Hold Rohingya militants accountable for war crimes: Fortify Rights

Members of Rohingya militant groups in Bangladesh have killed, abducted, tortured, and threatened Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in acts that may amount to war crimes, says Fortify Rights.

In a new report published on Tuesday, the rights organisation noted that it finds “reasonable grounds” to believe that certain acts committed by militants against Rohingya men, women, and children in refugee camps in Bangladesh constitute war crimes due to a demonstrable “nexus” between the criminal acts in Bangladesh and the ongoing armed conflict in Myanmar.

The 78-page report is titled as “I may be killed any moment”: Killings, abductions, torture, and other serious violations by Rohingya militant groups in Bangladesh. It recommended that the government and international justice mechanisms – including the independent investigative mechanism for Myanmar and the international criminal court (ICC) – investigate Rohingya militant organisations operational in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.

John Quinley, director at Fortify Rights, and Navine Murshid, a professor of North South University, among others, spoke in the report publishing event.

The Fortify Rights report details yearslong and largely unmitigated deadly violence in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, including killings, abduction, torture, and threats and intimidation.

It finds that deadly militant violence has increased significantly since the assassination of Mohib Ullah, a prominent Rohingya community leader and human rights defender, in September 2021. The report also shows how ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government largely failed to protect Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from Rohingya-led militant groups.

The report draws on interviews with 116 people, including Rohingya refugee survivors and eyewitnesses, Rohingya militants, UN officials, humanitarian aid workers, and others, about the ongoing violence in the camps. Fortify Rights spoke with former and current members of militant groups, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), and documented admissions of serious crimes.