Fortify Rights, ARSA, and the Art of Changing the Subject
How the Spotlight Moved From the Arakan Army to ARSA
DVB English has published my latest piece, “Fortify Rights Picked the Wrong Moment,” on the politics of timing around accountability for ARSA abuses. The article looks at Fortify Rights’ decision to promote an ICC arrest-warrant appeal against Abu Ammar Jununi/Ata Ullah less than 72 hours after Human Rights Watch released a major investigation into the Arakan Army’s alleged massacre of Rohingya civilians at Hoyyar Siri/Htan Shauk Khan. The point is not that ARSA abuses should be ignored. They should not. Rohingya victims of ARSA deserve justice.
But timing, emphasis and political context matter. Fortify Rights’ intervention arrived at the exact moment when rare international attention had finally turned to the Arakan Army’s conduct as a de facto authority in Rakhine State. By shifting the spotlight to a detained and diminished Rohingya armed-group leader, the appeal risks creating a false symmetry between ARSA’s crimes and the AA’s present territorial power over Rohingya lives.
The piece also questions Fortify Rights’ use of anonymous “Rohingya-led organisations” as political validation, and the way Bangladesh is cast as a potential partner in justice despite its long history of securitising and manipulating the refugee camps where ARSA operated. My argument is simple - accountability for all perpetrators is necessary, but it can also become a convenient way to disperse/dilute pressure just when one powerful actor is finally facing scrutiny.
I also think Fortify Rights’ Leadership Council needs more scrutiny. I have written before about Irwin Cotler’s presence on that council and what it says about Fortify’s claim to universal accountability. Cotler is not just a former justice minister; he is also a figure long associated with defending Israel from sustained human rights scrutiny. So when Fortify uses its Leadership Council to add moral and legal weight to a politically fraught intervention, we should ask what kind of authority is being manufactured.
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