The Arakan Army (AA) has gained control of over half of Rakhine State’s towns. It has been called to protect all civilians amid accusations that its troops burned Rohingya houses in Buthidaung and persecuted the community as it captured the town. Buthidaung fell on May 18, marking the latest victory against Myanmar’s regime. The armed organization has rejected allegations of abuses and claimed the houses were burned by a junta airstrike on May 17. Meanwhile, the junta has fueled sectarian tensions with Muslim communities, especially in Buthidaung and Maungdaw which have majority Rohingya populations, after losing territory to the AA. The spokesman for the AA and its political wing, the United League of Arakan, Khaing Thukha told The Irrawaddy that he rejected the accusations, saying the group is fighting to liberate all civilians from military rule.
What is the military situation in Rakhine State?
Fighting has intensified in Maungdaw, Thandwe and Ann townships.
What are the AA’s plans for territory seized from the regime?
We will try to restore stability and law and order in areas we have seized.
What is your response to allegations that the AA is torching Rohingya villages in Buthidaung Township?
Why would the AA torch villages in Rakhine State? We have rescued people who have fled from Muslim villages and sent them to safety.
Accusations that we torched villages are baseless. Anyone making these false allegations is betraying Rakhine State.
We have heard reports that the AA will turn Buthidaung into a war zone.
The entire Rakhine State is a war zone.
There are allegations that the AA is practicing racial discrimination.
We don’t determine our policies on the grounds of race and religion. We only think about how to protect every citizen living in Rakhine State. We are fighting to liberate Rakhine State. All the people living in Rakhine State should join this fight. We are fighting for the liberation of all the people, not just for the Rakhine [Arakanese].
How will the AA handle the Rohingya issue?
We have continuously worked to foster harmony. We never discriminate on the grounds of race and religion in the territory we control. We strive for peaceful coexistence, so there has never been a single problem.
We didn’t target Muslim communities during the fighting in Buthidaung, despite the allegations. It is a baseless accusation made by so-called activists just for money.
Does the AA plan to hold talks with Rohingya leaders on peaceful coexistence?
The ULA continuously engages with Muslim leaders in Rakhine State to work together on this.
Who do they want us to talk to? The ULA has no plan to engage with terrorists. We have continuously engaged with Muslim leaders who have lived through thick and thin with us in Rakhine State.
There has been no sectarian problem in areas controlled by the ULA thanks to the dialogue.
What else do you want to say?
Fighting is not limited to Buthidaung and Maungdaw. It is taking place all over Myanmar. There have been arson attacks on Rakhine towns. Pauktaw has been razed to the ground. Other towns, including Ramree, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya, have been severely damaged. The enemy tries to destroy as much as possible as we fight to liberate our state. The only thing it can do is to destroy.
But we can’t stop fighting just because the enemy is acting destructively. We have to pay the price to retake our ancestral land. We have to fight.
The fires in Buthidaung caused less damage than in other [Rakhine] towns. The first fires in April were arson attacks. It was the regime and its Muslim terrorist allies that torched Arakanese and Hindu homes.
Around 5,000 houses were incinerated but no media group covered it.
The regime bombed Buthidaung on May 17, which ignited fires. Junta troops and terrorist organizations torched buildings along the way when they retreated from Buthidaung to prevent AA troops from pursuing them. But they accused us of arson.
They shouted the accusation in unison with so-called rights activists who are making money out of the [Rohingya] issue. They made preparations to accuse us.
They will continue to make baseless accusations and we will continue to do our job to resolve the age-old problems by taking the correct approach.
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