Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh report an anti-government militia burned their settlements in western Myanmar after taking control of parts of the state from the ruling military junta. The recent surge in violence and persecution has forced many members of the mostly Muslim minority to flee, facing an uncertain future.
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00:00On May 24, Saifur Rahman and his family found themselves among the thousands of Rohingya
00:05fleeing into the night as their homes burned down.
00:09He says his village in western Myanmar's Rakhine state was set alight by the Anti-Government
00:13Arakan Army, or AA, after they seized it from the country's ruling junta.
00:18We have been living here for two or three years.
00:22We have been living here for a long time.
00:24We have been living here for a long time.
00:26We have been living here for a long time.
00:28Saifur says his brother was shot and killed, and his parents are missing and presumed dead.
00:34Months later, he and his wife have joined the nearly one million Rohingya refugees living
00:38in deteriorating conditions in neighboring Bangladesh.
00:42We are very sad.
00:44We are very sad.
00:46We have been living here for a long time.
00:48We have been living here for a long time.
00:50We have been living here for a long time.
00:52We have been living here for a long time.
00:54The attack in May on their settlement in the town of Buridong was part of the latest wave
00:58of violence targeting Rohingya.
01:00Since 2012, the mostly Muslim minority group has been persecuted by every government that's
01:05ruled there.
01:06In 2017, a crackdown by the former Buddhist-majority democratic government saw thousands killed
01:12and hundreds of thousands more displaced in a campaign the UN described as a textbook
01:17example of ethnic cleansing.
01:19When that government was overthrown in 2021, a civil war broke out, and the ruling junta
01:24forces began forcing Rohingya men and children to fight for them.
01:50The Arakan army, one of the many ethnic militias fighting the government, proved no better
01:55when they captured Buridong in May.
01:57And then on the 17th of May, quite early in the day, the AA began informing people that
02:05they could not stay in Buridong and they needed to leave.
02:08And of course a lot of the Rohingya, particularly with the lessons of 2017, where they know
02:14that if you leave a home, you don't return.
02:18The AA denies burning the village when the Rohingya inhabitants refused to leave and
02:23said the fires were started by government bombs.
02:26But their version of events doesn't add up.
02:29We have not been able to verify these accounts of individuals saying that the AA started
02:38the fires.
02:39We strongly suspect that is the case.
02:42Because, again, they were the only armed actors in the town at the time.
02:50The fog of the ongoing civil war is proving to be ample cover for those committing violence
02:55against Rohingya.
02:56And when the war ends, it seems unlikely that any of the factions would protect their rights.
03:02And so many Rohingya are left with no choice but to leave.
03:13But with their lives as refugees in Bangladesh also under threat, Rohingya people continue
03:18to face an uncertain future.
03:21James Lynn and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.