Inquiries in Myanmar’s Rakhine state by Amnesty International suggest that a Rohingya armed group may have been responsible for a massacre of Hindu women, men and children in Maungdaw township, as well as unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017.
Undoubtedly, accountability for and individual criminal responsibility for these atrocities as crucial as for the crimes carried out by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine state and elsewhere in Myanmar.
There is little doubt that terrorist and militant groups have taken advantage of the disfranchised Rohingya, including recruiting them as cannon fodder for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Karachi-based newspaper Ummat on September 28, 2001, Osama bin Laden said: “There are areas in all parts of the world where strong jihadi forces are present, from Indonesia to Algeria, from Kabul to Chechnya, from Bosnia to Sudan, and from Burma to Kashmir.”
In mentioning Burma (Myanmar), he may have been referring to a small group of Rohingya on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Today, it seems that many militant groups in this region have all been using a similar modus operandi of attacking police stations and posts, while ISIS-affiliated individuals and groups have been feverishly attacking police stations as far off as Kenya, Iraq and Libya.
The ISIS terror group’s official Al-Hayat Media Center released footage on January 26 calling on jihadis to destroy the kuffar (non-believers) in “Europe, America, Russia, Australia and elsewhere”. The English-language nasheed (religious hymn) in the video promises paradise in the afterlife for those who take up the cause.
Forced conversion of captive women into the jihadis’ Islamic ideologies and beliefs can be easily seen from the testimonies of Yazidi and other survivors.
The similarity of the modus operandi of these Islamist terrorists and criminals are not only of probative value in any criminal proceeding but also tend to show the influence of Islamic State’s ideology and methodology.
In an interview published in an issue of the Islamic State magazine Dabiq, Tamim Chowdhury (using the nom de guerre Abu Ibrahim Hanif), allegedly head of the organization’s Bangladesh wing, claimed that efforts to recruit in Bangladesh had gained “great momentum,” with many Muslims joining its ranks via a campaign in Bengali language on social media. He also claimed that jihad was planned in both the Bengal and other countries in the region.
Madrassas in Bangladesh have reportedly been hotbeds of Islamist militancy in the past and there have been claims this continues despite official crackdowns. One of the most significant links was unearthed in March 2009 when a madrassa in Bhola, southern Bangladesh, was raided by an anti-terrorist division, turning up 10 firearms, 2,500 rounds of ammunition and radical Islamic literature. Investigations revealed that the madrassa was funded by a British-registered charity Green Crescent, and that the founder, British citizen Dr Faisal Mostafa, had close links to the JMB and its current leader, Saidur Rahman.
Meanwhile, an Islamist politician, who was the founder of a madrassa in Malaysia, created untold havoc in a foreign sovereign independent member-state of the UN with his fellow terrorists associated with the Nusra Front.
South Asian and ASEAN states have all reaffirmed that terrorism is one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and that people responsible for committing terrorist acts, abuses or violations of international humanitarian law must be held accountable.
So, Asian states must continue to coordinate efforts with other sovereign independent nation-states to prevent and suppress terrorism.
Nyi Nyi Myo. Hello. You have every right to argue your opinion – that’s what this comment page is for. I’m not trying to say anything about when Buddhism arrived into the area that is now Myanmar or disputing that Buddhism has been there a long time. The Chittagong Hill Tracts hosted many diverse ethnic groups such as the Chakma (they were Buddhist), Marma, Mrung, Lushai, etc. They spoke 10 indigenous languages. The British tried to protect indigenous tribal people in these hilly areas, including what is now NE India – Nagaland, Manipur, etc. They regulated the area to keep out speculators or squatters from the plains. However, after Partition in 1947 the policy changed. The influx of Bengali settlers into the Chittagong Hill Tracts as well as discrimination, led to a full-blown insurgency from the mid-1970s until 1997. But would you like to give your opinion on citizenship? I think this is more of an issue than exactly when people arrived to Arakan/ Rakhine.
Abdul Rob I am sorry to argue your descriptions. 1000 years ago Chinese pilgrim monk recorded flourishing of Buddhism in southeast Bengal. Inscriptions will prove it again. Islam is a late comer, as well as Bengali tribes themselves. You better remember the presence of indigenous people of Chittagong Hill Tract. They form a barrier between Bengal and Rakhine. Lewin, authoritative about these areas, confirmed that Bengalis could not infiltrate the Hills until mid-19 century. British conquest of the area changes all these balances. Chittagonians entered Rakhine en masses. Before this, they entered three times, with the approval of natives, in 1497, 1600 and 1660.
Nyi Nyi Myo, you are correct in saying that those previous 2 dates have not been recognised as genocide. Regarding citizenship: see the above comment for you.
