After massacres and “ethnic cleansing” crimes, the army forcibly recruits Rohingya Muslims into its battles

According to news media reports, and with nearly seven years after the Myanmar army killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims, in an action the United Nations described as a “classic example of ethnic cleansing,” the junta is now asking them for “help.”

The BBC learned, through interviews conducted with a number of Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine State, that about 100 of them were recruited by the military junta during the past weeks to fight in the ranks of its forces, with all their names changed to protect them.

“I was afraid, but I had to go,” says Mohammed, a 31-year-old Rohingya man and father of three children.

Mohammed lives in Sittwe, close to the capital of Rakhine State, in the Bao Do Fa camp, after about 150,000 internally displaced Rohingya Muslims were forced to live in camps over the past ten years.

He says that in mid-February, the camp commander came to him late at night and told him that he had to join military training. He remembers when the commander told him: “These are military orders. If you refuse, they will threaten to harm your family.”