While Myanmar’s emergent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claims it’s like other ethnic armed groups fighting for self-determination across the country and should not be branded as a terrorist organization, the realities on the ground tell a different tale.
ARSA represents an entirely new type of insurgency, one which the Myanmar military has demonstrated it is wholly ill-equipped to combat. Other ethnic resistance armies in Myanmar, such as those from the Kachin, Shan, Karen or Mon, dress in military uniforms with the names of their respective groups prominently displayed and badges showing their ranks.
ARSA’s Muslim fighters, by contrast, mingle with villagers and wear civilian clothes. After their low-grade attacks on security force targets, ARSA insurgents are known to retreat across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, where people speak the same language and adhere to the same religious beliefs. In that sense, ARSA’s tactics more resemble the Muslim insurgents in southernmost Thailand, adjacent to Malaysia, than Myanmar’s other ethnic armies.
Without sharing the ideological doctrines of Nepal’s and India’s Maoists, ARSA appears to have aped their fighting techniques. Rather than facing Myanmar’s army in battles and ambushes, ARSA, like Nepalese Maoist insurgents did when they were active and the Indian Naxalites do today, prefers to mobilize hundreds of unarmed villagers to attack state positions in the middle of the night.
Defenders of the targeted state outpost, usually small and isolated, get the impression that they are being surrounded by a much bigger fighting force. The relatively small attacking party then moves in, kills the intimidated soldiers or police and escapes with their weapons. It’s a style of attack familiar in South Asia but altogether foreign until now in Myanmar.
After the attacks in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State on August 25, the Myanmar military claimed to have killed 400 insurgents. Most likely, however, nearly all of them would have been conscripted villagers. If that many ARSA fighters had been killed, almost the entire organization would have been wiped out, according to security analysts monitoring the group.
The same analysts say the strength of the organization is much less than what the rebels as well as Myanmar military authorities claim. According to insiders, ARSA’s strength is in the hundreds rather than thousands, with the total number of active trained combatants likely not exceeding 500.
While ARSA’s military capacities are limited, its propaganda machine is wide-reaching, with statements issued on Twitter and other social media platforms in surprisingly fluent English and in a language that aims to make the insurgent group appear moderate and reasonable.
In one of its first announcements on September 9, ARSA declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire to enable aid groups to reach Rohingya refugees and avert a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Aid groups have estimated over 400,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since ARSA’s August 25 attacks and the military’s brutal counteractions.
It was a bold declaration for a lightly armed group that is by no means a proper organized army. Many of the group’s attacks have been launched with machetes. At the same time, ARSA has failed to explain how attacks by their few and poorly equipped cadres facing the might of the Myanmar army could be seen as acts taken to ”protect the Rohingya.”
If reports from the area received by Asia Times are accurate, local people are furious with ARSA for giving the Myanmar military an excuse to “ethnically cleanse” the area of Rohingya and other minority groups.
On September 14, ARSA said it wanted to “make it clear” that it had no “links to Al Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Lashkar-e-Taiba or any transnational terrorist group.” ARSA also wanted “it to be known by all states that it is prepared to work with security agencies to intercept and prevent terrorists from entering [Rakhine] and making a bad situation worse.”
Security analysts and terrorism experts are not convinced considering the group’s clear links to foreign extremist groups, including in Pakistan. ARSA’s leader, Ataullah abu Ammar Junjuni, also known as Hafiz Tohar, was born in Karachi and received madrassa education in Saudi Arabia.
There are hundreds of thousands of first, second and third generation Rohingya living in Orangi, Korangi, Landhi and other impoverished suburbs of Karachi. Nearly all of them are stateless, although they have lived in Pakistan for years and most by now were born there. The areas where they live are long-time hotbeds of extremist activity, with some known to have been recruited to fight in the wars in Afghanistan.
ARSA was initially known as Harakah al-Yaqin, or “the faith movement.” The moniker had clear religious connotations and notably did not contain the words Rohingya or Arakan (Rakhine). It was only last year it started to use the more ethnically oriented name ARSA, perhaps in an attempt to distance itself from the radical milieu in which the movement was born.
