New non-Muslim force stokes fear in Rakhine

Ever since deadly attacks by alleged Muslim militants in Myanmar's troubled northwestern Rakhine State, Myint Lwin says he has been unable to sleep at night. As rumours spread of fresh violence, even the sound of dogs barking frightened him.

"No one in the village has had enough sleep since last month," said Myint Lwin, an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist from a Muslim-majority village in the north of the state. "We were scared when we heard people shouting and dogs barking in the middle of the night."

The 18-year-old motorbike taxi driver is one of 116 civilians to sign up for a new auxiliary police force in Rakhine State, part of the response by authorities to the latest spasm of violence that began with attacks on border police posts that killed nine officers on Oct 9.

Human rights monitors say arming and training non-Muslims will lead to further bloodshed in the divided state, but Myint Lwin sees it as necessary for self-defence.

"These Muslims are trying to abuse our Buddhist women and people, so I want to protect our country from them," he told Reuters, wearing his new police uniform with a badge bearing a white star on the shoulder.

Sixty-nine suspected insurgents and 17 members of the security forces have been killed, according to official reports since a military crackdown began last month along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh.

It is the most serious unrest in the state since hundreds were killed in communal clashes between Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.

Residents and rights advocates have also accused security forces of killing and raping civilians and setting fire to homes in the area, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya Muslims. The government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the army reject the accusations.

There have been no reports of insurgent attacks on Buddhist civilians.

Only citizens were eligible for the posts, excluding the 1.1 million Rohingyas living in Rakhine State who are denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Police said the recruits would help protect residents from what the government has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group, estimated to be 400-strong, that has been blamed for the Oc. 9 attacks.

"This is a recipe for rights abuses against the Rohingya," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "The Burmese government is foolhardy to think they will be able to control the local recruits operating on a basis of bias against the Rohingya people."