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Presence of Arakan Army in Bangladesh sparks debate

The open display of the guerrillas with the logo on their uniform inside Bangladesh - a sovereign state has sparked serious debate, especially as the Arakan Army continues to be accused by an international rights NGO

Tuesday May 6, 2025 1:58 PM, Saleem Samad

[Songkran Water Festival (File image)]

Several videos have surfaced on social media recently. The video and posts with photos in social media show that the rebel Arakan Army, which swept Rakhine State from the Myanmar military Junta, were inside Bangladesh territory to celebrate South East Asia’s most popular “Songkran Water Festival”.

A 100-year-old traditional water-sprinkling festival celebrating the Buddhist New Year is widely celebrated across South and Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, parts of Northeast India and parts of Vietnam from April 11-15 and features a mix of traditional ceremonies and raucous water fights.

Songkran is recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, further highlighting its importance.

The festival draws hordes of tourists from around the world, eager to experience the vibrant atmosphere and water-splashing fun.

The festival is also organised by a visible Buddhist population of Marma and Rakhine ethnic communities in southeast Bangladesh bordering troubled Myanmar.

The Rohingya refugees are scared of the presence of the Arakan Army (AA). There are reasons to fear for the Rohingyas, who fled for safety and security and the “textbook ethnic cleansing”, according to a probe report by the United Nations Human Rights Agency (OHCHR) published in Geneva.

Myanmar’s treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority appears to be a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing, the top OHCHR official has said.

The 1.4 million refugees are languishing in squalid camps in Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee shelter. Almost one kilometre wide Naf river separates the two neighbours, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Also Read: US backed proxy war against Myanmar Junta and Bangladesh dilemma

When Arakan Army swept through the hills and forests, villages and towns, fighting against the brutal Myanmar military junta, the guerrillas also committed atrocities against the Rohingyas.
The Rohingyas, mostly Muslims, fled Myanmar after the 2017 state-sponsored genocide by Tatmadaw, the military force and paramilitary.

The atrocities and persecution have caused a fresh influx of 113,000 Rohingyas to cross into Bangladesh, according to UN agencies in Cox’s Bazar.

Mg Aung Hla Shwe, a concerned Rohingya refugee, posted a video on Facebook showing that the Arakan Army was very well inside Bangladesh. The less than a minute video on a festival ground where the flags of Bangladesh and United League of Arakan (ULA), a political wing of Arakan Army, were seen fluttering at Remakri Mukh, Bandarban district, near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

In another video posted on YouTube by a Rohingya refugee, the Arakan Army was dancing at the “Water Festival and Concert” and said the venue of the event is 10 km inside Bangladesh. The video post argues that the event was held when the paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) were spectators. No intervention from local authorities or border security forces is seen in the video.

A worried refugee writes: “Our so-called tiger 'BGB' is present there as spectators. Very Shocking!”

“This is not just a festival—it looks like a show of force,” one social media user posted. “How can a foreign armed group operate publicly inside our borders?”

The open display of the guerrillas with the logo on their uniform inside a sovereign state has sparked serious debate, especially as the Arakan Army continues to be accused by an international rights NGO, Fortify Rights, after an investigation of several accusations came to their attention. Fortify Rights lamented grave human rights violations against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State by the Arakan Army.

Those who are concerned about security have termed the video “deeply alarming,” noting the strategic sensitivity of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region. The incident has raised serious concerns over the state of border vigilance and oversight by the BGB.

“Allowing any armed group—especially one accused of ethnic cleansing and persecution—to parade logos inside a neighbouring country is unacceptable,” said a regional security researcher. “This is a breach of sovereignty and an erosion of trust in border management.”

The Government of Bangladesh has not issued an official statement. However, government sources indicate that high-level discussions are underway regarding the footage and the broader implications for cross-border diplomacy and internal security.

Also Read: Brutal and well coordinated attacks carried out against Rohingya in Myanmar: UN Report

Public outrage continues to build, with citizens demanding a full investigation, stricter border control measures, and clear policies on the activities of foreign non-state actors within Bangladeshi territory.Rohingya community said: “We fled [from] them—now they’re here?”

