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...