March 8, 2020     |   By:  Subir Bhaumik Arakan Army trainees Desperate to complete the ambitious US$ 484 million Kaladan Multimodal Project and get it operational, India may be getting too closely involved in what is essentially Myanmar's problem, namely, tackling an invigorated insurgency in the country's coastal province of Rakhine (previously Arakan).  Policy analysts familiar with Myanmar advise New Delhi to be cautious. The Arakan Army (AA), formed in 2009 in the northern state of Kachin, is now attacking the Burmese military called “Tatmadaw” continuously, even in urban areas, in an effort to weaken Tatmadow’s hold on the strategic Rakhine province, where both China and India have initiated major connectivity projects. The Chinese have finished the Kyaukphyu deep sea port and are going ahead with a Special Economic Zone around it with rail-road connections and oil-gas pipelines linking it with their Yunnan province.  The Indians...

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in ...

By MOE MYINT 14 December 2017 YANGON — In order to implement the recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, the President’s Office announced the creation of a ten-member implementation committee on Monday including international and local experts alike. The country’s de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had already formed the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine (UEHRD). Dozens of businesspeople have separately formed yet another group to accelerate infrastructure development in the state’s north. However, there appears to be little collaboration between the Union government and local civil society groups or the Rakhine State Parliament. And as the central government works out a strategy to deal with the crisis, those groups and lawmakers have already begun trying to permanently reshape local demographics by drawing in ethnic Arakanese from elsewhere. Not long after armed clash...

Thursday, December 14, 2017 Aungdagon-2 Waterways transport is an important part of life for many residents of Rakhine State, where seagoing vessels are replacing ferries designed to operate on rivers, including one ill-fated boat that sank with the loss of scores of lives. By HTUN KHAING | FRONTIER IN THE late afternoon on Friday March 13, 2015, an overloaded ferry carrying hundreds of passengers left Kyaukphyu on Rakhine State’s Ramree Island bound for Sittwe, about 110 kilometres (70 miles) away across the Bay of Bengal. The Aungdagon-3, a government-owned vessel more than 20 years old, was operating on a route linking the state capital with Taungup, from which it had departed the previous day. Soon after leaving Kyaukphyu the Inland Water Transport ferry began taking water through the bow. Passengers said that several hours out of Kyaukphyu, the Aungdagon-3 was taking so much water that all the men on board were trying to bail it out. At about 8pm, the sea became ro...

By LARRY JAGAN 11 December 2017 Myanmar has launched a diplomatic offensive as international criticism mounts over their treatment of the Muslim Rohingya. It is a three-pronged assault, aimed at the UN, combatting calls for renewed sanctions and an effort to engage the international community in plans for the reconstruction and reconciliation of Rakhine. This charm offensive is largely aimed at the countries in the Middle East and Muslim nations in Asia, which it sees as the main movers behind attempts to get the UN Security Council to renew sanctions. In the past week diplomats have been instructed to reach out to members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to clarify the government’s position. They have been instructed to explain that the Myanmar government plans to accept back all the refugees in a “phased return,” according to diplomats in Yangon. But at the same time the country’s civilian leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has announced the formatio...

BY TEACIRCLEOXFORD POSTED ON DECEMBER 7, 2017 Renaud Egreteau asks how the legislature could provide more oversight on the recent Rakhine State crisis. When the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) launched attacks against military and police outposts in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State on August 25, the fifth session of the Union parliament was about to go into recess. Minister of Home Affairs Lt-Gen. Kyaw Swe and his deputy, Maj-Gen. Aung Soe, quickly provided details about the response of the armed forces and police to lawmakers in both parliamentary houses, which have been controlled by the National League for Democracy since the 2015 elections. They explained at length how the country’s constitution and laws, particularly the counter-terrorism legislation passed in 2014, governed the actions of the security forces. The military-appointed lawmakers seconded their report, stressing the commitment of the armed forces, or Tatmadaw, to protect the nation and...