According to intelligence analysts, its mentor is Abdus Qadoos Burmi, another Pakistani of Rohingya descent. Likewise based in Karachi, he has appeared in videos spread on social media calling for ‘jihad’ in Myanmar.
Abdus Qadoos has well-documented links to Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the Army of the Righteous, one of South Asia’s largest Islamic terrorist organizations that operates mainly from Pakistan. The group was founded in 1987 in Afghanistan with funding from now deceased Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Abdus Qadoos has even appeared in meetings together with Lashkar-e-Taiba supremo Hafiz Mohammed Syed.
ARSA’s second-ranking leader is a shadowy man known only as “Sharif” who comes from Chittagong in southwestern Bangladesh and does not appear in any of the group’s propaganda videos. He reportedly speaks with an Urdu language accent, the official language of Pakistan.
ARSA itself may have been able to recruit angry and desperate young men among the Rohingya in Rakhine state and refugee camps in Bangladesh, but, according to security analysts, there also 150 odd foreigners among their rank.
Most of them are from Bangladesh, eight to ten come from Pakistan with smaller groups from Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand. Two are reportedly from Uzbekistan. Trainings held in the Myanmar-Bangladesh border areas have been carried out in part by older veterans of the Afghan wars, the security analysts say.
It is now clear that the simultaneous attacks on August 25 required meticulous planning. In the months before the attacks, as many as 50 people, Muslims as well as Buddhists suspected of serving as government informants, had their throats slit or were hacked to death in order to deprive the Myanmar military of intelligence in the area.
The timing of the attacks was hardly a coincidence. On August 24, the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state, chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and commissioned by the Myanmar government, released its report suggesting peaceful means to end the conflict in the area.
Under the current chaotic and violent situation it will be difficult to revive its proposals, leaving the road open for more destabilizing militant activities.
Videos released by Islamist groups in Indonesia show groups of young men undergoing military training in Aceh, northern Sumatra, in preparation for a jihad in Rakhine state. Massive demonstrations in support of the Rohingya have been held throughout Bangladesh, where the influx of refugees has quickly become a domestic political issue pitting the ruling Awami League against a fundamentalist-backed opposition.
Given the Myanmar military’s ferocious reaction to ARSA’s first clash with security forces last October 9, an exchange and subsequent “clearance operation” which forced as many as 70,000 refugees into Bangladesh, analysts consider it inconceivable that the group did not anticipate an even stronger response to the more widespread attacks of August 25.
If the group’s goal was to “protect the Rohingyas”, as ARSA has claimed, its attacks backfired horribly. But the militants must have calculated the wider benefits that could be derived from the blowback. The international publicity surrounding the Rohingya’s plight has been unprecedented, promising new and potentially lucrative support from the Arab and Muslim worlds and more angry young men to recruit.
But the victims of this cynical game are the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and others who have been forced from their destroyed homes and now languish in squalid camps in Bangladesh or the inhospitable no man’s land along the two countries’ increasingly hellish border.
New Land Robbers for the Dark Ages, Not Refugees
——————————————————————
(Dear readers, this content was posted three years
ago on my wall. Recently you may have known about
the conflict in northern Rakhine State. The Bengali
terrorists attacked 30 police outs and Rakhine
villages.
How are the Bengalis called "terrorists"? They kill
not only security forces with arms but also innocent
indigenous people without arms even children. So
as a Myanmar citizen, I would like to explain to you
where Bengalis so called themselves Rohngya
came from. Thank you so much for reading.)
We see some people concerned with UNOs, INGOs,
regional organizations and media pointing an accusing
finger at Myanmar government in respect of Bengalis
boatpeople [so called Rohingya]. Why? How much
do they know about those Bengalis?
During the British rule in Myanmar, British authorities
took them from Bangladesh to our land as they could
very cheaply be hired to work as farm labors. Then
they remain as peasants here. That’s why we insist
that they are not Myanmar or our native people.
They are just migrant people named Bengalis after
their native Bangladesh.
