Dhaka Tribune, 20 March 2025

Members of Rohingya separatist groups in Bangladesh have killed, abducted, tortured, and threatened Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in acts that may amount to war crimes, Fortify Rights said in a new report published on Wednesday.

The report finds “reasonable grounds” to believe that certain acts committed by separatists against Rohingya men, women, and children in refugee camps in Bangladesh constitute war crimes due to a demonstrable “nexus” between the criminal acts in Bangladesh and the ongoing armed conflict in Myanmar.

The 78-page report, “I May Be Killed Any Moment: Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Other Serious Violations by Rohingya Militant Groups in Bangladesh”, recommends that the government of Bangladesh and international justice mechanisms — including the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and the International Criminal Court (ICC) — investigate Rohingya separatist organizations operational in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.

The recent US government funding cuts are creating more space for Rohingya separatists in the camps, which will significantly worsen the security of Rohingya refugees, said Fortify Rights.

The new Fortify Rights report details years-long and largely unmitigated deadly violence in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, including killings, abduction, torture, and threats and intimidation.

It finds that deadly separatist violence has increased significantly since the assassination of Mohib Ullah, a prominent Rohingya community leader and human rights defender, in September 2021.

The report also shows how ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government largely failed to protect Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from Rohingya-led separatist groups.

The report draws on interviews with 116 people, including Rohingya refugee survivors and eyewitnesses, Rohingya separatists, UN officials, humanitarian aid workers, and others, about the ongoing violence in the camps.

Fortify Rights spoke with former and current members of separatist groups, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), and documented admissions of serious crimes.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have suffered years of violence and killings at the hands of Rohingya separatist groups.

Reported killings by camp-based separatists numbered 22 in 2021, 42 in 2022, 90 in 2023, and at least 65 in 2024.

For example, on January 4, 2024, unidentified Rohingya separatists abducted Mohammad Faisal — a beloved teacher, father, poet, and genocide survivor — from the Camp-4 extension between 7pm and 8pm and shot him dead.

Before his killing, Mohammad Faisal was actively assisting Bangladesh authorities in investigating crime in the camp.

In another incident, on October 22, 2021, armed Rohingya separatists, identified in an internal Bangladesh intelligence report as Arsa members, killed six men and tortured others in a madrasa — an Islamic religious school — in Camp-18 in Balukhali camp.

A Rohingya mullah — an Islamic religious leader — told Fortify Rights that separatists attacked students and teachers who were staying overnight at the madrasa: “We did not realize anything at first because we were all deeply asleep as it was 4am when they came to attack the madrasa. Those who entered the madrasa had knives, sticks, and guns. They entered the madrasa, fired their weapons, and killed the students with gunshots. Three teachers and three students were killed.”

A Rohingya man who witnessed the attack and had a relative killed in the attack told Fortify Rights: “I saw the men with knives, swords, sticks, and pistols in their hands. [The armed attackers] finished the killing mission, and I could see six dead bodies slaughtered on the ground. I saw [my relative’s] dead body. I saw blood everywhere.”

After separatists had finished attacking students and teachers at the madrasa, they went on a rampage, beating and torturing Rohingya refugees in the neighbourhood surrounding the madrasa.

One victim of this attack told Fortify Rights: “They cut off two of my fingers and hit me on my head. They thought I was dead, so they left me.”

After the attack on the madrasa, Bangladesh police conducted security patrols in the surrounding area.

However, the presence of the Bangladeshi police patrols did not stop Arsa from continuing its threats against Rohingya civilians.

A survivor of the madrasa attack told Fortify Rights: “Even now, [Arsa] has been threatening me, saying, ‘Eat well while you are with the police. Once they are gone, you will be finished.’

He went on to say: “I feel I may be killed at any moment.”

The majority of the killings by Rohingya separatists documented by Fortify Rights occurred with impunity in the camps, creating a climate of fear for all camp residents, said Fortify Rights.

As well as killings, the new report published today details torture, abduction, and other crimes by separatist Rohingya groups operating in Bangladesh, primarily by Arsa and the RSO.

In an especially horrific example, in October 2023, Arsa abducted, tortured, and amputated the limbs of a 23-year-old Rohingya man, leaving him to die. Miraculously, he survived, telling Fortify Rights: “First, they cut off my leg. I was able to hear the sound as they were cutting at the bones of my leg with a big knife. I told [the armed men], ‘Please leave me, and I will give you whatever you want.’ They replied, ‘We will never leave you. We will kill you because you always report to NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and the authorities against us.’ [The separatists] cut at my body for half an hour. My arm was cut just above my elbows.”

For years, the government under ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina refused to publicly acknowledge the existence or activities of the Rohingya separatist groups in Bangladesh territory.

This denial resulted in a lack of access to justice or appropriate responses by Bangladesh authorities to Rohingya separatist attacks on Rohingya refugees.

Donor governments should work with Bangladesh to redouble services for Rohingya at risk, including protective spaces and third-country resettlement, said Fortify Rights.

In an interview that aired on March 4, 2025, Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, spoke about violence in the refugee camps, saying: “There is lots of violence, lots of drugs, lots of paramilitary activities inside the camps.”

Arsa and RSO separatists are engaged in Myanmar’s internal armed conflict. They are both fighting with the Myanmar junta against the Arakan Army — an ethnic armed organization based in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

To reinforce their armed campaigns inside Myanmar, Arsa, and RSO have abducted refugees in Bangladesh and forced them to fight in Myanmar. Such acts are grave violations of the laws of war and should be investigated as possible war crimes.

One Rohingya refugee, 17, told Fortify Rights how, in 2024, a Rohingya separatist group abducted him in Bangladesh and forcibly transferred him to Myanmar to fight for Myanmar junta forces. He said: “There were around seven people who came to a tea shop 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. I was taken to the Myo Thu Gyi Border Guard Police Headquarters [in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State].”

Bangladesh’s neutrality to the armed conflict in Myanmar does not shield individuals or groups operating within Bangladesh from being held accountable for war crimes.

The ICC has already established jurisdiction and opened an investigation into cross-border atrocity crimes occurring against Rohingya in both Bangladesh and Myanmar. This should include crimes committed by Arsa and similar groups, said Fortify Rights.

In 2019, the ICC Chief Prosecutor at the time said the court was “aware of a number of acts of violence allegedly committed by Arsa,” noting that the allegations would be kept “under review.”

Three essential elements must be present to establish a war crime: there must be 1) an armed conflict; 2) a prohibited act committed against a protected person; and 3) a nexus between the armed conflict and the act committed. Protected persons include individuals not actively involved in the armed conflict.

In the context of the violence perpetrated by non-state actors in the Bangladesh refugee camps, Fortify Rights has reasonable grounds to believe that all such elements are satisfied and that, as a result — at the very least, further investigation into the possibility of ongoing war crimes should be pursued.

International News