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Rohingya Solidarity Organisation

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Rohingya Solidarity Organisation
রোহিঙ্গা সলিডারিটি অর্গানাইজেশন
LeadersMuhammad Yunus
Dates of operation1980s–present
HeadquartersMayu, Rakhine State
Active regionsRakhine State, Myanmar
IdeologyRohingya interests
Islamism
Part of Rohingya National Army
Opponents Union of Myanmar
Battles and warsInternal conflict in Myanmar

The Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (Template:Lang-bn; RSO) is a militant Rohingya organisation founded in the early 1980s, during the aftermath of Operation King Dragon, an intense military operation conducted by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces).

History

Rohingya Islamist flag

In the early 1980s, more radical elements broke away from the Rohingya Patriotic Front, and formed the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO). It was led by Muhammad Yunus, the former Secretary General of RPF. It soon became the main and most militant faction among the Rohingyas on the Burma-Bangladesh border. RSO based itself on religious ground; and as a result, it obtained various support from the groups of the Muslim world. These included JeI in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami (HeI) in Afghanistan, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the Angkatan Belia Islam sa-Malaysia (ABIM), and the Islamic Youth Organisation of Malaysia.[1][2]

In the early 1990s, the military camps of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) were located in the Cox's Bazaar district in southern Bangladesh. RSO possessed a significant arsenal of light machine-guns, AK-47 assault rifles, RPG-2 rocket launchers, claymore mines and explosives, according to a field report conducted by correspondent Bertil Lintner in 1991.[3] The Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF) was mostly armed with British manufactured 9mm Sterling L2A3 sub-machine guns, M-16 assault rifles and point-303 rifles.[3] It has been alleged that Taliban instructors from Afghanistan were seen in some RSO camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, while nearly 100 RSO insurgents reported to be undergoing training with the terrorist organisation Hizb-e-Islami Mujahideen.[1][2]

One of the several dozen videotapes obtained by CNN from Al-Qaeda's archives in Afghanistan in August 2002 showed that "Muslim brothers from Burma" (Myanmar) received training in Afghanistan. Some video tapes were allegedly shot in RSO camps in Bangladesh in the 1990s.[1][2][4] According to intelligence sources in Asia, Rohingya recruits in the RSO were paid a 30,000 Bangladeshi taka ($525 USD) enlistment reward, and a salary of 10,000 taka ($175) per month. Families of fighters who were killed in action were offered 100,000 taka ($1,750) in compensation, a promise which lured many young Rohingya men, who were mostly very poor, to travel to Pakistan, where they would train and then perform suicide attacks in Afghanistan.[1][2]

The expansion of the RSO in the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in the government of Myanmar launching a massive counter-offensive to expel RSO insurgents along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. In December 1991, Tatmadaw soldiers crossed the border and accidentally attacked a Bangladeshi military outpost, an incident which developed into a major strain in Bangladesh-Myanmar relations. By April 1992, more than 250,000 Rohingya civilians had been forced out of northern Rakhine State as a result of the increased military operations in the area.[1]

In April 1994, around 120 members of the RSO entered Maungdaw Township in Myanmar by crossing the Naf River which marks the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. On 28 April 1994, nine out of twelve timed bombs planted in different areas in Maungdaw by RSO insurgents exploded, damaging a fire engine and a few buildings, and seriously wounding four civilians.[5]

On 28 October 1998, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF), led by Nurul Islam, merged together and founded the Rohingya National Council (RNC). The Rohingya National Army (RNA) was established as its armed wing, with the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) organising Rohingya insurgents of different factions into a single army.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Bangladesh Extremist Islamist Consolidation". by Bertil Lintner. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d "Bangladesh: Breeding ground for Muslim terror". by Bertil Lintner. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b Lintner, Bertil (19 October 1991). Tension Mounts in Arakan State,. This news-story was based on interview with Rohingyas and others in the Cox’s Bazaar area and at the Rohingya military camps in 1991: Jane’s Defence Weekly.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  4. ^ "Rohingyas trained in different Al-Qaeda and Taliban camps in Afghanistan". By William Gomes. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  5. ^ "Rohingya Terrorists Plant Bombs, Burn Houses in Maungdaw". Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  6. ^ "Wikileaks Cables: ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANIZATION CONTACTS WITH AL QAEDA AND WITH BURMESE INSURGENT GROUPS ON THE THAI BORDER". Revealed by Wikileaks. Retrieved 22 October 2012.

See also

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