Myanmar authorities have recently rescued 208
Bengalis adrift on a vessel at sea, 200 of them are
from Bangladesh and the rest 8 Bengalis from
Myanmar. Those 200 Bengalis admitted that they
are from Bangladesh. Even so, some of Bengalis
at DVB debate here claimed that those Bengalis
were from Myanmar. The actual number of Bengalis
from Myanmar on that boat is eight people.
As mentioned above, the native of Bengalis is
Bangladesh. They reached Myanmar as farm
labours in the British days and later some Bengalis
illegally migrated from Bangladesh to Myanmar
in search of work. Actually they are foreigners.
However, Myanmar government recognizes some
Bengalis as citizen in accordance with Burma
Citizenship Law (1982). Let me quote Section
43 from that Law. The provisions of Section
43 are as follows;
“43. The following persons, born in or outside
the State, from the date this law comes into
force, may also apply for naturalized citizenship: –
(a) persons born of parents, one of whom is a
citizen and the other a foreigner;
(b) persons born of parents, one of whom is
an associate citizen and the other a naturalized
citizen;
(c) persons born of parents, one of whom is
an associate citizen and the other a foreigner;
(d) persons born of parents, both of whom are
naturalized citizens;
(e) persons born of parents, one of whom is a
naturalized citizen and the other a foreigner.”
We don’t understand why they claim their citizenship
even though any foreigner can be entitled to
citizenship in Myanmar in accordance with the law?
Let me say again, their first generation was migrant
workers taken by British authorities and the last
generation is illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
According to Burma Citizenship Law (1982),
nationals such as Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin,
Burman, Mon, Rakhine, Shan and ethnic groups
as have settled in any of the territories included
within the State as their permanent home from
a period prior to 1185 B. E, 1823 A.D, are
citizens by birth. Accordingly, Bengalis may be
citizens here, but not nationals or natives.
In fact they try to take advantage of Myanmar’s
political reforms.
I think we should not rule out why Bangladesh
government lets their citizens go into sea without
enough provisions. It is clear why. Bangladesh,
a country frequently affected by storm almost
every year, which faces population explosion,
wants to create a new Islamist State. Accordingly,
Bangladesh authorities are believed to have
conspiracy to make many of their citizens migrate
from their native land to Myanmar’s somehow.
Every muslims aren’t terrorist but every terrorist are muslims
Enemy of Democracy and the World Community"
————————————————————
Under cover of darkness, Many Bengali terrorist
groups began their approach march to the police
outputs in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships
of Rakhine State in Myanmar on 25 August 2017.
Then they severely attacked some thirty police
outputs there.
It’s jihad in Allah’s way they have made as they
attacked not only security forces but also innocent
people or non-Muslims who live in the area.
Some of security men and indigenous people were
killed. This is not the first attack they have made.
On October 2016, they also attacked some police
outputs including Head Quarters of Border Guard
Police there.
It is three days that the Bengali terrorists have
been attacking all human beings, non-Muslim
there even children. Recently they killed six Hindu
family members near Maungdaw.
Why do they keep doing act of terrorism?
To be frank, it is for years that they have been
endeavoring to set up an Islamic country there.
Bengalis in Myanmar are illegal migrants from
Bangladesh. But they claim Myanmar’s citizenship
all time. In fact they will not have the satisfaction
of being entitled to citizenship.
They have had the plan to claim their national
race like other ethnic minorities in Myanmar.
Some of Islamist countries including Saudi Arabia
in Middle East secretly formed some groups to
support Bengalis’ movement.
Sometimes they used media and diplomats to
help Bengalis including INGOs.
Bengalis may become citizens in accordance with
the law, but they will never be national race or
indigenous people wherever they have for long
lived here because they came from Bangladesh.
Bengalis were taken from Bangladesh to Myanmar
by the British authorities during their administration
as they could be hired on the cheap as farm
workers at that time.
Some Bengalis claimed that they served as soldiers
for Rakhnie kings. Had they been entitled to national
race of Myanmar in the pretext of their service for
the kings, the French and the Armenian who served
for Myanmar kings would have had the same rights.
The next interesting thing is Bangladesh’s attitude.
Everyone knows Bengalis come from Bangladesh.
