Press Release
Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) Rejects ULA Report, Condemns Biased Narrative and Erasure of Rohingya Suffering
Introduction
The Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) categorically rejects the United League of Arakan’s report titled “Violence Against Civilians by Islamist Armed Groups in Northern Arakan: An In-Depth Analysis” as a politically motivated, extensively and willfully fabricated document that weaponizes civilian suffering to advance an anti-Rohingya narrative.
ARNC condemns without reservation all attacks against civilians, whether the victims are Rohingya, Rakhine, Hindu, Mro, Khumi, Daingnet, Thet, Maramagyi, or any other community. At the same time, ARNC strongly opposes the manipulation of human rights language to criminalize the Rohingya people.
The ULA report repeatedly frames alleged abuses by armed actors through inflammatory religious language such as “Islamist terrorist groups,” “religious domination,” “exclusive Muslim zone,” and “caliphate.” This creates the false impression that Rohingya identity, Muslim faith, and armed extremism are inseparable. This is not neutral documentation, but it is propaganda designed to produce fear, suspicion, and hostility toward already persecuted people.
This rebuttal responds to the ULA report by exposing its selective framing, challenging its anti-Rohingya narrative, and reaffirming ARNC’s commitment to truth, accountability, equal rights, protection of all civilians, and peaceful coexistence among all peoples of Arakan.
1. ULA’s report begins by denying Rohingya belonging
The report opens with a deceptive historical narrative that portrays Muslims in Arakan as mainly the result of colonial-era migration from Chittagong. It claims that British colonial migration “significantly altered” northern Arakan’s demographic and religious composition.
This is not an academic historical discussion. It is a purely political lie rooted in racist bigotry and Rohingya-phobia. The same narrative has long been used by the Myanmar military, anti-Rohingya nationalist forces, and Rakhine separatist actors: first portray Rohingya as foreigners, then as demographic threats, then as terrorists and remove them from their ancestral land.
ARNC rejects this concoction in the strongest terms. Rohingya are not foreigners, guests, or colonial intruders. They are an indigenous people and integral part of Arakan with deep historical, cultural, linguistic, and religious roots in the land. Even the ULA report itself admits that a Muslim presence existed in Arakan before British colonial rule, although it minimizes that presence by describing it as “relatively smaller.”
Independent historical materials also show that Francis Buchanan-Hamilton’s 1799 account referred to Muslims connected to Arakan who called themselves “Rooinga,” meaning natives of Arakan. Later scholars confirms that Buchanan recorded this term in the late eighteenth century, long before modern political disputes over Rohingya identity.
The ULA report also ignores the reverse side of demographic engineering. Cross-border movement by Rakhine into Arakan from Chittagong. Thousands of Rakhine from Bangladesh crossed into Arakan with the support, encouragement, or tolerance of successive Burmese regimes and local Rakhine political actors. There are many accounts of Rohingya homes, properties, and farmland being confiscated or appropriated to settle newly arrived Rakhine communities, including the establishment of so-called “model villages” on land historically owned and cultivated by Rohingya families.
This process dispossessed Rohingya of ancestral land and altered local demographics in ways rarely acknowledged by those who accuse Rohingya of being “migrants.” The phenomenon continues to affect Rohingya communities even today, with some Rakhine settlers and newly arrived actors involved in persecution, land and property seizure, livestock seizure, intimidation, and violence against Rohingya.
The report’s opening narrative is especially dangerous because it turns a human rights issue into a demographic accusation. Rohingya population figures have collapsed not because Rohingya are outsiders, but because of mass displacement, persecution, denial of citizenship, village destruction, and systematic efforts to remove Rohingya from Arakan.
The long history of Rohingya suffering and demographic alteration started with the 1942 massacre. During the Japanese invasion of Burma, Arakan fell into chaos as British forces retreated and law and order collapsed. In this power vacuum, Rakhine and Burmese racist and ultranationalist actors aided by certain politicians committed violence against Rohingya Muslims. From late March through April and May 1942, attacks spread across central Arakan, including Minbya, Myebon, Pauktaw, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Rathedaung. Rohingya villages were burned, homes were looted, and civilians were killed with swords and spears. Women and children were killed, escape routes were blocked, and entire villages were destroyed. As a result, Muslim majority in these townships were erased forever.
