Myanmar’s Junta Forcibly Recruiting Rohingya Amid Escalating Conflict in Rakhine State

In a troubling development in Myanmar’s ongoing conflict, reports indicate that the country’s military junta is forcibly recruiting members of the persecuted Rohingya minority to bolster its dwindling ranks. This comes as the junta faces increasing pressure from the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) in the restive Rakhine state.

According to accounts from Rohingya residents sheltering in displacement camps in the state capital of Sittwe, junta troops have been ordering camp leaders to provide them with around 30 people aged 18-30 from each camp. The troops have threatened to withhold critical international food aid if the camps refuse to comply with the forced recruitment.

The junta is said to have already forcibly recruited around 1,000 Rohingyas for military service from the Sittwe camps in March, with more than 300 taken from Rohingya villages last month. This latest round marks the third instance of such forced conscription.

Compounding the crisis, the junta appears to be actively stoking tensions between the Rohingya and the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist communities in the region. Analysts say the military is attempting to incite conflict between the two groups as a means of distracting from its own losses to the AA.

The United Nations and other international bodies have called for urgent monitoring of the situation facing the Rohingya, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warning of the “acute” risk of further atrocities. There are also growing concerns that the AA’s own anti-Rohingya rhetoric and actions are worsening the situation.

Last week, in response to reports of renewed violence and property destruction in Buthidaung township resulting in the displacement of “potentially tens of thousands of civilians, mainly Rohingya,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged restraint among all parties in the region.

Since February, at least 1,500 Rohingya men and boys have been forcibly recruited by Myanmar’s military from villages in Rakhine state in Myanmar and refugee camps in Bangladesh, according to human rights groups and Rohingya sources.

Earlier this month, the U.N. issued a statement saying that the ongoing civil war had displaced over 3 million people in Myanmar. The statement also said that two-thirds of the 600,000 Rohingya Rakhine were among the displaced people.