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...

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...

Mr Stephen J. Adler, President and Editor-in-Chief of Reuters has expressed his disappointment that two of his company’s Myanmar reporters are being prosecuted under the antiquated Official Secrets Act. His press statement, released on January 10 following the appearance of the two journalists in court, is as follows: “We are extremely disappointed that the authorities seek to prosecute Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. We view this as a wholly unwarranted, blatant attack on press freedom. Our colleagues should be allowed to return to their jobs reporting on events in Myanmar. We believe time is of the essence and we continue to call for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s prompt release,” he said. http://www.mizzima.com/news-domestic/reuters-chief-expresses-dismay-decision-prosecute-two-reuters-reporters

Two Reuters journalists were formally charged by police in a Myanmar court Wednesday for breaching a colonial-era secrecy law that carries up to 14 years in jail, despite calls for their immediate release. Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested a month ago under the Official Secrets Act after they allegedly were given classified documents by two policemen over dinner. The pair had been reporting on the military campaign in the northern Rakhine state that has forced some 655,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee over the border to Bangladesh since August, violence the UN has condemned as ethnic cleansing. The issue is incendiary inside Myanmar, where authorities deny any wrongdoing during an army crackdown on terrorists from the Muslim minority. A police officer "filed the case to charge under the state secret (Official Secrets) act, section 3.1(c)," a district judge told the court. The section punishes anyone who "obtains, collects, records...

Having been remanded for a second 14-day period at a hearing last month, the case of two  Reuters journalists began in earnest on Wednesday at Yangon’s Northern District Court, with the prosecution confirming that charges under Burma’s Official Secrets Act would be brought against them. The two reporters, Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27,  were detained in Yangon  by Burmese authorities on 12 December, allegedly in possession of sensitive government documents. The pair face up to 14 years’ imprisonment under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Ahead of the hearing Wednesday, Burmese journalists gathered outside the courthouse — several wearing black T-shirts that read “Journalism is not a crime” — in protest of the two men’s detention. Others held banners calling for their immediate release. Than Zaw Aung, a lawyer for the two arrested journalists, said a bail petition had been submitted and that the defence would be given an opportunity to argue the case for ...

By THE IRRAWADDY 10 January 2018 YANGON—A Myanmar Army investigation panel has determined that villagers and security forces killed 10 Rohingya allegedly affiliated with Muslim militants who launched a series of attacks on security outposts in northern Maungdaw last year. The Army investigation followed the discovery of 10 bodies near a graveyard in Inn Din village in southern Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State in December. According to a press release issued by the panel on Wednesday afternoon, a five-member team led by Lieutenant-General Aye Win visited Inn Din village between Dec. 20 and Jan. 2 and interviewed 21 Army witnesses, three Border Police officers, 13 members of No. 8 Security Unit, six Inn Din villagers and six civil servants. The 10 Rohingya were involved in attacks organized by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)—a Muslim militant group denounced by the government as a “terrorist organization” after a series of attacks last year—and arrested on Sept. 1 dur...

By MOE MYINT 10 January 2018 YANGON—Despite the Myanmar government’s assurances to the international community that the country’s military is forbidden to use landmines, a number of Rohingya people have been killed by mines produced by the Army in northern Rakhine State in recent months, according to a new report. On Wednesday, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Myanmar Research Coordinator for Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, launched the group’s 19th report at the Royal Rose restaurant in Yangon. The anti-personnel landmine watchdog compiled casualty figures from medical assistance groups and non-governmental organizations, as well as information obtained by its own local researcher during visits to refugee camps on the Bangladesh border. A military crackdown against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Maungdaw district in August 2017 caused around 660,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Some of them walked into minefields while attempting to cross the border, accor...

Two Reuters journalists were formally charged by police in a Myanmar court Wednesday for breaching a colonial-era secrecy law that carries up to 14 years in jail, despite calls for their immediate release. Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested a month ago under the Official Secrets Act after they allegedly were given classified documents by two policemen over dinner. The pair had been reporting on the military campaign in the northern Rakhine state that has forced some 655,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee over the border to Bangladesh since August, violence the UN has condemned as ethnic cleansing. The issue is incendiary inside Myanmar, where authorities deny any wrongdoing during an army crackdown on terrorists from the Muslim minority. A police officer "filed the case to charge under the state secret (Official Secrets) act, section 3.1(c)," a district judge told the court. The section punishes anyone who "obtains, collects, recor...

Maj. Naing Maung Zaw from Border Guard Force (BGF) confirmed to Mizzima that combined troops of Karen National Union (KNU) and BGF were fighting fiercely against the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State. “We have been fighting with them fiercely for over a month. Our combined troops have overrun their outposts. We have had intermittent fighting and sporadic firing until today. The place we are fighting is called Tharbawthae which is in dense forest full of valleys and ravines,” he said. Maj. Naing Maung Zaw added that a combined force of government troops, the 7th Brigade Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and BGF were fighting with them near the Hatgyi dam site in Maethaewaw.  “We have being fighting with them for a long time after they launched an attack on our outpost. They frequently broke their promises. We have to retaliate after they launched repeated attacks on our positions,” he added. Maj. Naing Maung Zaw further s...