The violence caused massive displacement and left a lasting scar on the Rohingya community. Many Rohingya fled north toward Maungdaw and Buthidaung or crossed into British India, especially Chittagong. Rohingya narratives often cite over 140,000 Muslim deaths and around 300 Muslim villages destroyed. The 1942 violence divided Arakan into a mainly Muslim north and Buddhist south and shattered the coexistence that had existed before.
The demographic reality in Arakan shows a clear pattern of Rohingya displacement and reduction. While Rohingya have been forced to flee to Bangladesh and other neighboring countries, often risking their lives in search of safety, Rakhine populations from the Chittagong area and even from Nepal have been settling in Arakan, including on lands and properties once owned by Rohingya families. In 2010, the Rohingya population in Arakan was estimated at around three million and could have grown to around four million under normal conditions. Instead, fewer than a few hundred thousand remain in Arakan, today.
More than one million Rohingya now live in Bangladesh, while more than half a million each are believed to live in Pakistan and the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands more live across South Asian countries, with thousands scattered across Europe, North America, Australia, and other parts of the world. This sharp decline and global dispersal are not the result of voluntary migration, but of systematic persecution, repeated expulsions, killings, denial of citizenship, destruction of homes, prevention of return, and policies aimed at erasing the Rohingya presence from their ancestral homeland.
Therefore, the central problem with the ULA report is not only what it says about armed groups, but how it frames the entire Rohingya people before presenting its allegations. By beginning with colonial-migration claims and demographic anxiety, the report places collective suspicion over an entire indigenous community. This is the same logic used for decades to justify apartheid-like restrictions, statelessness, movement bans, segregation, mass expulsion, and genocide.
2. ULA’s “Summary of Civilian Atrocities and Forced Disappearances” is not a neutral victim account
The ULA report’s section titled “A Summary of Civilian Atrocities and Forced Disappearances in Northern Arakan” is framing deeply fabricated and politically constructed. It claims that, between November 2023 and January 2026, “Islamist militant groups, primarily ARSA,” killed 162 civilians, injured 22, and forcibly disappeared 30 people, while only 15 survived after being targeted. It then states that these figures show a “clear pattern” of deliberate attacks driven by political and religious motivations.
ARNC does not defend any unlawful killing, abduction, or abuse by any armed actor. Every credible allegation against any group should be independently investigated. But ULA’s presentation is not an independent investigation. It isolates alleged crimes by Rohingya-associated armed groups while minimizing or omitting grave abuses committed by the Arakan Army/ULA itself against Rohingya civilians.
ULA’s report has also avoided mentioning the killings and mutilation of Rohingya civilians carried out by AA forces in the Rohingya village they captured. In several villages, several men of different age were killed and brutally mutilated in what appeared to be an attempt to instill fear among the Rohingya population. Open-source evidence, including images and reports of mutilated bodies was widely available, yet these atrocities were completely ignored or omitted by ULA.
Fortify Rights’ July 2025 findings further undermine any attempt to ignore or minimize abuses committed against Rohingya civilians in areas under Arakan Army control. The organization called for the Arakan Army to be investigated for possible war crimes, including abductions, torture, killings, and beheadings of Rohingya civilians. Fortify Rights also documented multiple killings in AA-controlled villages and detention sites, including five apparent beheadings. These findings demonstrate that the allegations are not isolated or unsubstantiated claims, but serious and documented abuses by ULA aligned armed group AA.
The most serious flaw is that ULA treats Rohingya-associated armed groups as the central danger to civilians while ignoring the broader context in which Rohingya civilians have been trapped between the Myanmar military, the Arakan Army, forced recruitment, village destruction, movement restrictions, and collective suspicion.
Human Rights Watch’s 18 May 2026 report directly undermines ULA’s self-portrayal. HRW found that on 2 May 2024 alone, the Arakan Army may have killed at least 170 Rohingya men, women, and children in Hoyyar Siri village in Buthidaung Township, and likely injured or killed many more. HRW said AA fighters fired on civilians who were trying to flee fighting between the AA and Myanmar military forces, and that the killings amounted to grave violations and war crimes.
