Myanmar Junta, ARSA/RSO, and Some Bengagya Activists: Unholy Trinity

Aung Naing Lin, Opinion

Global Arakan Network September 7, 2025

Unholy Trinity (picturecreated)

Northern Arakan burns, not just from the fires of conflict but from a vile conspiracy weaving together the Myanmar junta, Bengagya (Rohingya) militant groups like ARSA and RSO, and their silver-tongued activists abroad. This unholy trinity—junta butchers, armed infiltrators, and propagandists—forms a grotesque alliance that defies logic at first glance.

How could the architects of ethnic cleansing cozy up to those they’ve branded as enemies? Yet, the hidden threads of this political cesspool reveal a calculated plot to crush the Arakan Army (AA), the true shield of people’s aspirations, and carve up Arakan’s soul for their mutual gain. This is no mere coalition; it’s a pact forged in treachery, dripping with the blood of land and threatening the stability of the entire region.

First, let’s rip the mask off the so-called Bengagya activists, Tun Khin and Nay San Lwin, whose hands are stained with the ink of militant agendas. These men aren’t just voices for the displaced; they’re puppet masters linked to the violent cores of ARSA, RSO, the obscure Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA), and the Rohingya Islamic Mahaz (RIM). The RSO, a venomous political beast, has flaunted its ties to Nay San Lwin and Tun Khin across platforms, as if mocking the world’s blindness.

NSL's Social Media Post (photocrd)

In November 2017, Nay San Lwin’s social media post about the arrest of Ko Ko Lin, RSO’s political director, wasn’t a neutral report—it was a cry of concern, a signal of their intertwined fates. Fast forward to November 20, 2022, and the formation of the Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) cemented this collusion. Reports from Anadolu Agency and The Irrawaddy expose how Tun Khin and Nay San Lwin joined forces with Ko Ko Lin and Muhammad Yunus, the RSO’s founding fanatic, in a supposed “unified” front. This isn’t advocacy; it’s a war room in exile, orchestrating chaos while cloaked in human rights rhetoric.

The plot deepens with RSO’s plunge into the so-called Four Brothers Alliance, formed in December 2024, a wretched coalition with ARSA, Islami Mahaz, and the ARA. Backed by some shadowy elements of Bangladeshi military intelligence—confirmed by sources like Firstpost and Organiser—this alliance reeks of foreign meddling, with whispers of Pakistani ISI stirring the pot.

Through this network, Nay San Lwin and Tun Khin are tethered to ARSA’s blood-soaked hands, their activist platforms serving as megaphones for militant agendas. The International Crisis Group has laid bare how these groups exploit Bangladesh’s refugee camps as staging grounds, turning desperation into a weapon against Arakan’s rightful defenders. It’s a sickening cycle: activists sanitize the militants’ image on global stages, while gunmen sharpen their blades in the shadows.

Now, the dagger strikes deeper. ARSA and RSO, once branded as junta victims, have crawled into bed with Myanmar’s military tyrants, fighting side by side against the AA. This isn’t rumor—it’s a betrayal carved in gunfire. Messages from Bengagya activists flow through RSO’s channels to junta officials, forging a sinister pact to divide Arakan like vultures over carrion. Their shared goal? To crush the AA, the only force standing firm for Arakan’s sovereignty.

Turain Tun, Commander of No (15), MOC , Key Responsible Official in Recruiting Bangagya Militants in Buthidaung (photocrd)

Reports from Rohingya Refugee News and Crisis Group detail how ARSA and RSO fighters have joined junta forces in clashes against AA positions, particularly in Maungdaw and Buthidaung. The junta, desperate to cling to power as the AA liberates township after township—15 of 18 by 2025, per The Diplomat—sees these militants as pawns in their crumbling empire. Meanwhile, activists like Nay San Lwin and junta mouthpiece Zaw Min Tun sing from the same hymnbook, their words dripping with synchronized malice.

The Htan Shauk Khan “massacre” in Buthidaung is a prime example of their propaganda war. In August 2025, Zaw Min Tun and Nay San Lwin peddled identical lies, claiming the AA slaughtered over 600 Muslims. Eleven Myanmar amplified this filth, using doctored images of junta corpses to pin the blame on our fighters. The AA shattered this narrative, with Muslim elders in Maungdaw issuing a statement on August 23, 2025, confirming the skeletons were junta remnants, not civilians.

This wasn’t a mistake; it was a deliberate smear to incite global outrage and weaken the AA’s moral standing. On the battlefield, the junta’s navy skulks near Bangladeshi waters, funneling arms and ammunition to ARSA and RSO, as noted in some sources. These weapons fuel attacks on AA outposts from the Bangladesh border, with February 2025 raids in Maungdaw exposing this vile collusion. This isn’t partnership—it’s a death machine, arming thugs to destabilize Arakha homeland.

ARSA Leader in Na-Kha-Kha (5) Near Maungdaw (photocrd)

While Nay San Lwin and Tun Khin weave their soft-power lies, ARSA and RSO bolster the junta’s hard-power game, receiving military training and equipment to strike the AA. Some reports confirm junta-supplied arms flowing through the Naf River, turning border camps into arsenals. This dual assault—propaganda from abroad, bullets on the ground—aims to fracture Arakan, letting the junta hold the interior while Bengagya militants seize border enclaves. It’s a divide-and-conquer strategy, as old as tyranny itself, dressed up in modern treachery.

This alliance isn’t just Arakan’s nightmare—it’s a regional catastrophe. Chinese investments in the Kyaukphyu port and India’s Kaladan project teeter on the edge. A fractured Arakan, bled dry by junta-backed militants, threatens trade routes and energy corridors critical to Beijing and New Delhi.

Some elements in Bangladeshi intelligence, risk sparking cross-border tensions, dragging neighbors into the quagmire. The international community must act—sanction junta arms suppliers, probe Bangladesh’s complicity, and back the AA’s governance in liberated zones. The AA’s control of 15 townships by 2025, per The Irrawaddy, proves its capacity to build stability. Yet, the world dithers, blind to the vipers nesting in plain sight.

This alliance of evil—junta, ARSA/RSO, and Bengagya activists—is a cancer on Arakan’s future. Their lies, guns, and foreign backers threaten to choke Arakan struggle, but the AA stands unbroken. Expose their deceit, arm our truth, and let the world see this betrayal for what it is: a desperate bid by cowards to steal Arakha land. Arakan will rise, not as a pawn of tyrants or infiltrators, but as a beacon of resistance and hope.