reuters.com
www.reuters.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28428046

Myanmar’s military long viewed the insurgency among persecuted Rohingya Muslims as an existential threat to the majority Buddhist nation, but as the Arakan Army rebel group makes sweeping gains, the junta and some Rohingya fighters now face a common foe.

  • RandAlThor@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    As a long time observer of Myanmar’s civil war, I need to clarify the somewhat misleading nature of this article. The journalist makes it appear as if RSO and the military Junta have reached some sort of a “truce”. This is further from the truth. Rohingya guerillas have had little to no presence in Burma since the military’s operations in 2017 and subsequent years marked by the infamous massacre of over 100 Rohingya villagers in August 2017. Due to the emergence of Arakan Army (AA) as a powerful guerilla force in Burma since the 2021 coup (Arakan are the native tibeto-burman people of the state of Arakan who are predominantly buddhist), and in a twist of irony, the military junta has been arming and training Rohingya guerillas as a counter to the threat from AA. Currently, AA has control of most of the state of Arakan with the exception of major cities and a Chinese-owned deep sea port.

      • RandAlThor@lemmy.caOPEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        There has been Chinese-sponsored (or coerced) peace talks in Yunan in the past. There were truces that came out of them, only for fighting to break out months later with both sides accusing the other of breaking the terms of truce. With every disparate guerilla force gaining momentum and growing more powerful, there is no end in sight. Not for the next 50 years.