Rohingya fight stalls

Militants call ceasefire as 300,000 flee Myanmar

ROHINGYA militants, whose raids in Myanmar’s Rakhine State sparked an army crackdown which has seen nearly 300,000 of the Muslim minority flee to Bangladesh, yesterday declared an immediate unilateral one-month ceasefire.

“The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” it said on its Twitter handle @ARSA_Official, adding it was to allow for humanitarian aid to reach the battered region.

The group urged “all humanitarian actors” to resume aid delivery to “all victims of humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background” during the ceasefire period which runs until October 9.

It urged Myanmar to “reciprocate this humanitarian pause” in fighting, with huge numbers of displaced moving across Rakhine. Many are believed to be in desperate need of help after over two weeks of violence.

Its Twitter page is often the first to publish ARSA statements or direct readers to videos.

Yesterday’s statement was signed by Ata Ullah, who purportedly commands the militants from jungle bases straddling the BangladeshMyanmar border.

Better-known locally as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement), ARSA launched co-ordinated raids using hundreds of militants on August 25 on about 30 police posts and state offices in northern Rakhine state.

The kickback by security forces prompted the Rohingya exodus.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists have killed villagers indiscriminately during their crackdown, setting fire to hundreds of villages.

In an area split by claim and counterclaim, ethnic Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering their civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to foment fear and antistate anger.

ARSA appears to have significantly grown in the last year despite remaining hopelessly outgunned against one of Asia’s largest militaries.