They are of same blood. They speak same language
apart from dialectal differences from one area of
Bangladesh to another. Their faith is the same.
Their appearance is identical to Bangladeshis not
Myanmar.
Even so, Bangladeshi can look on their trouble.
Bangladesh suffering from population explosion
is a country affected by storm almost every year.
They [Bangladeshi] might think that they could
create a new country if they invested human
resources in Myanmar neglecting their miseries.
Driving migrant Bengalis into Myanmar might be
a project.
As the first phase of the project, illegal migrant
Bengalis will attempt to be entitled to Myanmar’s
citizenship. In doing so, some Islamist countries
including OIC will provide them with cash they
need. Meanwhile, they are to create some riots
in the pretext of being oppressed by the Buddhist
– majority in our country so that their issue would
become the focus of international attention. We
can see who were involved in the outbreaks of
riots and violence in the past two years.
For the second phase, being citizens, they will,
on the grounds of human rights, go on claiming
national race to which only Myanmar national
ethnic peoples are entitled. They will say they
have the same rights like other national races.
Besides, they will ask the government to recognize
them as Rohingya saying they can have their
identity according to their will. Their supporters
from Middle East will spend much money on
facilitating their movement. You should not
underestimate them. It is believed that they
can send their cells to some organizations
such as UNOs, INGOs, Media and business
groups. It is heard that in some UNOs, action
Terrorists are all over the world. What should we do with them? America, Europe, Asia, Middle East. South east Asia. All of us are in danger.
thank you for the truth news!
Totally agree
Thanks a lot,Bertil lintner for helping us writing a true article in fighting on all false news from Muslim world.
Not true at all. We do know our situation and will never listen to all fake news this time. Terrorist behind all the scene. Not insurgents. We will stand with our leaders this time and will fight to the end. Please do not send me such news next time and I have no time at all to argue with all meaningless people.
Thank you for this, a welcome relief from other biased reporting.
No country should aid these terrorists pretending to be poor victimised Rohingyas. Cutting off their ‘oxygen’ by way of money and aslyum, is the only way to destroy them. The world has had enough trouble with radical Islamic groups. Worst off is the innocent Muslims who suffer on account of such terror outfits.
1) Thanks to all the comments coming out of Myanmar. The truth is finally coming out. To those who follow Asia Times, my comments may be a familiar sight. Now I no longer find myself as "a lone wolf howling in the wilderness". Brethrens from Myanmar – keep your comments coming and let your voice be heard in all media – FB, Twitter, comments on news media, etc…
2) I have enjoyed Bertil Lintner’s contributions to news since he was Burma correspondent of the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review. "Bangladesh: Breeding ground for Muslim terror" published Sep 21, 2002 is one of his many memorable first hand contributions. In the current article Bertil Lintner made a very important point – "ideological doctrine … mobilize hundreds of unarmed villagers to attack state positions in the middle of the night". The ideological doctrine in this case is Islam – where muslim mobs go into a frenzy attacking anything or anyone considered "insult to islam" or "of significant symbol of infidels". The case 2012 Ramu attacks on Buddhist monasteries, shrines, and houses of Buddhist inhabitants in Bangladesh by coordinated muslim mobs is a classic use of mob to incite terror. Curretly, Buddhists in Bangladesh are in a virtual "house arrest" unable to venture out or make a living. The low level jihad continues in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) where Buddhists are killed and raped almost daily on a lesser scale so that they go unnoticed in the media and these attacks are often done with complicity of Bangladesh security forces and local government.
3) Now, what everyone need to ask is – Why seemingly innocent but devout muslims suddenly join muslim mobs and turn jihadists to kill Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Yazidis, and muslims of other sects, etc. – pretty much all over the world?
