Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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The emergence of Harakah al Yaqin, the first Rohingya Muslim insurgent group to organize in Myanmar in decades, signals a dangerous new phase in a crisis that is increasingly attracting the attention of extremists in Pakistan and the Middle East.
Unknown six months ago, the group has ignited a conflict in Rakhine State that has marred Myanmar's transition toward democracy and confronted leader Aung San Suu Kyi with her biggest crisis yet.
"Our people have been persecuted for 50 or 60 years, so support for the insurgents is there," said Rahim, a teacher from the village of Dar Gyi Zar, who is among more than 70,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh since the fighting began.
Communal tensions have long-festered in northwestern Rakhine State, where 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions, often despised by the Buddhist majority. Serious ethnic clashes erupted in 2012, but the recent violence is the first sign of a Rohingya insurgency entrenching itself inside Rakhine since at least the early 1990s.
Reuters spoke to around a dozen Rohingya from villages in the conflict zone about the activities of the group in their area, as well as a police officer who led the interrogations of several captured insurgents and a military intelligence officer.
Their accounts, which could not be independently verified, shed new light on how the group prepared for its campaign. They describe how a small group of leaders, including one born to Rohingya parents in Pakistan, recruited several hundred young men, training them clandestinely for months in fields and forests.
Mohammed Shah, 26, from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son village, was not approached to join the group, but said he was aware of its activities for about six months before it launched its first attacks in October. Once he came across 30 people training in a forest clearing near his village with wooden dummy weapons.
"I support them," he said. "We have been persecuted for decades and they are working to bring us justice."
Karate and wooden guns: How new insurgent group stoked Myanmar crisis
Well, it's all over but the crying.
Unknown six months ago, the group has ignited a conflict in Rakhine State that has marred Myanmar's transition toward democracy and confronted leader Aung San Suu Kyi with her biggest crisis yet.
"Our people have been persecuted for 50 or 60 years, so support for the insurgents is there," said Rahim, a teacher from the village of Dar Gyi Zar, who is among more than 70,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh since the fighting began.
Communal tensions have long-festered in northwestern Rakhine State, where 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions, often despised by the Buddhist majority. Serious ethnic clashes erupted in 2012, but the recent violence is the first sign of a Rohingya insurgency entrenching itself inside Rakhine since at least the early 1990s.
Reuters spoke to around a dozen Rohingya from villages in the conflict zone about the activities of the group in their area, as well as a police officer who led the interrogations of several captured insurgents and a military intelligence officer.
Their accounts, which could not be independently verified, shed new light on how the group prepared for its campaign. They describe how a small group of leaders, including one born to Rohingya parents in Pakistan, recruited several hundred young men, training them clandestinely for months in fields and forests.
Mohammed Shah, 26, from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son village, was not approached to join the group, but said he was aware of its activities for about six months before it launched its first attacks in October. Once he came across 30 people training in a forest clearing near his village with wooden dummy weapons.
"I support them," he said. "We have been persecuted for decades and they are working to bring us justice."
Karate and wooden guns: How new insurgent group stoked Myanmar crisis
Well, it's all over but the crying.
