Rohingya rebels call one-month Myanmar ceasefire
YANGON: Rohingya militants, whose Aug 25 raids in Myanmar’s Rakhine State sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300,000 of the Muslim minority flee to Bangladesh, yesterday declared an immediate unilateral onemonth ceasefire.
Bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in huge numbers in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area for over two weeks, while tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine, many in desperate conditions after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.
A further 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also been displaced by violence that has unfurled across the northern part of the state.
“The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” it said in a statement on its Twitter handle #ARSAíOfficial, 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 Oct 9.
It called on Myanmar to ‘ reciprocate this humanitarian pause’ in fighting.
There was no immediate response from Myanmar’s military.
Rohingya refugees allege ‘clearance operations’ by the army in its offensives against the ARSA resulted in mass killings and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border. International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting engulfed parts of the state.
ARSA’s Twitter page is often the first to publish statements or direct readers to videos.
Sunday’s statement was signed by Ata Ullah, who purportedly commands the militants from jungle bases straddling the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
ARSA appears to have significantly grown in the last year despite remaining hopelessly outgunned against one of Asia’s largest militaries.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations. Statement by ARSA
According to statements and photos released by Myanmar’s army, the militants use primitive weapons, including gunpowder rifles, homemade guns and bombs as well as clubs and swords.
Myanmar’s army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.
The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched earth response to insurgency sent 90,000 Rohingya f leeing across the border.
That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year. — AF