Press Release

ARNC Strongly Supports HRW Report on Arakan Army Massacre; Urges Immediate International Action to Prevent ‘Final Genocide’ of Rohingya

The Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) welcomes and strongly supports the Human Rights Watch report, “Skeletons and Skulls Scattered Everywhere”. Arakan Army Massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Hoyyar Siri, Myanmar, released on 18 May 2026.

The report provides deeply disturbing evidence that the Arakan Army killed at least 170 Rohingya men, women, and children in Hoyyar Siri village, Buthidaung Township, on 2nd May 2024, with the actual death toll likely far higher. Human Rights Watch’s findings, based on survivor testimonies, satellite imagery, and verified photographs and videos, confirm what Rohingya survivors, communities, and leaders have been reporting for the past two years: that the Arakan Army has committed grave atrocities against Rohingya civilians amounting to war crimes.

This report also confirms ARNC’s long-standing claims that the Arakan Army’s atrocities against the Rohingya people are widespread, systematic, and far more rampant than previously acknowledged. The Hoyyar Siri massacre is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader campaign of persecution, violence, displacement, and terror against Rohingya civilians across Arakan.

ARNC expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the Hoyyar Siri massacre and to all Rohingya civilians who have been killed, disappeared, detained, tortured, displaced, forcibly recruited, or forced to flee under Arakan Army persecution. Across Arakan, many thousands of Rohingya have been killed, displaced, starved, detained, and terrorized. Thousands more have perished at sea while attempting to flee persecution, siege, starvation, and systematic violence. This never-ending violence has become a continuing tragedy for the Rohingya people.

The international community must not remain silent. Silence in the face of these atrocities will be understood by the perpetrators as consent. Continued inaction will only embolden the Arakan Army to persecute the Rohingya with total impunity and may lead to the final genocide of the remaining Rohingya in Arakan.

ARNC calls on the United Nations, ASEAN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, regional powers, and all concerned governments to take urgent action to protect Rohingya civilians in Arakan. The international community must support independent investigations, preserve evidence, and ensure accountability for all perpetrators, including the Arakan Army and its political wing, the United League of Arakan.

ARNC further calls for:

1. An immediate end to all attacks, persecution, forced labor, arbitrary detention, movement restrictions, forced recruitment, and starvation policies against Rohingya civilians in Arakan.
2. Unrestricted humanitarian access to all Rohingya communities under Arakan Army control.
3. Full cooperation by the Arakan Army and United League of Arakan with the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, and other international accountability bodies.
4. Targeted sanctions against Arakan Army and United League of Arakan leaders credibly implicated in atrocities against Rohingya civilians.
5. International protection mechanisms for the remaining Rohingya in Arakan, who face an existential threat.
6. Full accountability for the Myanmar military’s genocidal acts and genocide committed against Rohingya during the 2016/2017 so-called clearance operations. The Myanmar military and its commanders must be held responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
7. Recognition that conditions do not exist for the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to Arakan while the Arakan Army and Myanmar military continue to persecute Rohingya civilians.

The Rohingya people have already survived decades of state-sponsored genocide, apartheid, mass displacement, and denial of citizenship. They must not now be abandoned to a new wave of persecution under the Arakan Army.

ARNC urges the international community to act before it is too late. Justice delayed will mean more mass graves, more deaths at sea, and the genocide of the remaining Rohingya people in their ancestral homeland.

 For more information, please contact:

• Tun Khin: +44 78 8871 4866
• Nay San Lwin: +49 176 6213 9138
• Khairul Amin: +47 9 242 8989

Press Release

Rohingya Boat Sinking is a Direct Result of Global Failure

The Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) expresses its profound grief and outrage over the sinking of a refugee boat in the Andaman Sea carrying approximately 250–280 people, mainly Rohingya refugees. The boat had departed from Teknaf in Bangladesh and was bound for Malaysia before capsizing after days at sea in overcrowded conditions. These were genocide survivors, including women and children. The majority are now feared missing.

This tragedy has devastated Rohingya communities already enduring years of persecution and displacement. Entire families have been lost, and others left separated across the region as loved ones wait in anguish for news. These journeys are undertaken despite the known risk of death, not out of choice, but out of desperation. This is also not an isolated incident. Deadly maritime journeys involving Rohingya refugees are increasing, with hundreds killed in similar incidents in 2024 and 2025 alone. They are also not accidental. They are the direct result of ongoing genocide and persecution in Myanmar, protracted statelessness, and the continued failure of the international community to act.

Without sustained and meaningful pressure, more Rohingya will be forced onto these journeys, and more lives will be lost. The impunity of Myanmar’s military leadership, including Min Aung Hlaing, has allowed crimes against the Rohingya to continue without consequence. At the same time, Rohingya communities in Rakhine State face ongoing violence and atrocity crimes, including under the control of the Arakan Army, making safe return impossible.

Conditions for Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh are intolerable. Severe restrictions on livelihoods and the inability to work have left families with no viable future. Cuts to humanitarian aid, including food rations, have deepened hardship, while prolonged uncertainty has driven widespread despair. Increasing numbers of Rohingya continue to arrive, fleeing violence against Rohingya by the Arakan Army in Rakhine State. These conditions are forcing families to leave, not by choice, but because they have no other option.

