Artillery fire and aerial bombardments by Myanmar forces killed three civilians and burned scores of houses in their communities in mid-March amid fighting between Myanmar forces and the rebel Arakan Army in war-ravaged Rakhine state, villagers recounted Monday at a press conference. Villagers from Kyauktaw township in western Myanmar's Rakhine state discuss the government military's attacks on their communities at press conference in Sittwe, March 30, 2020. They made the comments after traveling from in Kyauktaw township to the state capital Sittwe to give testimony on a series of attacks on civilian dwellings amid a government-imposed internet shutdown in nine townships in Rakhine and neighboring Chin state, cutting off vital information about the fighting. They villagers accused the Myanmar Army of conducting an aerial bombing on civilian communities that destroyed about 150 homes and a monastery in Pyaing Taing village, while government soldiers on the g...

Popular support in Rakhine State for the Arakan Army has been a game changer for the conflict there and is one reason why the ethnic armed group is increasingly impervious to pressure from China. By YUN SUN | FRONTIER The emergence of the Arakan Army has created the most acute problem for the stalled peace process and Myanmar’s efforts to end decades of conflict. The severe fighting between the AA and Tatmadaw in Rakhine and Chin States since January 2019 has not only caused instability, insecurity and casualties. It has also sucked up all the attention and resources that stakeholders could otherwise have devoted to negotiations and political dialogue. The conflict involving the AA is complicating this year’s general elections at the national level and hindering voting at the local level. The fighting is also obstructing progress in addressing the Rohingya crisis because repatriating refugees to conflict zones is neither desirable nor feasible. The basic question The...

The Arakan Army captured 30 soldiers after fighting government troops in Paletwa township in Chin State, the armed ethnic group said Wednesday. Khaing Thu Kha, a spokesperson of the Arakan Army, said among the captives is a battalion commander. “We arrested two captains and eight soldiers today. We arrested 20 soldiers yesterday,” he told The Myanmar Times. “We detain them under the prisoner of war law.” Khaing Thu Kha said the Tatmadaw (military) used rocket launchers, artillery, jet fighters, and helicopters during the fighting on Wednesday. “We seized a lot of weapons, and 20 soldiers died in the fight,” he said. “Some AA members also died.” The Myanmar Times was unable to reach Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, secretary of Tatmadaw True News Information Team, to confirm the report of the Arakan Army spokesperson. A 50-year-old man died in the clashes, and three other civilians injured in an artillery fire that hit Vi Hu Village on Monday, according to U Kyaw Nyein, ch...

The Irrawaddy YANGON—Myanmar’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture submitted the final draft of its nomination for Mrauk-U to become a World Heritage Site to UNESCO on Monday, four months after the ministry submitted the first draft of its nomination in September 2019. If the application succeeds, Mrauk-U will be the third place in Myanmar to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after the ancient cities of Bagan and Pyu. Mrauk-U is located in northern Rakhine State, around 60 km from the state capital of Sittwe. The ancient city was the seat of Arakanese kings from the 1400s until the late 1700s. At the height of their power, they controlled an area covering large parts of eastern Bengal, modern-day Rakhine State and the western part of central Myanmar. Much of the city’s remains are well-preserved and some 380 historic temples are scattered between the lush hills of northern Rakhine. Mrauk-U Heritage Trust chairwoman Daw Khin Than told The Irrawaddy on Tue...

28 Jan, 2020   Web Master Narinjara News, 28 January 2020 Some parts of ancient Koe- thaung Temple in Mrauk U township are reportedly damaged due to the vibration of artillery shillings by Myanmar Army personnel around the locality, alleged local residents. Many parts of roots & wells in north and north-western direction of the pagoda were cracked, said Daw Khin Than, chairman of Mrauk U heritage preservation association. “The damage may augment if heavy shelling of artilleries nearby the pagoda is not stopped by the authority,” she added.   Koe-thaung Temple was built by Arakan’s great king Min Dikkha during 1553 -1556 where 90,000 Buddha images are placed. The large-size pagoda faced devastation in the past. However the archaeology department has started renovating it. Some parts of the pagoda are already renovated, but it is not completely done. “Some parts were also damaged by the shelling of artilleries. The Koe- thaung Temple is surrounded by hills where...

Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint: 10 December 2019 YANGON—The Arakan Army (AA) is planning to levy “taxes” on infrastructure projects and other businesses in areas of Rakhine and Chin states under its control, including the India-backed Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transportation Project, worth an estimated US$480 million (722.25 billion kyats), according to AA chief Major General Tun Myat Naing. He told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the ethnic armed organization (EAO) would start collecting money from the operators of large-scale projects, but did not say whether small and medium-sized businesses would also be taxed. He said the taxes would be imposed from next year, as the group is currently compiling lists of the projects and businesses operating in those parts of Rakhine State and Chin State’s Paletwa Township where AA troops are present, and is in the process of deciding how much they will be required to pay. Maungdaw Border Traders Association chairman U Aung Myint Thein told The...

2019-12-06 Hnin Zar Phyu, the wife of Arakan Army (AA) Commander-in-Chief Maj-General Tun Myat Naing, and their infant son at the immigration department in the northern Thai city of Chiangmai on December 6, 2019. RFA Authorities in Thailand detained the wife and children of Arakan Army (AA) Commander-in-Chief Maj-General Tun Myat Naing this week at the Thai-Myanmar border and appear set to deport them, RFA learned on Friday. The detentions in the northern Thai city of Chiangmai were condemned by rights groups because the scenic city has been known for giving sanctuary to Myanmar expatriates and exile democracy leaders during decades of military repression and war in Myanmar. Friends and relatives of Tun Myat Naing told RFA’s Myamar Service that his wife, Hnin Zar Phyu, 11-year-old  old daughter Saw Pyae Shin, and infant son Myat Lin Zin were detained on Wednesday morning at Myanmar authorities’ request as they showed up to renew their Thai visas. Myanmar authorities al...

The wife of Arakan Army (AA) leader Major General Tun Myat Naing and their two children were detained by Thai immigration officials in Chiang Mai on Wednesday and will be deported to Myanmar soon, according to sources close to the family. Officials at the Thai Immigration Bureau’s Chiang Mai office arrested Ma Hnin Zar Phyu when she went there to extend her visa on Dec. 4, the sources said, adding that she and the two children were due to be sent to the border town of Mae Sai, in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, on Friday afternoon. From there the three are expected to be transferred across the border to Tachileik Township in Myanmar’s Shan State, where Special Branch Police are awaiting their arrival. According to a source in Chiang Mai who cannot be named, the Myanmar government gave the Thai government a list of 10 people, including the family of Maj-Gen Tun Myat Naing, whom it sought to have arrested due to their affiliation with the AA. Ma Hnin Zar Phyu’s visa expired on De...

A 10-year-old boy wounded by an artillery shell in Yar Shay Pyin Village, Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State SITTWE, Rakhine State—Five civilians, including three children, were injured in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U Township on Sunday after the Myanmar military allegedly shelled Yar Shay Pyin Village. Military troops deployed nearby in Lin Mway Hill came down to the village and fired arms and artillery, according to local residents. A girl aged 13, two women aged 22 and 25, and two boys, ages 3 and 10, were reportedly injured. “Soldiers came shooting about one mile from the village. At first, they were shooting their guns. Then, they fired four artillery shells. The last one struck the house of my brother, and children hiding there were hit by shrapnel,” local resident Ko Aung Thein told The Irrawaddy. He said that most of the local residents fled when the soldiers came into the village shooting their guns. “Villagers told me that soldiers opened fire for no reason wh...

By MIN AUNG KHINE 2 December 2019 Sittwe, Rakhine State –Three Mrauk-U township residents died and four others were injured when an artillery shell struck their community in the Ale Zay quarter of Mrauk-U town on Monday afternoon after 4 p.m. A month-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman died, according to Dr. Khin Maung Yin, the head of Mrauk-U hospital. He said, “A man and three other women were injured. One of the women sustained severe injures to her left leg and her right knee was dislocated. The injured will be operated on.” Details of what occurred were not yet known. A few hours earlier, three civilians were injured when an artillery shell fell on the village of Na Leik in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, on Monday at around 1 p.m., according to Yan Aung Pyin village-tract administrator U Sein Hla Aung. Two females, aged 13 and 27, and an 18-year-old male were injured in the incident, he said. Three people were hit by shrapnel and we have...

NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Tuesday said its "timely intervention" ensured the release of five Indians and five Myanmar nationals, including an MP, who had been taken hostage by an ethnic rebel group in the country's restive Rakhine province. The ministry of home affairs said in a statement that the five Indian nationals, along with a Member of Myanmar Parliament, two local transporters and two speedboat operators, were abducted by the Arakan Army on Sunday while on their way from Paletwa in Chin State to Kyauktaw in Rakhine. The abducted Indians were engaged in building the Kaladan road project in Myanmar. "Timely intervention by the government of India has ensured release of five abducted Indian nationals, a Member of Myanmar Parliament and four other Myanmar nationals from Arakan Army in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, in the early hours on Monday," the statement said. One Indian national died in the Arakan Army's custody due to ...

By MOE MYINT 20 February 2019 YANGON – Maj. Thet Oo Maung, a military representative in the Rakhine state parliament, has accused the Arakan Army (AA) of planning to take over five townships in northern Rakhine State by 2020, drawing on his analysis of the AA’s recent series of offensives against the Myanmar military in the region. The military major submitted a proposal to the Rakhine parliament on Wednesday in which he urged the Arakanese public to support the military’s operations in the region, saying the military always protects the lives of the public, and protects race and religion in Rakhine State and always protects the Arakanese from the danger of Muslim attacks. “They plan to stage a coup in Paletwa, Kyauktaw and Mrauk-U by 2020 as part of their mission called the 2020 Arakan Dream,” Maj. Thet Oo Maung said during the parliament session. He also accused the AA and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of coordinating on operations in the Mayu region, referring to ...

By MIN AUNG KHINE 18 February 2019 SITTWE—Three missing members of the Daingnet ethnic community of Thinbaw Hla Village in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township were found dead on Saturday according to the village administrator. The three men were reported to have gone out crabbing on Friday, and their buried bodies were recovered the following day, said village administrator U Maung Sein Tun. “They went to catch crabs and didn’t come back, so we searched for them the following day and found an earth pile in the bush near the village of Kun Thee Pin. We dug the earth pile and found their bodies,” he told The Irrawaddy. Maungdaw Township administrator U Myint Khaing, who together with the township judge and a forensic doctor recovered the bodies, confirmed that the three victims had had their throats slit. The three victims, aged 29, 30 and 40 respectively were cremated in Thinbaw Hla on Saturday evening. These frequent killings of ethnic people in Maungdaw highlight the lack o...

19 October 2018 SITTWE, Rakhine State — Authorities and conservationists in Rakhine State suspect local vandals for the damage of nearly a dozen Buddha images inside a 14th century temple Wednesday night in the ancient Arakanese royal capital of Mrauk-U. Eleven of 28 Buddha images inside Sin Cha Seik Ward’s Lay Myat Hnar Temple were damaged, said Daw Khin Than, who chairs a government-supported conservation group in Mrauk-U. From the 15th to 19th centuries Mrauk-U was the seat of a succession of Arakanese kings who at their height controlled much of modern-day western Myanmar, including Rakhine State, and eastern Bangladesh. Much of the ancient city remains well preserved and some 380 historic temples are scattered among the lush hills of northern Rakhine. “There is a need to tighten security in Mrauk-U. I think people are drinking and abusing drugs inside pagodas. Some Buddha images had their heads broken off, some images had their arms damaged, and so on. Buddha ima...

By DVB 8 January 2018 The leadership of the Arakan National Party (ANP) yesterday announced their decision to suspend Dr. Aye Maung from his position as party chairman, despite the fact that Aye Maung resigned as ANP chair over five weeks ago. Speaking at a press conference in Rakhine state capital Sittwe on the final day of the party’s Annual General Meeting, ANP general-secretary Tun Aung Kyaw said, “The party will allow a timeframe for [Aye Maung ] to reconsider his resignation.” He added: “In the meantime, the party’s central executive committee has decided to suspend him from his position as the ANP’s chair.” Tun Aung Kyaw told reporters that they will not appoint a new chairperson in the interim, but instead divide party duties and operations between themselves. The ANP general-secretary confirmed that Aye Maung had not been present during the four-day meeting, though he had been invited. Aye Maung cited “disunity among the leaders of the party” as one of the reaso...