For Rohingya refugees temporarily residing in Bangladesh, the presence of Arakan Army members within the country has triggered fresh anxiety and fear. Many in the camps view the Arakan Army not only as a rebel force but as one of the primary perpetrators of current abuses in Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

“We ran from them. Now we see them walking freely in Bangladesh while we remain locked in refugee camps,” said a young Rohingya teacher from Camp 11.

“The Arakan Army has forcibly evicted our families, destroyed our villages, and imposed harsh restrictions. If they appear in Bangladesh without resistance, it puts us in danger,” said a community elder from Camp 3.

The government’s indifference regarding the gringos from across the border on the Songkran festival with the Rakhine Buddhist community has a strong diplomatic and geo-political significance.

Recently, the UN Development Agency has released a report which paints a grave situation in the Rakhine state, which is experiencing a near famine and proposes that immediate food, medical aid and other essential needs urgent attention from the international aid agencies.

The UNDP report states that Rakhine is on the verge of an unprecedented disaster due to a combination of interlinked issues. Restrictions on goods entering Rakhine, both internationally and domestically, have led to a severe lack of income, hyperinflation, and significantly reduced domestic food production.

Essential services and a social safety net are almost non-existent, leaving an already vulnerable population at risk of collapse in the coming months.

The report shows that Rakhine’s economy has become almost dysfunctional. Critical sectors such as trade, agriculture, and construction are at a standstill. Export-oriented, agro-based livelihoods are disappearing as markets become inaccessible due to blockades by the junta.

UN warns that Rakhine faces the imminent threat of acute famine. The worst victims of a lack of food are millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), including Rohingyas.

Internal rice production is declining due to a lack of supplies of seeds, fertilisers, severe weather, and a rise in IDP who can no longer farm due to the civil war. The UNDP estimates that with the near-total halt of trade, over 2 million people are at risk of starvation.

When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the camps and had Iftar (meal served for breaking the fast in Ramadan) with the refugees, he told the Bangladesh authorities that a “humanitarian corridor” needed to be opened to reach the hungry people.

The government has agreed in principle to the humanitarian corridor. In a series of parleys, the formalities and logistics are still being discussed with senior government bureaucrats, UN officials and the Bangladesh Army.

It is also reported that the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) has been deployed for logistics at the humanitarian corridor at Silkhali, a small commercial river port.

Highly placed sources said that the mission is to support a US-backed proxy war in Rakhine State against the Myanmar military junta. The clandestine mission will provide weapons and training to Arakan Army and its ally, CNF (Chin National Front), battle-hardened guerrillas.

The deal brokered by the Americans would subsequently help repatriate a few hundred thousand Rohingya, and they would return home and settle down. The international aid agencies would provide rehabilitation for Rohingya refugees.

Myanmar is staunchly anti-US and anti-West. This diplomacy has pushed Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, to develop strategic and military alliances with China and Russia.

On the other hand, America, the European Union, as well as the United Nations have imposed numerous economic and diplomatic sanctions against Myanmar’s government, which has significantly broken the economic backbone of the country.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, head of the Myanmar military junta, is facing an international arrest warrant issued in November 2024 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, for crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya Muslims.

The primary objective of the US proxy war is to capture the most wanted war criminals, including General Hlaing and six other Myanmar senior military officials responsible for the genocide against the Rohingya people, to stand trial in the ICC.

However, the political parties, right, left, and Islamists have erupted in fury. They argued that the corridor was an excuse for the American troops to engage in a proxy war for which the country was not prepared.

To pacify the political parties, the government quickly said that nothing had been finalised regarding the humanitarian corridor. Khalilur Rahman, the government's adviser on Rohingya issues, told French news agency AFP that the government would be willing to provide logistic support should there be UN-led humanitarian support to the state of Rakhine.

[The writer, Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh, and a media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF.ORG). He is the recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. The above article is first published in the International Affairs Review, New Delhi, India, on 3 May 2025.]

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