not relent.
“Our primary objective is to liberate our people from the dehumanising oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes,” he said, flanked by four men cradling AK-47 rifles.
ARSA attacked more border outposts on August 25 — prompting military retaliation. In Hpa-an, five hours’ drive east of Yangon, influential Buddhist nationalist monk Ashin Wirathu used the August 25 attacks to demand that all Rohingya leave the country — a sentiment that is becoming common. “Terrorists go home,” he yelled.
His audience cheered and held up signs saying, “No Rohingya”.
The International Crisis Group said the August 25 attack was a calculated move. “(ARSA) knows that it is provoking the security forces into a heavy-handed military response, hoping that this will further alienate Rohingya communities, drive support for ARSA, and place the spotlight of the world back on military abuses in northern Rakhine State,” it said.
The Wall Street Journal
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Full-blown insurgency on the horizon for Myanmar
- James Hookway
- The Wall Street Journal
- 12:00AM September 15, 2017
Myanmar’s government calls the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army “extremist militant terrorists”. The group and its founder, Ata Ullah, say it is defending Muslim Rohingya, highlighting decades of repression they have endured in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most live along the border with Bangladesh.
The conflict is drawing the attention of foreign extremists. Al-Qa’ida’s central leadership urged Muslims to travel to Myanmar and support the Rohingya.
“In the coming year Myanmar will suffer from a full-blown insurgency unless it works with the international community to resolve an escalating conflict,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Indonesian Islamist groups are calling for volunteers to fight in Myanmar. In the southern Philippines, Islamist radicals are training militants from Southeast and South Asia for combat in Myanmar, an intelligence official there said.
Before the recent military purge, about one million Rohingya lived in Rakhine State. Myanmar’s government calls Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a throwback to British rule when migrants from the subcontinent began moving to what was then Myanmar. The Rohingya are denied citizenship as well as schooling and healthcare.
Army commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing recently called its campaign “unfinished business.”
Over the years, many Rohingya fled. Among them was the father of Mr Ullah, the ARSA founder, who made his way to Karachi, Pakistan, where Mr Ullah, now in his 40s, was born, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
The family later moved to Saudi Arabia, where Mr Ullah was educated in a madrasah, or Islamic school. In ARSA videos he speaks Arabic and the dialect used by Muslims in Rakhine State.
Then, in 2012, as tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists boiled over, Mr Ullah left Saudi Arabia.
Myanmar’s military says he attended a six-month guerilla-warfare training course with the Taliban in Pakistan. The International Crisis Group has interviewed ARSA members who said he might also have sought training in Libya.
When Mr Ullah returned to the border area of Bangladesh and Rakhine State around 2013, he began recruiting young fighters under the banner of Harakah al-Yaqin, or the Faith Movement, later to become ARSA, the military says.
Overseen by a committee of about 20 Rohingya exiles in Saudi Arabia, the group has adopted an Islamic slogan and taken a new insignia featuring two semi-automatic rifles crossed before a map of Rakhine State.
Security analysts estimate the group to number several hundred fighters. Initially they were equipped with a few old rifles, staves and knives.
As repression of the Rohingya worsened, ARSA grew more ambitious, carrying out deadly attacks in October last year.
Then, on August 17, Mr Ullah posted a video in which he accused Myanmar’s military of sealing off the town of Rathedaung and starving the mostly Muslim inhabitants. He warned the army of reprisals if it did not relent.
“Our primary objective is to liberate our people from the dehumanising oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes,” he said, flanked by four men cradling AK-47 rifles.
ARSA attacked more border outposts on August 25 — prompting military retaliation. In Hpa-an, five hours’ drive east of Yangon, influential Buddhist nationalist monk Ashin Wirathu used the August 25 attacks to demand that all Rohingya leave the country — a sentiment that is becoming common. “Terrorists go home,” he yelled.
His audience cheered and held up signs saying, “No Rohingya”.
The International Crisis Group said the August 25 attack was a calculated move. “(ARSA) knows that it is provoking the security forces into a heavy-handed military response, hoping that this will further alienate Rohingya communities, drive support for ARSA, and place the spotlight of the world back on military abuses in northern Rakhine State,” it said.
The Wall Street Journal
