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At least 100 men have been conscripted into the military junta’s efforts to quell insurgents
Published : 08 Apr 2024, 03:37 PM
Seven years after massacring thousands of Rohingya, Myanmar's military has conscripted at least 100 men from Rakhine State to fight against the Arakan Army insurgent group, the BBC reports.
As the beleaguered junta faces what is possibly the biggest insurgency the country has seen, the military has conscripted a hundred men from the 150,000 Rohingya who are residing in the IDP camps, according to the report.
Mohammed, 31, one of the many men conscripted, told the BBC: "I was scared but I had to go. These are army orders. They threaten to harm your family if you refuse."
Mohammed and other Rohingya are still subjected to discriminatory limitations such as the refusal of citizenship and a ban on travelling outside of their communities in Myanmar.
Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have lived in squalid conditions in the IDP camps after the army forced them out of Rakhine State back in 2012.
In 2017, the army exercised the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing by killing hundreds of people, raping them and setting their homes on fire, the BBC said.
As many as 700,000 of the Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to seek refuge after the mass clearance operation by the military.
After losing ground to the Arakan Army, the military regime is desperate enough to enlist men from a persecuted minority, the BBC says.
According to Mohammed, the conscripted men were taken to Sittwe's 270th Light Infantry Battalion, where they were taught to shoot and reassemble guns.
After training for two weeks, Mohammed was called back to board a ship carrying 250 men towards Rathedung, where the Arakan Army had taken over three hill tops.
"I had no idea why I was fighting. When they told me to shoot at a Rakhine village, I would shoot," he added.
However, the soldiers soon ran out of food as the insurgents attacked their supply shack.
Mohammed was sent back to Sittwe for medical treatment after sustaining injuries in both legs due to shrapnel.
"While I was in the middle of the battle, I was terrified the whole time. I kept thinking about my family," Mohammed told the BBC. "I never thought I would have to go to war like that. I just wanted to go home. When I got home from the hospital, I hugged my mother and cried. It felt like being born again from my mother's womb."
Another Rohingya man by the name of Hussain was also conscripted by Myanmar's military.
According to his brother Mahmoud, Hussain was taken away in February for training. However, he went into hiding when he got called back to fight against the Arakan ethnic rebel group.
As many as seven men have confirmed the conscription of 100 men to fight the war against the Arakan Army to the BBC.
The men say that they were promised wages, food and citizenship if they enlisted themselves.
However, Myanmar's army denies the allegations. General Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, told the BBC, "We want to ensure their safety, so we have asked them to help with their own defence," he said.
The military has also retracted their promise of giving citizenship to conscripts, saying they 'misunderstood' the offer.
Although the military has returned to the IDP camps to conscript new people as they continue to lose the war, Rohingya men have been refusing to sign up for the war.
"This conscription campaign is unlawful and more akin to forced labour," said Matthew Smith from the human rights group Fortify Rights.
"There's a brutal and perverse utility to what's happening. The military is conscripting the victims of the Rohingya genocide in an attempt to fend off a nationwide democratic revolution. This regime has no regard for human life. It's now layering these abuses on top of its long history of atrocities and impunity."
