Rohingyas were slaughtered by Myanmar's troops. It now requests their assistance.

It seeks their assistance nearly seven years after the military of Myanmar massacred hundreds of Muslim Rohingyas in what the UN referred to as "textbook ethnic cleansing".

The BBC has established that at least 100 Rohingyas who reside in Rakhine State had been conscripted to fight for the beleaguered junta in recent weeks through interviews with them. To keep them safe, all of their names have been altered.


According to Mohammed, a 31-year-old Rohingya father with three small children, "I was scared, but I had to go." He resides in the Baw Du Pha camp close to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine. Over the past ten years, at least 150,000 Rohingyas who are internally displaced have been compelled to reside in IDP camps.

Mohammed claimed that late one night in the middle of February, the camp leader informed him that he would have to undergo military training. He recalls him stating, "These are orders from the army." "If you refuse they have threatened to harm your family."

After speaking with multiple Rohingyas, the BBC was able to corroborate that army personnel have been visiting the camps and giving the younger males orders to report for military training.


For guys like Mohammed, the awful irony is that Rohingyas in Myanmar continue to face discriminatory limitations such as being prohibited from leaving their communities and being refused citizenship.


 Tens of thousands of Rohingyas were compelled to live in filthy camps after being driven out of mixed communities in Rakhine State in 2012. Five years later, in August 2017, the army started a bloody clearance operation against them, killing and raping hundreds of people, and setting their villages on fire. As a result, 700,000 of them fled to neighboring Bangladesh. There are still about 600,000 of them there.

Due to its treatment of the Rohingyas, Myanmar is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.


The fact that the same army is now forcing them to enlist is a clear indication of its desperation, as it has just lost enormous tracts of territory in Rakhine to the Arakan Army, an ethnic insurgent group. Military forces in Rakhine have slain dozens of Rohingyas.

In other regions of the nation, the military has also suffered heavy casualties at the hands of opposition groups; on Saturday, it lost control of Myawaddy, a town near the eastern border with Thailand. This crucial route is used by the majority of the nation's overland traffic.

There have also been numerous military casualties for the junta. It is hard to locate replacements for them since they have been murdered, injured, turned over to the resistance, or surrendered. Few desire to put their lives at danger to support an unpopular government.


"We were taught how to load bullets and shoot," he stated. "They also showed us how to disassemble and reassemble a gun."

Another group of Rohingya conscripts is shown in a BBC film being trained to wield BA 63 rifles, an After two weeks of training, Mohammed was sent home. However, after just two days, he received a call to return. He boarded a boat with 250 other soldiers and was taken five hours upriver to Rathedaung, where he faced out against the Arakan Army for possession of three strategically important hilltop military sites.

"I was battling for no apparent reason. I would shoot at a Rakhine community when they ordered me to."


There, he struggled for eleven days. Following the fall of their supply shack by a shell, they were terribly short on food. After witnessing multiple Rohingya conscripts being killed by artillery and suffering shrapnel injuries to both legs, he was returned to Sittwe for medical attention.

After seizing possession of the three outposts, the Arakan Army posted images from the fighting on March 20. The images showed multiple bodies, at least three of which were recognized as Rohingyas.

"I was afraid the entire time I was in the heart of the conflict. I couldn't help but think of my family," Mohammed remarked. "I never imagined having to fight in a battle like that. All I wanted was to get home. I sobbed and hugged my mother when I arrived home from the hospital. It was as though I had been reborn in my mother's womb."


Hussain, another conscript, was from the Ohn Taw Gyi camp, which is located close to Sittwe. He was taken away in February, according to his brother Mahmoud, after completing his military training, but The military disputes that it has used Rohingyas in its conflicts with the Arakan Army. The BBC was informed by the junta spokesman, General Zaw Min Tun, that they were not intended to be sent to the front lines. "We want to ensure their safety, so we have asked them to help with their own defence," he stated.

However, seven Rohingyas from five separate IDP camps around Sittwe who spoke with the BBC all stated the same thing: they are aware of at least 100 Rohingyas who have been recruited and dispatched to fight this year.

It was said that in February, groups of troops and local government representatives visited the camps to inform the younger males that they would be conscripted. Initially, the announcement was made with the promise of food, wages, and citizenship to those who enlisted. These were strong enticements.

Due to the interruption of international relief supplies by the Arakan Army, food in the IDP camps has grown more expensive and limited. The Rohingyas have long struggled for acceptability in Myanmar, and part of the reason they face systemic discrimination—which human rights organizations have compared to apartheid—is the denial of citizenship.

But the offer of citizenship was withdrawn when the army came again to remove the enlisted men. The camp occupants were informed that they had a duty to defend their home when they questioned why they, as non-citizens, should be subject to conscription. They were assured they would be militiamen, not soldiers. "You misunderstood" was the response given when they inquired about the citizenship offer.

One member of the camp committee now claims that the army is requesting fresh lists of possible recruits. He stated that none of the others were prepared to take the chance of getting drafted after witnessing and learning from the initial batch of survivors from the front lines.

Now, with funds gathered from other camp inmates, the camp administrators are attempting to convince the poorest men—those without jobs—to leave by promising to support their families while they are abroad.

Human rights activist Matthew Smith stated, "This conscription campaign is unlawful and more akin to forced labor." Fortify Rights.


"What's taking place has a cruel and perverse utility. The Rohingya genocide victims are being conscripted by the military in an effort to prevent a national democratic revolution. Human life is not important to this government. It is currently adding these mistreatments to its lengthy history of crimes and acquittals."

The Myanmar military, which is heavily supported by the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist community, fears rekindling communal strife with them by using Rohingyas in its fights against the Arakan Army.

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas were forced to flee towns like Sittwe in 2012 due to tensions between the two communities. Men of ethnic Rakhine descent participated in army assaults against the Rohingyas in 2017.


Since then, the two communities' tensions have decreased.

Pro-military media has also been promoting protests in Buthidaung that seem to be Rohingya demonstrations against the Arakan Army; however, locals informed the BBC that they believed the army was behind these, hoping to drive a wedge between the two communities.


The ethnic insurgents who may soon seize control of the majority of Rakhine are displeased that the Rohingyas are now compelled to fight for an army that does not acknowledge their right to reside in Myanmar. They were once the focus of both, but are now trapped in the middle.

 

The army has issued Mohammed with a diploma attesting to his combat experience on their side. He doesn't know its worth or if it spares him from serving in the military in the future. If it keeps moving in the direction of Sittwe and his camp, it might land him in hot water with the Arakan Army.

He claims that following his ordeal, he can't sleep at night and is still healing from his wounds.


"I worry that they'll call me once more. I returned this time because I was fortunate, but I'm not sure what will happen the next time."