Advocacy group Fortify Rights called for an end to the junta’s illegal forced-conscription campaign in Rakhine State and elsewhere in the country.
It also called on Rohingya armed groups operational in Bangladesh to prevent the abduction of Rohingya refugees.
Below is a summary by Fortify rights of its findings:
A new investigation by Fortify Rights finds that Rohingya armed groups abducted Rohingya refugees from refugee camps in Bangladesh, and then the abductees were transported to Myanmar and forced to join the Myanmar junta’s military. These acts may violate the laws of war and amount to human trafficking.
“Rohingya survivors of the ongoing genocide committed by the Myanmar military are now being forced to join the ranks of the very actors responsible for committing atrocities against them,” said Ejaz Min Khant, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights.
“The abduction and forced conscription of Rohingya may amount to human trafficking and should be urgently addressed.”
Between February and July 2024, Fortify Rights interviewed 23 Rohingya people, including six Rohingya conscripted by the Myanmar military and four Rohingya refugees abducted from camps in Bangladesh and transferred to Myanmar and into the custody of the Myanmar military junta. Fortify Rights also spoke with family members of forcibly conscripted individuals and eyewitnesses to forced conscriptions, two senior leaders of the Rohingya Solidary Organisation (RSO) armed group, and a Bangladesh-based humanitarian worker.
Fortify Rights analysed videos and photographs that appear to show Rohingya engaging in military exercises within a military compound in Myanmar. Fortify Rights also analyzed five documents issued by the Myanmar junta to implement the illegal conscriptions — including directives to township administration officials, registration forms, notice letters, and identity cards.
“As soon as I left the house, [the Myanmar junta soldiers] pointed guns at me,” a 21-year-old Rohingya man from Ward-5 in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township told Fortify Rights. “The [Myanmar] military was patrolling at every junction. … Eight military soldiers came to my house. They all had guns. They were wearing green uniforms.”
The Myanmar junta abducted the man on 25 February 2024, shortly after it announced its plan to require men between the ages of 18 and 35 and women between the ages of 18 and 27 to perform mandatory military service.
The soldiers took the man to the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 535 military base located in Nga Kyi Dauk village, located approximately six miles from the man’s home. He then underwent military training for 10 days before escaping. Describing the training, he said: “We were trained on holding a gun, crawling, dismantling and fixing guns, and firing a gun. We were taught how to march with a gun in a fight.”
The Myanmar junta abducted another 24-year-old Rohingya man from Ward-5 in Buthidaung Township on the same day. He similarly told Fortify Rights how the soldiers forced him to attend military training at the LIB 535 base. He said: “I didn’t want to hold a gun…. I had to do the training [on] holding a gun and firing guns.”
Forced conscription into the Myanmar military is reportedly continuing throughout the country. Although the junta provided April 2024 as the start date of the program, it began abducting and forcing Rohingya civilians to undergo military training exercises shortly after the February 2024 announcement.
A 38-year-old Rohingya village leader from Buthidaung Township told Fortify Rights about a meeting organized at the Military Tactical Command Headquarters in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township in February 2024. He said: “The lieutenant captain told us [in the meeting] that we Rohingya must serve in the military for the safety of our villages. … The military was pressuring us a lot to give a list of people [from our village]. As young men from our village refused, the military threatened us.”
Military Tactical Command Headquarters in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township reportedly includes LIB 233, 234, and 263.
“I was abducted on 1 March [2024],” a 17-year-old Rohingya refugee youth told Fortify Rights, describing how armed men, whom he believed were part of a Rohingya militant group, forcibly took him from a refugee camp in Bangladesh and transported him to Myanmar. He said:
There were around seven people who came to a café where I was drinking tea. They pointed a gun at me, blindfolded and tied my arms and legs with a rope, then abducted me from there. Later, I was taken to Myanmar… Then I was taken to the Myo Thu Gyi BGP [Border Guard Police] Headquarters [in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State].
The youth later fled from the training camp and returned to Bangladesh, where he is now in hiding.
Another Rohingya man told Fortify Rights how nine Rohingya men believed to be part of a Rohingya militant group abducted him along with other refugees in Bangladesh on 3 May 2024. He said:
I was caught while I was at the market around 3:30 p.m. … Eleven people, including myself [were abducted]. … We were told that there was a meeting after the Juma prayer [approximately 2:00 p.m.]. … Then, we were taken to the bus and brought to the jetty in Teknaf [on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border] at 5:00 p.m. We were sent to Myanmar around 11:30 p.m.
Describing how the Myanmar military detained the group and forced them to undergo military training, the man said:
We were taken from the boat and kept at the Border Guard Police Headquarters, also known as Na Kha Ka 5, in Myo Thu Gyi [Village] in Maungdaw [Township]. … I had been in detention for seven days. … During the training, [the Myanmar military] beat us badly with a wooden stick if any of us couldn’t do the training properly.
The man later escaped the military compound and fled back to Bangladesh.
A 25-year-old Rohingya man told Fortify Rights how a group of 10 to 15 men detained him, extorted money from him, and threatened to send him to Myanmar. He said.
