II. Militant Group Denials 48 “We are fighting [the] AA. … Before, AA didn’t attack us. They got power now, and now they attack us. They have hatred in their hearts,” one ARSA member told Fortify Rights.236 Before the major uptick in violence in the refugee camps, Ata Ullah said in 2017 that ARSA was not a “terrorist” group: “Atrocity, violence, and injustice against any innocent civilians is not in the principles or policy of [ARSA].”237 However, a senior leader within ARSA confessed to Fortify Rights that ARSA members were responsible for abuses, saying: [Some senior ARSA leaders] would extort our people when they were in ARSA. They extorted, killed, and abused. When we senior commanders got reports of misconduct in the organization, we investigated it. We punished those who committed the crimes. They kidnapped, they raped, they killed people, and we found it and removed them.238 He provided no evidence of such investigations and punishments. Continuing, he said: So, [people accusing ARSA] are misguiding the people by saying we are doing those things in the camps. We didn’t conduct killings. … ARSA is powerful in the camps. So, if you do something wrong in the camps, like murder, the murderers will use the name of ARSA. We have a hierarchy in the camps and control people. … Some ARSA members did wrong [in the camps]. If this happens, ARSA commanders will remove them from the organization, and sometimes those people form new organizations. ... We have removed former ARSA members who committed crimes. … Ata Ullah and ARSA, who are in Myanmar, are fighting to restore our [Rohingya] citizenship. That’s why we also train our people with weapons to fight. We are freedom fighters.239 The senior leader also told Fortify Rights that he had organized meetings between ARSA and Bangladesh authorities, including the National Security Intelligence (NSI), in 2021, saying: “The NSI chief promised the ARSA commander that they would protect us. But NSI broke this promise. Two ARSA commanders were killed by RAB [Rapid Action Battalion]. It was in 2022 when RAB killed two ARSA commanders. I was an organizer of the meeting where NSI and ARSA met.”240 On July 11, 2023, ARSA released a statement on Twitter condemning “the recent killings of innocent Rohingya” and demanding “justice,” saying: It is our belief that any form of violence or extrajudicial killings … is deplorable and should be unequivocally condemned. ... There are irrefutable allegations of members of RSO perpetrating acts of violence against fellow Rohingya under the supposed protection of the Bangladeshi law [e]nforcement agency, APBn. These acts include brutal beatings and inhumane disposal of the mutilated bodies.241 Despite ARSA members denying responsibility for crimes, a former ARSA member told Fortify Rights in November 2023: “[ARSA] didn’t work with humanity and according to the humanitarian principles for our whole community. They found a man and killed him without checking whether the person committed any sin. They kill people without a reason. ... Many are kidnapped and extorted for money.”242 236 Fortify Rights interview with A.A.B., location withheld, August 2024. 237 Rebecca Wright and Ivan Watson, “Inside the Rohingya Resistance: The Rebels Who Provoked Myanmar’s Crackdown,” CNN, February 3, 2017, https://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/03/asia/myanmar-rohingya-resistance/index.html. 238 Fortify Rights interviews with D.B., Bangladesh, March 25, 2023. 239 Ibid. 240 Ibid. 241 ARSA official X account (formally known as Twitter), “ARSA Closely Condemns the Recent Killings of Innocent Rohingya and Demands Justice,” July 11, 2023, https://twitter.com/ARSA_Official/status/1678746120346845186?s=20. 242 Fortify Rights audio communication with H.D., Bangladesh, November 2023.