Human trafficking networks are exploiting this desperation. Rohingya refugees are lured onto boats with false promises of employment and safety abroad, including in Malaysia, only to face inhumane conditions at sea. These networks operate across the region in a well-established system of exploitation, sustained by the absence of protection and accountability. According to our credible sources, from whom we have collected information over several years, human traffickers gather victims in Thamee Hla village, located in Rathedaung Township of Rakhine State, under the supervision of the Arakan Army. This human-trafficking hub must be dismantled by any means necessary to prevent further tragedies.

The continued loss of Rohingya lives at sea is the direct consequence of a failure to protect them. The international community has not upheld its commitments, has not applied sufficient pressure on Myanmar and other responsible actors, and has allowed this crisis to continue. This is a profound betrayal of the Rohingya people.

The ARNC calls on the international community, including the United Nations and ASEAN, to take immediate and concrete action to:

• Dismantle and prosecute human trafficking networks;
• Restore and increase humanitarian funding for Rohingya refugees;
• Strengthen international protection mechanisms;
• Ensure accountability for perpetrators of crimes against the Rohingya; and
• Exert sustained pressure to create conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation with full citizenship rights and guarantees of protection.

The ARNC remains committed to advocating for justice, protection, and the full restoration of the rights of the Rohingya people.

For more information, please contact:

• Tun Khin: +44 78 8871 4866
• Nay San Lwin: +49 176 6213 9138
• Khairul Amin: +47 9 242 8989

Press Release

ARNC Condemns Illegitimate Presidency of Min Aung Hlaing

The Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) unequivocally condemns the appointment of Min Aung Hlaing as President of Myanmar by a military-dominated parliament produced through a so-called election that has been widely condemned by the United Nations, democratic governments, and independent observers as a sham designed to legitimize continued military rule. This is not a democratic transition, but a deliberate attempt to entrench military rule under the guise of civilian governance.

The parliamentary process that elevated Min Aung Hlaing to the presidency was fundamentally illegitimate. It was conducted within a system structurally controlled by the military, where 25% of seats are unelected and reserved for serving officers. Opposition parties were banned or boycotted, and the outcome was predetermined by military in favor of their own actors and cronies. The overwhelming victory secured by Min Aung Hlaing makes the so-called election a subject of ridicule for both national and international communities, reflecting not the will of the people but the consolidation of power by force.

Min Aung Hlaing’s elevation to the presidency comes despite overwhelming evidence of his responsibility for some of the gravest crimes of the 21st century. Under his command, Myanmar military with support from extremist elements within the Rakhine community carried out the 2016/2017 campaign against the Rohingya people which has resulted in mass killings, systematic sexual violence, the burning of hundreds of villages, and the forced displacement of over one million Rohingya into Bangladesh and tens of thousands in other neighboring countries.

Today, he stands not as a legitimate head of state, but as an alleged perpetrator of genocide and crimes against humanity. He faces the risk of arrest should he set foot in a democratic country, because on February 13, 2025, a federal court in Buenos Aires, Argentina issued international arrest warrants against him and other senior officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction for genocide and crimes against humanity.

In November 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed an application for an arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity, including deportation and persecution of the Rohingya.

These legal actions affirm what victims have long known as there is no legitimacy in impunity.

Furthermore, Min Aung Hlaing’s presidency follows five years of devastating civil war triggered by his illegal coup in 2021. Thousands of innocents have been killed, millions displaced.  Myanmar today stands as a nation in collapse under military tyranny.

The ARNC rejects unequivocally the legitimacy of the 2026 election, the authority of the military-controlled parliament to appoint Min Aung Hlaing as president of the country. We reaffirm that any political structure built upon violence, exclusion, and impunity cannot represent the people of Myanmar.

We stand in solidarity with all oppressed people across Myanmar, including pro-democracy forces, in their struggle to dismantle military dictatorship and establish a genuine federal democratic union grounded in justice, accountability, and human rights.

The fact that Min Aung Hlaing has been emboldened to assume the presidency despite his record of grave crimes is a direct consequence of the international community’s silence and failure to take meaningful action. This continued inaction has enabled impunity and prolonged suffering across Myanmar.

Today, much of Arakan State is effectively under the control of the Arakan Army (AA), which has been persecuting Rohingya survivors of genocide even with more brutality. These actions appear driven by a deliberate intent to expel and eradicate the remaining Rohingya population from their ancestral land, in pursuit of an Arakan State devoid of Rohingya presence.

We reiterate that bringing Min Aung Hlaing and other perpetrators to justice is of paramount importance and must not be delayed if there is any genuine commitment to preventing Myanmar from becoming a failed state and to stopping the erasure of Rohingya from Arakan State.

Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) calls upon the international community to:

• Refuse recognition of Min Aung Hlaing’s presidency
• Support ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice concerning genocide against Rohingya community.
• Ensure enforcement of international arrest warrants, including those issued by Argentine courts
• Increase coordinated pressure, including sanctions and accountability mechanisms, against the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).
• Urgent call for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar. Both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army are failing to comply with the provisional measures to prevent genocide ordered by the International Court of Justice.

Justice for the Rohingya and all victims in Myanmar cannot be delayed, denied, or negotiated away.

For more information, please contact:

• Tun Khin: +44 78 8871 4866
• Nay San Lwin: +49 176 6213 9138
• Khairul Amin: +47 9 242 8989