UN sounds alarm over atrocities as rebels renew fighting with Myanmar’s military junta

Reports of renewed violence and destruction “stoked by the military” in Myanmar are alarming, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said, as clashes between troops of the ruling junta and rebel fighters roil the country’s border towns.

Myanmar has been caught in a spiral of violence since the Arakan Army, an ethnic insurgent group operating primarily in the western Rakhine state, last November ended a ceasefire that had largely held since the army took over in a 2021 coup.

Activists have accused the Arakan Army of targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority during an offensive in the town of Buthidaung near the border with Bangladesh.

“I am deeply alarmed by reports of renewed violence and property destruction in Buthidaung township in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, resulting in the displacement of potentially tens of thousands of civilians, mainly Rohingya,” the UN envoy, Volker Turk, said.

He said the UN is in the process of verifying reports of serious human rights violations and is gathering information before making any formal accusations or statements.

“With intercommunal tensions between ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya high – and being actively stoked by the military – this is a critical period when the risk of yet further atrocity crimes is particularly acute,” he said.

The Arakan Army said on Sunday it had won control over Buthidaung from the military.

"We conquered all the bases in Buthidaung and also took over the town yesterday," Khine Thu Kha, a spokesperson for the rebel group, told Reuters.

It was the latest setback for the ruling junta that has, by one estimate, lost control of nearly half its 5,280 military outposts, bases and headquarters.

Mr Turk asked both the military and the rebel group to “pause fighting, protect civilians, allow immediate and unhindered humanitarian access” and comply “unconditionally” with international law.

Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition advocacy group, said the Arakan Army fighters came into downtown Buthidaung, forced the residents to leave and torched their houses.

"While the town was burning, I spoke with several people I have known and trusted for years. They all testified that the arson attack was done by the AA,” he said, referring to the insurgent group.

The group’s spokesperson, however, blamed the military and Muslim insurgent groups allegedly aligned with it.

"The burning of Buthidaung is due to air strikes from the junta’s jet fighter before our troops entered the town," he said.

Aung Kyaw Moe, deputy minister of Myanmar’s exiled National Unity Government, said the Arakan Army had asked the Rohingya to leave Buthidaung but they had nowhere to go and so were trapped when the offensive started.

"Since about 10 pm last Saturday up to this early morning, Buthidaung town had been burning and now only ashes remain," he told Reuters.