Myanmar’s junta is accused of burning down Buthidaung town in Rakhine State using forced Rohingya recruits in an apparent attempt to boost ethnic hatred.
Buthidaung had more than 1,480 households but over 1,000 houses and the Doctors Without Borders office and its medicinal warehouse which provided healthcare to the town, have been burned down.
The junta denies involvement.
Residents and Rohingya activists said the junta forced Rohingya recruits to burn ethnic Rakhine homes and villages to sow ethnic division in Rakhine State, where it has been fast losing ground to the Arakan Army (AA).
“Since April 12, the army and the Rohingya had been burning the town down together,” a Buthidaung resident whose house and shop were burned down told The Irrawaddy.
The regime has been seizing Rohingya men in Rakhine State and pressuring them to serve in the military since the Conscription Law was announced in February.
Rohingya rights activist Ro Nay San Lwin said the regime uses the Rohingya as human shields on the frontlines to spark communal hatred.
“In Buthidaung, the Rohingya were forced to take part on junta orders. Then the junta wants others to say Rohingya people were responsible,” he said.
There are also reports of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and Arakan Rohingya Army seizing civilians and burning down homes in Buthidaung.
Ro Nay San Lwin said neither group represents the Rohingya community and their relationship with the junta remains secret.
Regime spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun denied the regime’s involvement and said the allegations were intended to weaken respect for the military.
He said through the junta media that the AA is creating ethnic conflict in Buthidaung.
Buthidaung has largely been abandoned, with some residents fleeing to Bangladesh.
The northern Rakhine townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw are the traditional hub of the Rohingya community.
In Rakhine State, the regime has lost control of Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myebon, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Ramree and Paletwa towns and numerous bases since the AA launched an offensive in November last year.
In Buthidaung, the AA seized the junta’s Infantry Battalion 564 headquarters on April 5 and killed almost 80 soldiers. Infantry Battalion 552 in the town fell on March 25.
Junta airstrikes and shelling have increased as its ground troops are defeated.
In March, the junta orchestrated a Rohingya protest against the AA in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe in an apparent attempt to sow ethnic division.
Junta-run newspapers and posts on Telegram and Facebook reported that hundreds of Rohingya protested in Sittwe and elsewhere.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned that fighting and tensions between the Rohingya and Rakhine communities posed a grave threat to the civilian population.
He warned that past atrocities might be repeated.
