YANGON (The Irrawaddy) - At least two security personnel in northern
Rakhine State’s strife-torn Maungdaw Township were shot dead when an unknown
armed group ambushed a security border outpost on Sunday.
An official from northern Maungdaw Township’s Kha Maung
Seik sub-town General Administrative Department told The Irrawaddy over the
phone on Monday that the ambush took place near a border fence between Border
Post No. 40 and 41 on Sunday.
He said the assailants used a border fence near a hill in
Bangladeshi territory as cover, but that his office had not yet received a detailed
report as of Monday morning. It remains unclear who is behind the attack.
Colonel Win Zaw Oo, head of Myanmar’s Western Regional
Military Command, said the Maungdaw border post was fired on by a rifle grenade
but declined to comment on the number of causalities beyond referring questions
to a weekend briefing from Radio Free Asia (RFA) previously cited by the
Tatmadaw True News Information Team’s Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun; that
report said two officers were killed in the ambush.
“I don’t know the details, just take the number you saw
in the report as correct,” Col. Win Zaw Oo said.
Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun told RFA the territory where the
ambush occurred is under the control of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
(ARSA), who he speculated were responsible for the attack. The Irrawaddy called
Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun multiple times but was unable to reach him as of Monday
afternoon.
In 2017, after ARSA attacks on border outposts in the
region, the Myanmar military launched clearance operations that forced more
than 700,000 Rohingya to flee in what the UN has called “a textbook example of
ethnic cleansing.” They have been sheltering now in poor conditions at refugee
camps in Bangladesh for over 21 months, where monsoon rains killed at least two
over the weekend. International rights groups have called for military chief
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to be prosecuted at the International Criminal
Court for purported crimes against humanity.
As of Monday, ARSA’s Twitter account had not shared any
information regarding the attack.
In the group’s latest video message, on June 6, ARSA
leader Attah Ullah said, “I hope that all the Rohingya people will use their
possible resources and means to gain our legitimate rights back in Arakan.”
If carried out by ARSA, the Sunday attack will have been
their fourth attack this year. The first, in January, wounded a police colonel
and five officers near Wet Kyein Village in northern Maungdaw Township. Within
a week, another attack injured three police officers near Wai Lar Taung Village.
In April, a police truck carrying security personnel in
the north of Maungdaw Township was attacked using an improvised explosive
device (IED), injuring a lance corporal. Days later, footage of the attack
circulated on Facebook showed eight rifle gunners in face masks and ARSA
outfits firing on the truck at close range as the roadside IED detonated.
Repatriation plans between Myanmar and Bangladesh have
consistently been delayed, with each side blaming the other for the slowdowns.
The UN refugee agency and UN Development Program have extended a one-year
Memorandum of Understanding with Myanmar, originally singed in Naypyidaw in
June 2018, with the intention of developing conducive conditions for the safe
and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
During a visit to China in June, Bangladeshi Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged to the Chinese leaders to help with the Rohingya
repatriation project but blamed Myanmar authorities for delays.
“Myanmar in no way wants them [Rohingya] back. This is
the problem. We are trying to do our part,” she said.