The answer lies in the very foundation of Islam. Religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Judaism, etc.. have a common principle of humanity and morality (e.g. Thou shall not kill; Love thy neighbor, etc.) . On the other hand, Islam can best be described as a dictatorial theocracy for world domination by any and all means as possible (including warfare, deception, infiltration i.e. jihad) until there are no other God but Allah. IN ISLAMIC THEOCRACY, THE GREATEST CRIME IS TO BE A NON MUSLIMS (KAFIR OR INFIDEL), AND THEY (KAFIRS) MUST BE KILLED, MAIMED, RAPED AND ENSLAVED WITH IMPUNITY TO GLORIFY THEIR BLOODTHIRSTY GOD "ALLAH" (KORAN 9:5 COMMANDS "KILL THE INFIDEL WHEREVER YOU FIND THEM…). Thus, when a muslim behead or kills kafir or set off a suicide bomb, they always shout "Allah o Akbar" signifying that the muslim has sacrificed kafir(s) for the glory of Allah; very similar to what prehistoric people living under a volcano performed human sacrifices when the volcano erupts. The only difference is that muslims themselves are enslaved at all times by an imaginary angry god "Allah" of their own making. According to islamic "holy books" it is blasphemy to critically examine the theology of Islam and apostasy for a muslim to leave Islam which are both punishable by death. The only freedom of belief in Islam is the freedom to become Muslim. Thus, there is no way for a muslim to reform or assimilate and advance forward or freeing themselves towards a common humanity and morality.
Learn from people who have left Islam but who were devout Muslims until they start examining the core of Islam. Their insight and warnings about Islam, which most muslims are secretive about, are particularly eye opening, frightening, insightful, and more. Ali Sina, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Hassan Mosan Yousef, Nonie Darwish, Brigitte Gabriel, Wafi Sultan, Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq are all highly recommend – read their books, watch their youtube videos, see their websites….. then read Koran (where all verses referring to peace have been abrogated) and Hadith and you will undoubtedly come to the conclusion that "ISLAM IS NOT A RELIGION".
Nilar Win if your govt choose that path then entire rakhine state will be shoved in the back of HLiang
Very stupid guy! Read more about burmese history. India and myanmar had the very close relationship since from the british period to till now.
ha ha ! Very shameful post.
Well written and comprehensive, an easy read for those than are new to the topic or not suf. informed
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=305865389883168&id=301572613645779
Nationality of identity could not be given by no one. It’s birth right. You could change your name if you don’t like name given by parent. It’s personal choice.
"And the truth will set you free!" Be informed of truth and keep away from bias reports and political propaganda. Truth must be declared even if it means being unpopular. So many journalists afraid of being unpopular, have refrained from publishing truth; instead they prefer to run in a pack like dogs in a fox chase. Behind every great story is truth, and it takes an honest journalist who will seek and publish nothing but truth. Long live "Truth."
Love this reporter!
What a load of shit. Did you really thing the whole world is lieing? And if what you are saying is true then why dont they let the reporters and journalists go into the country? Also why is the burmese government not letting the red cross in to the country to help the people?. So enough with your bullshit. Be a human. So many lies are writen here.
We are standing on truth doing and truth news – we have Great Great leader
( Aung San Suu Kyi ) she is continue doing best of the best for our Myanmar public , we don’t accepted fake news and we don’t listen bla bla bla fake news
thank you so much for Truth news Mr Lashkar E Taiba ,
Myanmar born Gorkha , from Bangkok Thailand .
There is conclusive evidence the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have employed terrorist tactics on Burmese soldiers and police. Numbering in the mere hundreds, their attacks and strategies more resemble the Muslim insurgents in southernmost Thailand than Myanmar’s other ethnic armies. And there is growing evidence ARSA has links to Islamic terrorist organizations in Pakistan and the Middle East.
If reports from the area are accurate, local people are furious with ARSA for giving the Myanmar military an excuse to “ethnically cleanse” the area of Rohingya and other minority groups. While many Burmese people approve of the actions of their military, it is the violent actions of 1% which that has lead to the 99% being attacked and demonized.
The human mind has a tendency to categorize people into social groups. And often these social groups can create an “Us vs. Them” mentality toward people who may be different than us in some way, whether it’s race, gender, age, nationality, culture, religion, or socioeconomic status. Regrettably, the Rohingya crisis has emerged as a religious and national conflict perceived as Burmese Buddhists vs. non-Burmese Muslims. Yet this Us vs. Them mentality cannot be found in any of the teachings of Buddhist Theravada tradition.