This is crucial because ULA’s report accuses others of civilian atrocities while refusing to apply the same standard to its own forces. HRW reported that the ULA/AA denied killing civilians at Hoyyar Siri, but HRW’s findings were based on 41 witness interviews, satellite imagery, and verified photographs and videos. HRW also found that survivors said ULA/AA coerced some villagers into giving false video testimony exonerating the group. This directly challenges the credibility of ULA’s methodology and narrative.
The ULA report also manipulates victim identity. It highlights that Arakanese Buddhists were the largest share of victims in its dataset, while Muslims, Hindus, Khumi, Mro, and Daingnet are listed as smaller categories. But this dataset is not a complete picture of civilian suffering in northern Arakan. It excludes or downplays mass Rohingya suffering under AA/ULA control, including killings, village burning, forced displacement, detention, confiscation of property, and restrictions on movement.
ARNC’s rebuttal therefore states clearly: ULA’s figures cannot be accepted at face value without independent verification, transparent methodology, victim-family testimony, access to all affected communities, and investigation of ULA/AA abuses as well. A credible report would examine all perpetrators, including the Myanmar junta and the Arakan Army/ULA itself. Instead, ULA’s section functions as an indictment of Rohingya-associated groups while avoiding accountability for the AA’s own alleged war crimes against Rohingya civilians.
A fair conclusion is this: ULA cannot credibly accuse others of civilian atrocities while refusing accountability for the Arakan Army’s own documented abuses. Rohingya civilians are not merely bystanders in this conflict; they are victims of grave crimes by both the Myanmar junta and the Arakan Army. Any human rights report that excludes this reality is incomplete, distortion, and politically motivated.
3. The report falsely connects Rohingya identity with terrorism
ARNC categorically rejects any attempt to connect the Rohingya people with terrorism or armed violence. No armed group represents the Rohingya nation, and no armed actor has the right to speak in the name of an entire persecuted people. The overwhelming majority of Rohingya are civilians: farmers, fishermen, traders, teachers, students, religious leaders, mothers, fathers, children, elderly people, and displaced families. They are survivors of genocide, mass displacement, statelessness, and systematic persecution. They are not perpetrators of terrorism but victims of terrorism.
ARNC’s position is clear: any armed group or individual that attacks civilians, recruits by force, abducts people, extorts communities, abuses women, loots property, or commits crimes against any community must be independently investigated and held accountable. Civilian suffering must never be justified, regardless of the identity of the victims or perpetrators.
However, ULA/AA and its supporters are trying to hide their crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya by pointing fingers at others. They should remember that when one points a finger at others, four fingers point back at themselves. They must not use the actions of any armed group to criminalize the Rohingya people. This is a dangerous and racist method of collective blame. It repeats the same language that has been used for decades to dehumanize the Rohingya, deny their identity, and justify violence against them.
Rohingya political demands are not extremist. Rohingya demand citizenship, recognition of their ethnic identity, freedom of movement, protection from persecution, restoration of land and property, safe return of refugees and internally displaced persons, justice for victims, and equal rights for all communities in Arakan. These are basic human rights demands. They are not terrorism. They are not a call for domination over others. They are a call for dignity, equality, safety, and survival.
4. The report uses numbers and charts without credible methodology and erases Rohingya suffering
The ULA report attempts to present Rohingya-linked actors as the main source of danger while ignoring the long and well-documented history of violence against Rohingya. This is a selective and dishonest narrative. Rohingya persecution did not begin with recent armed groups. It has deep roots in decades of state-backed discrimination, denial of citizenship, restrictions on movement, land confiscation, forced displacement, arbitrary arrest, village destruction, and mass violence.
The most serious omission is the silence around the 2016-2017 Rohingya genocide and the role played by Rakhine extremist elements, nationalist networks, and local mobs in attacks against Rohingya villages. During these operations, the Myanmar military was the principal perpetrator, but it was not the only actor involved. Rohingya civilians were killed, women were raped, homes and properties were burned, belongings were looted, and entire villages were wiped out.
More than 700 000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in a matter of weeks, while international investigators found evidence of genocidal intent by Myanmar’s military leadership. Therefore, any report that discusses civilian suffering in Arakan while ignoring this central history is not balanced. It is selective memory serving political and racist intent.
