We, the undersigned Rohingya organisations worldwide express our serious concern over an agreement, signed on 23rd November 2017, between Myanmar and Bangladesh on the return of some 670,000 Rohingya refugees who have recently taken refuge in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar genocide.

But the question is how the terrified and traumatized refugees would be repatriated to Arakan/Rakhine State where they experienced, witnessed and fled the genocidal brutality of Myanmar troops, Rakhine extremists and other vigilantes. There is no change of attitude of the Myanmar government and its Military towards Rohingya; still they identify Rohingya as recent “Bengali interlopers” from Bangladesh; and Rohingyas continue entering into Bangladesh due to continuing violence and brutality against them in Arakan.

Press release 12 January 2018

Crimes against humanity and genocide have been committed against Rohingya population in Myanmar, with full impunity and knowledge of the government, with intent to destroy this ethnic community from their ancestral homeland of Arakan/Rakhine State.

Wholesale destruction of life, property and villages; widespread killing of women, men and children; rape, extermination, enslavement, enforced disappearance, expulsion and other inhuman acts are committed against the Rohingya civilians forcing some 670,000 survivors to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh since 26 August 2017. We appreciate that Bangladesh has shown to the world unparalleled humanitarian gesture by stepping up and taking on huge burden.

05 November 2017

At long last, for the first time on 2nd November the State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had visited crisis-hit Northern Arakan/Rakhine State amidst international pressure and criticism apparently to whitewash the gravest situation of the defenceless Rohingya that the UN has called a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing” and “the world fasted growing refugee crisis and a major humanitarian emergency” while experts in international law have called it “genocide”.

Press release 15 October 2017

We strongly condemn the remarks of Myanmar Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to American Ambassador Scot Marciel.

On 11 October the General said, “Rohingya are Bengali. The Bengalis were not taken into the country by Myanmar but by the colonialists. British colonialists were responsible for the problem. Their native place is really Bengal. They might have fled to the other country (Bangladesh) with the same language, race and culture as theirs, assuming they would be safer there. They are not the natives and the records prove that they were not even called Rohingya but just Bengalis during the colonial period.”

Press release 5 October 2017

During recent weeks more than half a million Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in Bangladesh due to genocide by Suu Kyi-army regime in Myanmar.

The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed, on 2nd October, to work on a repatriation plan. State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that verified refugees will be accepted. But the question is how the terrified and traumatized refugees would be repatriated to Arakan/Rakhine State where they experienced, witnessed and fled the genocidal brutality of Myanmar troops, Rakhine terrorists and other vigilantes. Despite assurance by the Myanmar government the violence and brutality continue. There were arson attacks on Quarter No.5 of Maungdaw town even today.

Press release 21 September 2017

The Rohingya people are outraged by the highly contentious and ambiguous speech of the Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi delivered before the diplomatic community on 19 September in Naypyidaw. She made numerous disingenuous excuses that fail to address the crisis, the untold sufferings of the Rohingya people, that the U.N stated a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing.”

Press release: 7 August 2017

Arakan Rohingya National Organsation (ARNO) strongly denounces and rejects the report, dated 6 August 2017, of the Maungdaw Investigation Commission headed by Myanmar Vice-President Myint Swe, a former military general. The report is “fundamentally flawed” and devoid of truth.

We are not surprised that the government’s commission denies “crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya people, where Myanmar military and security forces were the perpetrators.
 
We reiterate that the commission lacked independence and proper mandate; its members are not impartial or competent; it fails to provide adequate and effective protection for witnesses; and it has not given any consideration to the independent expert’s recommendations. The report neither provides accountability nor reconciliation but impunity. It, in fact, is a blatant disregard of the human rights of the victims. 

 17 May 2017

On behalf of the Rohingya Muslim community, ARNO expresses shock, sorrow and condemns in the strongest possible terms the rape of at least 32 Rohingya women by the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police in Kyan Taung, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine/Arakan state.  

Once again we are forced to watch helplessly the gruesome acts of sexual violence perpetuated by the government forces against our women and girls, in the name of fighting terrorists. Our deepest sympathies are with these brave women, and their families, whose only crime is they were born a Muslim in this country.

April 2017

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) strongly condemns the Myanmar government plan to resettle Rohingya Muslims displaced by recent atrocity crimes in “camp-like” villages.

During recent military crackdown in Maungdaw district, about 1,000 Rohingyas were killed, hundreds of women raped, at least 1,500 houses burned across several villages, thousands more hid in forests and fields while about 75,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh to escape genocide. In addition, about 140,000 Rohingya have been forced to live in semi-concentration camps in Sittwe since 2012 state sponsored genocidal massacre.