Nyi Nyi Myo. Thank you for your contribution. Some of the ancestors in present day Rakhine came from Northern India to Arakan about 5,000 years ago. About 1,000 years ago they had largely adopted Islam. This was well before the Burmese kings conquered the region in the 1780s. I agree there may also be some Bengali speaking people who infiltrated across the border. The border was very porous. In 1982 the Rohingya were deemed ‘foreign’ under the Burmese Citizen Law. There was no category for Rohingya. In the 2014 census, Rohingyas were forced to register as either ‘Bengalis’ or be excluded. One-third of the population of Rakhine were declared as ‘not enumerated’. To accept being ‘Bengali’ meant loss of any right to live in Myanmar, refusing meant any remaining ID cards were confiscated; those people ended up with no ID. You bring a very interesting point of where people would like to settle. What is your opinion on the entitlement of people to have citizenship in the country of their birth?
Bengali people tend to go back to Chittagong at the slightest hint of danger in Myanmar. The same happened in 1978 and 1991. None were genocide. They remained in Myanmar as non-citizens. History is too complex to recommend a simple solution: but rights of these people to settle in Chittagong should not be ruled out. They are certainly Chittagonian descendants.
Abdul Rob Grierson’s famous linguistic survey of India identified majority of Muslim people in northern Rakhine as ‘Bengali speaking’ against your suggestion of local dialect. And Britishes exactly recorded them as coming from Chittagong. In 1947 Bangladesh, as East Pakistan, got control of Chittagong Hill Tract. She is responsible for Chittagonian descendants. At least these people have rights to settle in Chittagong area. To settle there or go back to Myanmar is their own choice.
May Moe. I’m not talking about any particular incident or history when I wrote the above statement, but about the way people respond to other people’s posts. If you look at the Asia Times posts (not just this article), does anyone manage to convince anyone else who has a different opinion? It’s my observation of people’s replies to posts they disagree with. What do you think?
May Moe. Hardly. Threatening online gets nowhere. The 1-2 July 2016 terrorist attack in Dhaka, in which 20 hostages were kiled, most with having their throats slit, was instigated by Neo JMB trying to adhere to IS ideology. There have been decades of terrorist incidents in Bangladesh involving the groups I mentioned, with operatives trying to recruit the local population – sometimes even successfully using women & children. So I’m only stating the danger that the Rohingya may be recruited.
Ofcourse, you would think like that if you don’t know the centuries long history of Bengali fake Rohingyas slaughtering Hindus and Buddhists since WW2. It doesn’t justify by recent event. Myanmar know it, feel it and see it.
Abdul Rob Are you threating now?
Cris Tobal What it has to do with empires/kingdom. British did more than Burmese. Don’t talk nonsense. In modern day, your US government are doing more than that. Bombing, killing non-stop. Why don’t you call it genocide. We are defencing ourselves. Nothing wrong with that. Your govement and its allies want to stop chinese OBOR plans and using Myanmar as scapegoats. Before you blame other without knowing the deep rooted history and background, see yourself and your country first.
The problem is many people consider it not unreasonable to base arguments on opinion & emotion alone. We are not using knowledge to make informed judgments. Conspiracy theories & myths abound. Reasoning often starts with conclusions & works back to find "facts" that support what we already believe; claims that feel right, even if they have no basis in fact. People will continue to believe what they want to believe. Cogent argument does not sway the irrational but makes their attitudes more entrenched. So what do these posts on Asia Times do other than reinforce one’s prior beliefs?
Do not know what to say! No doubt thre were terrorist groups among the Rohingyas and they were carrying out several terrorist attack against non-Muslims, But should that justify the counter-massacre of the Rohingyas by the Mayanmari Military? And there are terrorists among Mulims in India but should that justify if the regime at the Centre to treat all muslim as terrorists? Or should they allow the Rohingya refugees to settle in India?
Hello Htay Qung, I’m sorry to hear your Facebook account was blocked. ARSA may be a big problem in the future. The danger is that elements from Neo JMB, ABT, Ansar al-Islam & Huji-B in Bangladesh will try to radicalised some of the Rohingya within the camps of Bangladesh (or those who have left the camps). There are plenty of desperate Rohingya who could be susceptible to radical ideas. If radicalised, they may try to seek revenge or think insurrection is the only solution, returning to Myanmar to pursue terrorist activities. The problem is, this danger may increase the longer the Rohingya remain at the camps. Furthermore, there are Rohingya in India who may be similarly influenced by, for example, IS or Lashkar-e-Taiba (from Pakistan). In a way, one could argue that pushing the Rohingya into Bangladesh has increased the potential terrorist threat rather than reduced it.