ARNC does not blame the entire Rakhine people. Many ordinary Rakhine civilians have also suffered from war, militarization, displacement, and dictatorship. But Rakhine extremist actors who participated in the destruction of Rohingya villages and properties must not be erased from history. Their role must be investigated, documented, and brought before justice.
ARNC possesses extensive evidence of Rohingya suffering and destruction perpetrated by AA/ULA. This includes thousands of photographs and videos of Rohingya victims, burned villages, destroyed homes, looted properties, mass displacement, and other crimes committed against Rohingya civilians. There are documented instances in which Rohingya were burned alive. Whole villages were burned down. In downtown Buthidaung and surrounding areas, thousands of houses belonging to Rohingya were reduced to ashes, and survivors were not allowed to return and rebuild their homes.
This destruction was not accidental. It was part of a broader pattern of persecution designed to remove Rohingya from their land, destroy their community life, and erase their presence from Arakan. When houses are burned, land is confiscated, survivors are blocked from rebuilding, and victims are then blamed as security threats, this is not justice. It is ethnic cleansing by another name.
ULA/AA cannot present itself as a neutral protector while avoiding scrutiny of abuses committed under its control or by forces aligned with its political project. A report produced by ULA cannot be treated as independent evidence when ULA itself is a party to the crimes and has political interests in shaping the narrative.
ARNC will release its evidence at the appropriate time and in the appropriate forums. Until then, ULA/AA must not be allowed to concoct history, erase Rohingya victimhood, or turn international attention away from crimes committed against Rohingya civilians.
Justice for all civilians in Arakan is necessary. ARNC recognizes the suffering of Rakhine, Hindu, Mro, Khumi, Daingnet, Thet, Maramagyi, and other communities. Their suffering deserves recognition and accountability. But justice for one community cannot be built on the denial of another community’s genocide. Justice cannot be achieved through propaganda, selective reporting, collective blame, or the erasure of Rohingya history.
True peace in Arakan requires truth, accountability, equal rights, and protection for every community. It requires recognition that Rohingya are an indigenous and persecuted people of Arakan with the right to live safely in their homeland. It requires the restoration of citizenship, land, property, dignity, and freedom. Anything less will only deepen injustice and prolong conflict.
5. ARNC’s principled position
ARNC’s position is clear:
- We condemn all attacks on civilians.
- We condemn the Myanmar military’s genocide against Rohingya.
- We condemn the Arakan Army’s continued genocidal campaign against Rohingya.
- We condemn the role of Rakhine extremist elements and vigilante mobs in burning Rohingya villages and properties during the genocide.
- We condemn any Rohingya armed actor that attacks civilians or abuses communities.
- We condemn forced recruitment, abduction, extortion, rape, religious intimidation, and collective punishment.
- We reject the labeling of Rohingya civilians as terrorists.
- We reject the use of counterterrorism language to justify ethnic repression.
- We demand accountabilities for all perpetrators.
No group has the right to commit crimes in the name of Rohingya. No authority has the right to persecute Rohingya in the name of security.
6. Our Stand
Rohingya are an indigenous people and integral part of Arakan. They have lived in Arakan for centuries, and numerous physical, written, historical, cultural, and documentary evidences in Arakan and in other parts of the world are available to support this truth. Rohingya are not foreigners, guests, or colonial intruders. They are native people of Arakan with deep roots in the land, its history, and its society.
For centuries, Rohingya lived peacefully side by side with the Rakhine as a sister community before Arakan was annexed into greater Burma in 1784. Even after annexation, Rohingya continued to live peacefully in Arakan until the 1942 massacre shattered this coexistence. During the democratic period from 1948 to 1962, Rohingya enjoyed the same standard of recognition and participation as other communities, including the Rakhine. Rohingya had parliamentarians, Rohingya radio program, and access to government offices. At one period, Rohingya also received a degree of autonomy in the Mayu Frontier Region.
The marginalization of Rohingya began after the military takeover of the country by General Ne Win in 1962. From that time, Rakhine politicians and extremist elements began instigating Burmese politicians and inciting the wider Burmese public against Rohingya. This resulted in introduction of 1982 citizenship law and repeated operations against our people under different names and forms, eventually leading to the genocide of 2016/2017.
