JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh, armed militant groups have been terrorizing and killing members of the community for years. Rights groups say their targets include anyone who refuses to join them. Reporter Shamim Chowdhury tracked down some of their victims and reports from inside the camps in southern Bangladesh.
SHAMIM CHOWDHURY, BYLINE: In Bangladesh's Rohingya refugee camps, there lurks a sense of fear. Armed militant groups have killed, kidnapped and tortured the people here for years. Among the most notorious are the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, or RSO. The groups, made up of ethnic Rohingya men, claim to fight for the rights of their people, but most in the community reject their violent methods. We tracked down several of their victims. None would reveal their names for fear of retaliation.
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CHOWDHURY: One man limps towards us while his wife prepares dinner in his home. He says he was approached by men he recognized as members of ARSA in 2018. They wanted to recruit him. When he refused, he says they tortured him.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Through interpreter) They blindfolded me and beat me so hard that I passed out. When I regained consciousness, they were still beating me, and my ears were bleeding.
CHOWDHURY: His injuries were so severe that six years on, he is partially deaf and can't stand up straight. ARSA and RSO started out as armed groups in Myanmar's Rakhine state near the Bangladesh border. They targeted the military and claimed to protect Rohingya rights, whose citizenship was stripped in 1982. Myanmar labels both groups as terrorist organizations, which they reject.
After the 2017 Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh, the groups aimed to continue operations in Myanmar, but their violent tactics gained little support from the Rohingya. As a result, they resorted to coercion and even killing those who opposed them, according to an upcoming report by rights group Fortify Rights. It found that killings by the groups in the camps rose from 22 in 2021 to 90 in 2023. The findings were confirmed by the Bangladeshi authorities. Director John Quinley says there's been a lack of political will to confront these groups.
JOHN QUINLEY: We asked the family, relatives, others, you know, if they knew of any ongoing investigations, and they said, you know, the police didn't talk to us. These groups were able to operate with impunity because they knew even if they were detained, they would get released after a number of months.
CHOWDHURY: Other organizations, including the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International, have also documented both the groups' violence against civilians. In October, Bangladesh's interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, brokered talks between the groups. The violence has stopped for now, but residents of this camp fear the group's activities could resume at any time. One man says he still has nightmares when he thinks of ARSA.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Non-English language spoken).
CHOWDHURY: He says he was forced to fight with them in Myanmar for three months in 2017. They wanted him to go back to Rakhine, but when he refused, they tortured him.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
CHOWDHURY: He shows me his scars - deep gashes across his forehead, legs and torso.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) They beat me every night. They hanged me from the ceiling. They beat me with a wire cable. They did this for two months. I couldn't take it anymore, so I told them I'd go to Myanmar.
CHOWDHURY: He now believes he'll have no choice but to go to Myanmar at the end of this month, after the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan. Yunus' press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, says the interim government has stepped up security in the camps.
SHAFIQUL ALAM: We have launched investigation into every case of deadly clashes, violence or even abductions.
CHOWDHURY: For the Rohingya, the hope now is that this long-awaited break from violence will endure. For NPR News, I'm Shamim Chowdhury in the Rohingya refugee camps, southern Bangladesh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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