By Thu Thu Aung and Poppy McPherson
YANGON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - When Myanmar officials touredrefugee camps in Bangladesh last month, inviting RohingyaMuslims who fled the country to return, they brought with thempamphlets adorned with cartoons showing hijab-wearing womenpassing through checkpoints and happily grasping identity cards.
They did not mention the new war being waged at home.
While the majority of Rohingya residents of northwesternMyanmar were driven out by a military campaign that began inAugust 2017, a scattered community of some 200,000 remainedbehind in Rakhine state, in villages that were spared theviolence. Two years on, many of them are now trapped by a newconflict.
Since late last year, government troops have been battlingthe Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group that recruits from themostly Buddhist Rakhine, who make up the majority in the region.
The worsening fighting has left Rohingya caught in themiddle and facing threats from both sides, a dozen villagerstold Reuters, making returns ever more unlikely.
"We are stuck in the middle of their fight," said Tin Shwe,a villager from Buthidaung township, where clashes have beenintense. "There has been no improvement of our lives over thepast two years, only degradation. Only trouble."
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh afterMyanmar's armed forces launched a crackdown following attacks onsecurity posts on Aug. 25, 2017.
United Nations' investigators have said the army campaignincluded mass killings and gang-rapes and was carried out with"genocidal intent". The military denies almost all theallegations made by refugees during what it said was alegitimate counterterrorism operation.
On Thursday, a third attempt to begin the repatriation of3,450 Rohingya cleared by the authorities to return to Myanmarfailed when the refugees refused to go back.
Min Thein, director of Myanmar's social welfare ministry,said security measurements were in place for returning refugees."The Myanmar police force will guard them," he said.
A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seekingcomment.
INFORMATION BLACKOUT
Authorities have shut northern Rakhine off from journalistsand most humanitarian agencies, and imposed an internet blackoutsince late June, citing the need to avert unrest.
The restrictions make information difficult to verify, butReuters spoke to a dozen Rohingya still in central and northernRakhine and refugees in Bangladesh with relatives who stayedbehind.
Some described landmine blasts and shells falling in Muslimvillages, as well as intimidation from combatants on both sidesof the conflict.
Two told Reuters they would flee to Bangladesh if theycould, but routes out of the country used during the previousexodus have been rendered unsafe by the violence.
More than 1,000 Rohingya have arrived in the camps inBangladesh since January, according to the United Nationsrefugee agency, a figure that also includes arrivals from India,which has in recent months been cracking down on what it saysare illegal Rohingya immigrants.
Those from Myanmar cited violence linked to fighting betweenArakan Army insurgents and the military as well as poor livingconditions, spokeswoman Louise Donovan said.
Many refugees living in the crowded Bangladesh camps saythey want to return home, but under specific conditions,including guarantees of citizenship and security andimprovements in the lives of Rohingya still in Myanmar.
Denigrated as illegal immigrants, although many can tracetheir ancestry in Myanmar back centuries, the Rohingya there aremostly denied citizenship and subject to tight restrictions onmovement that keep them confined to camps and villages.
CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE
The Arakan Army has been fighting for greater autonomy forRakhine, a region that was an independent kingdom for centuries.
In its calls for an armed "revolution", the group draws ondeep-seated historical resentment felt by some Rakhines towardsthe ethnic Bamar majority that dominates the central government.
Rohingya still living in the area say they have been caughtin the middle of the conflict.
Government troops battling the insurgents have set up campin Muslim villages in parts of northern Rakhine, five villagerstold Reuters. Soldiers ask Muslim residents to bring them foodand firewood, or to show them the roads, villagers said, puttingthem in danger of retribution from the Arakan Army.
"If they say they will stay, we have to accept it," said oneRohingya living in Rathedaung township, who like others askednot to be named for safety reasons.
Another in Buthidaung township said soldiers had asked himto guide troops, as he was a proficient Burmese speaker. Some ofthe Muslim population, particularly from poorer communities,speak only the Rohingya dialect.
Afterwards, the villager said, he got a call from an unknownnumber, warning that anyone who helped the military would faceconsequences. He said the speaker told him: "We will kill you.We will burn your village."
Two Rohingya were shot dead in Rathedaung township's SinKhone Taing village in early August after escorting troops, fivelocals told Reuters. Officials from the village could not bereached for comment.
"We are hostages, stuck between two groups," said one Muslimwho fled the village. "We are not safe. It has been three timesalready that we have fled from the village since June ... Thegovernment cannot control this area."
Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thu Ka denied the organisationhad killed civilians, blaming Myanmar forces for the deaths.
"We don't kill our civilians like that," he said. "As weheard, the Burmese military took them and eliminated like them... There are too many cases like that."
AID SHORTAGES
Many Rohingya in Myanmar have been reliant on internationalnon-profit organizations for medical care and deliveries of foodsince a previous bout of violence in 2012 that forced many intocamps.
Since the start of the Arakan Army conflict, little has beengetting through.
In Rathedaung's Sin Khone Taing village, Rohingya said theylast received a delivery of food in May. "People are living offrice porridge," said one villager.
Kyaw Win, executive director of Burma Human Rights Network,which monitors the Rohingya crisis, said it had received reportsof landmines and improved explosive devices placed on the roadsnear the exits of Rohingya villages.
In a joint statement last week, 61 NGOs including Save theChildren and Oxfam said there had been "no meaningful progresson freedom of movement or human rights" for the Rohingya stillin Myanmar, while the recent "upsurge in violence has worsenedthe already precarious humanitarian situation in central andnorthern Rakhine state".
Across the border, in the sprawling Bangladesh camps,refugees keep in touch with their relatives in Myanmar viaphone, now that the internet connection has been cut. Nobody isurging them to come home.
"All of the people want to flee as there is no security,"Tin Shwe said. "The government cannot help the few Rohingya leftbehind. So how could anyone believe they could help hundreds ofthousands?"(Reporting by Poppy McPherson and Thu Thu Aung; Editing by AlexRichardson)