After the Arakan Army consolidated power in Arakan, the situation became even more terrible. The AA has persecuted Rohingya in increasingly inhuman ways, with the intention of cleansing the remaining Rohingya from the soil of Arakan. ARNC therefore stands firm in protecting Rohingya indigenous rights, identity, security, dignity, and future in their ancestral homeland.
ARNC stands for justice, accountability, safe return, restitution, and peaceful coexistence. ARNC will work to hold all perpetrators accountable and bring them before justice, including the Myanmar military, the Arakan Army/ULA, Rakhine extremist perpetrators, and any other accomplices responsible for crimes against Rohingya and other civilians. ARNC will work to create a conducive environment in Arakan so that Rohingya refugees and displaced people can return in safety, dignity, and security.
We will knock on every door and take all necessary steps, in every appropriate form and forum, to deliver justice to the victims. At the same time, ARNC stands ready to enter sincere dialogue with all actors for the sake of truth, justice, accountability, equal rights, and lasting peace in Arakan.
On this basis, ARNC calls for:
- An independent international investigation into all civilian killings, disappearances, village burnings, forced recruitment, sexual violence, land confiscation, property destruction, and other abuses in northern Arakan.
- A full investigation of the 2016-2017 Rohingya genocide, including the role of Myanmar military units, police, border guards, Rakhine extremist networks, local vigilante mobs, nationalist organizations, and all accomplices.
- An investigation of the countless atrocities committed by the Arakan Army/ULA against Rohingya in Arakan, including killings, forced displacement, restrictions, looting, detention, intimidation, and destruction of Rohingya homes and properties.
- Immediate protection of all civilians, including Rohingya, Rakhine, Hindu, Mro, Khumi, Daingnet, Thet, Maramagyi, and all other communities.
- An end to collective labeling of Rohingya as “terrorists,” “Bengalis,” “foreigners,” or “security threats.”
- Access for UN agencies, international media, humanitarian organizations, and independent investigators to all communities in Arakan, including Rohingya villages, IDP camps, refugee return areas, and areas under ULA/AA control.
- Accountability for all armed actors, including the Myanmar military junta, Rakhine extremist perpetrators, AA/ULA, Rohingya armed groups and any other actor responsible for crimes.
- Recognition of Rohingya identity, citizenship, indigenous rights, land rights, freedom of movement, safe and dignified return, equal protection under law, and the restoration of homes, lands, properties, and livelihoods.
Conclusion
The ULA report is not a neutral or balanced account of civilian suffering in Arakan. It is a politically motivated document that fabricates and selectively frames certain allegations while ignoring the long history of Rohingya persecution, genocide, displacement, and land confiscation.
ARNC mourns every innocent life lost and demands accountability for every perpetrator and strongly rejects any attempt to portray the Rohingya community as responsible for the actions of any armed group. Rohingya civilians have suffered decades of systematic oppression and mass violence. They have lost their homes, lands, family members, villages, livelihoods, and basic freedoms. Many were killed, many were burned alive, and thousands of Rohingya-owned homes and properties were destroyed, including in Buthidaung and other parts of Arakan.
The demographic reality itself exposes the scale of this persecution. Rohingya presence in their homeland has been devastated by forced displacement, mass killing, denial of citizenship, destruction of homes, prevention of return, and policies designed to remove Rohingya from their ancestral land. To ignore this reality while claiming to speak about justice and civilian suffering is deeply absurd and hypocritical.
ULA/AA cannot investigate itself, rewrite history, or present itself as a protector while avoiding scrutiny of abuses committed under its authority or by actors aligned with its political agenda. The suffering of Rakhine, Hindu, Mro, Khumi, Daingnet, Thet, Maramagyi, and other civilians must be recognized, but it must never be weaponized to deny immense suffering of Rohingya or justify hatred against them.
True peace in Arakan cannot be built on denial, fear, demographic erasure, or ethnic hatred. It must be built on truth, justice, accountability, equal rights, restoration of citizenship, return of land and property, protection of all civilians, and recognition of Rohingya as an indigenous and persecuted people of Arakan. Only through truth and justice can Arakan move toward lasting peace and peaceful coexistence among all communities.
For more information, please contact:
- Tun Khin: +44 78 8871 4866
- Nay San Lwin: +49 176 6213 9138
- Khairul Amin: +47 9 242 8989
