ROHINGYA CRISIS ‘Ambush’ aimed at harming repatriation talks: officials

Ambush allegedly by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army operators was aimed at upsetting ongoing talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar over repatriation of the Rohingyas who continued to flee violence in Rakhine, Bangladesh officials believe.
The ambush seems planed by the Myanmar military establishment and implemented by their cohorts to strain the moves of the Aung San Suu Kyi-led Myanmar civilian government, with strong support from international quarters and Bangladesh, to lay a process of repatriation by January 22, two diplomats with knowledge of the matter have told New Age. 
The ambush follows a ‘weak script’ featuring a few ‘skinny actors’ with homemade bombs and machetes in a place heavily guarded by the Myanmar military, religious Buddhist bigots and majority Bamar community, the official say. 
Myanmar military may ask their civilian colleagues to go slow in the meetings of the newly formed joint working group of the two countries, set to begin January 15, citing security situations on the ground, they fear. 
Rakhine is a very difficult terrain surrounded by hills and sea and almost impossible for organised movement to evade knowledge of the military, another official observes. 
Rohingya Muslim ‘insurgents’ allegedly ambushed a military vehicle in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, wounding five members of the security forces, Myanmar’s state media and officials said and the ‘rebels’ claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported from Yangon on January 5.
Asked about the allegation of ambush by ‘Rohingya Muslim’ groups, an official expressed strong doubts about how many members of the minority Rohingya Muslim were left there to run an ambush-like operation after massive military crackdown that sent thousands of the ethnic people fleeing to Bangladesh since August 25 last year.
Bangladesh officials also believe that the August 25 ‘attacks’ on Myanmar security posts were also conducted as part of the military’s false flag operations to create an occasion for a crackdown on the minority Rohingyas to force them to permanently out of Rakhine State. 
Rakhine soldiers also often launch attacks from behind on their Bamar colleagues in the Myanmar military as parts of false flag operations, an official said. 
The Bangladesh and the Myanmar governments were preparing with exchanging documents to start the first meeting of the newly formed joint working group of the two countries on January 15 in Myanmar capital Nay Pyi Taw for signing a specific bilateral instrument on physical arrangement for setting a specific process for starting repatriation by January 22, officials said. 
Foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque will lead the 15-member Bangladesh side in the 30-member JWG. Myanmar foreign ministry’s permanent secretary Myint Thu is expected to lead the delegation of the other side of the table. 
‘ARSA takes responsibility for the latest military movement,’ Reuters reported as an ARSA spokesman was saying through a messaging service.
The Yangon-based Frontier Myanmar magazine quoted a resident of a nearby village as saying that gunfire was heard at the time of the ambush. A state-run newspaper reported on Saturday that fighting continued after the ambush.
It was unclear, according to The Irrawaddy report, whether the attack was carried out by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army or any other Arakanese armed group.
The ambush was likely the work of an Arakanese armed group, rather than ARSA militants, given the location of the attack near an Arakanese village and the fact that ARSA usually attacks at night, the report said. 
Over 6,55,500 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and January 7. Several international authorities denounced the operations as genocide. 
The military-controlled Myanmar government committed, according to the November 23 ‘arrangement’, to take back over 7,40,000 Rohingyas who crossed over the border since October last year. 
The ongoing Rohingya influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,74,000 till January 7, according to estimates by UN agencies.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net