Thiri Tun Tauk
DNA, food, language and culture are Bengali and not Burmese? You are a Burmese racist.
These were the arguments by wjivh the Nazis excluded Jews from Germany.
I have never heard of it, the information in the website you referred is totally wrong. You can not quote dodgy information to make bad impression on Myanmar. If you believe that "Burmese kill 5 million indian hindus in 1930s british period" you are insane.
https://youtu.be/YUE0GX2fd4o
https://scroll.in/article/850199/forgotten-history-like-the-rohingya-indians-too-were-once-driven-out-of-myanmar
Thi Han https://scroll.in/article/850199/forgotten-history-like-the-rohingya-indians-too-were-once-driven-out-of-myanmar
Why on earth are muslims not able to live happily with any community. This is a problem across the world. All right thinking muslims should introspect and dpesk up. Clearly state live as minorities or go to islamic countries. Keeping mum and coming up with ridiculous conspiracy theories not an answer.
An extremely one sided report having no element of direct version of people who fled the area. Why and who forced hundreds of thousands to flee from their homes?
Rohingyas have organised a number of militant outfits e.g. Al Yakin, Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and ARSA to fight for partition of Burma (Myanmar) and creation of Islamic State of Rakhine. Hindus must support Aung San Su Kyi whole heartedly in her resove to prevemt [artition of Burma by Islamic Ummah. There is a report about the busting of an IS-JMB-Rohiongya plot to kill Bangladesh P M Sheikh Haseena. It is a diabolical plot to to create a caliphate which will comprise Rakhine and Bangladesh. Indians don’t knolw that Rohingya militants have killed nearly 200 Hindus and captured therir womenfolk as sex slaves. Praveen Swami wrote in Indian Express that nearly 80 Hindus were killed and their womenfolk violated. Rohingyas consider Hindus as associates of Buddhists because the 2 religions are closely related in cosmic ethos and vision..A jihad has been in progress since 1951 for partitioning Burma.
Ram Ohri
Htun Hlaing This is a very fearsome situation. Your words are echoing what is happening in Assam from the Bangladeshi invader terrorists. No terrorist plan should be allowed to get more mileage and support under the garb of human rights. Ethnic Burmese have right over their land. That is as simple as that.
I do agree this article.
This is all bullshit ,the author mat be an I ndian who always write bulshit without cross the real truth
Thiri Tun Tauk, among your factual errors: the Rohingya were established in Burma before colonial times, as acknowledged recently by Aung San Suu Kyi.
C’mon You mean that the British stood by and allowed the killings. India was under the British then and it would have been very irresponsible of the British. More realistically you are talking nonsense or purposely lying.
The Myanmar allows these People to get a Bengali citizen card, and that tribe refuses it, claiming Rohingya specificity, hereinafter their religion, they discriminate themselves acting that way. The global New Order media agenda being to turn the invaders, bellicose terrorists and proselyte to victims, the Rohingya succeed to be called that way ; first step of their master plan to get their own nation. Knowing what they do in my Homeland, France, bombing, beheading, crashing, stabbing, killing 240 civilians (officially) within past 5 years, praying in streets, assaulting our women who don’t wear their medieval fashion clothing, everyone shall back up Myanmar government decisions. Some people respect and therefore deserve only dictatorship, and 57 countries where that tribe has majority illustrate it finely. Our democratic rules, mind openness, generosity, are only considered by them as evidence of our "decadence". As per a rottweiler you would gently allow to eat directly out of your own plate. Watch out !
Martin Turner nope.. I am from Shan ethnic group living eastern part of Myanmar. I’ve never heard of the word Rohinga in over 130 ethnic groups of Myanmar in my entire life time before this happened. ????I’ve friends from Rakhine who also from rare ethnic group called Dinet and a Muslim. She’s happily living there in harmony as a high school teacher and post her makeup tips on Facebook as well. ???? Also Hilton hotel is full of booking at Napali in Rakhine (FYI, last Sunday my friends went Rakhine for a visit).
One of balanced reports about Rakhine situation, unlike those putilzer sht head Guardian, BBC writers who will terrorists supporting horros fake stories after stories.