Myanmar: Operation 1027 Moves Civil War Closer To A Tipping Point – Analysis

eurasiareview
By RFA
By Zachary Abuza
February 28, 2024

File photo of Arakan Army soldiers in Myanmar. Photo Credit: Arakan Army

 

Feb. 27 marks four months since the launch of Operation 1027, a game-changing offensive against the Myanmar military regime by the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies in the north of the country.

The alliance of three ethnic resistance organizations – the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA) – had been broadly supportive of the National Unity Government (NUG), the shadow opposition.

In defence of Aung San Suu Kyi

theinterpretor
Derek Tonkin
Published 22 Feb 2024 

Many in Myanmar have condemned what they perceive asseriously flawed Western criticism of the Burmese ex-leader. 

On 18 October 2023, the Brighton and Hove City Council in the United Kingdom revoked the Freedom of the City awarded to Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi in 2011. Their special meeting lasted only 18 minutes, with Councillor Bella Sankey, the Labour leader of the Council, stating that it was not right to honour a person who “presided over the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Muslim Rohingya community” and was “an enabler to racial and religious discrimination and ethnic cleansing”. Sankey was supported by all 50 or so of the Council members present.

Myanmar Junta forcefully recruiting Rohingya from camps

THE BUSINESS STANDARD
TBS Report
24 February, 2024,

Legal experts say that the drive is illegal since Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups and denied them citizenship for decades 

Rohingyas are entering Bangladesh territory crossing Myanmar border on October 9, 2017. Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed Paulash/TBS
 

In the wake of a nationwide conscription law, Myanmars junta is seeking to recruit Rohingya muslims to join their army. They are offering freedom of movement to those restricted to camps from displacement in the Rakhine state as a way to entice them into military service.

How is Myanmar's civil war impacting Bangladesh?

CLICK ITTEFAQ
DW
Publish : 23 Feb 2024,

Bangladesh is closely watching the fighting in Myanmar's neighboring Rakhine state

Fighting between Myanmar's junta and the Arakan Army (AA) rebel group in western Myanmar's Rakhine state has intensified. Casualties have also been recorded in Bangladesh, with two people killed by an errant mortar round this month and several injured by gunshots from across the border. Rebel fighters have recently taken control of the Myanmar border region, and are seeking to oust junta forces from elsewhere in the state.

A New Era is Dawning For the People of Myanmar’s Rakhine State

THE | DIPLOMAT
Kyaw Hsan Hlaing
February 13, 2024

After years of conflict and ethnic cleansing, recent military gains by the Arakan Army have opened up fresh possibilities for the region’s future. 

On February 8, the rebel Arakan Army (AA) seized Mrauk-U, the former capital of the Arakan kingdom in Rakhine State, western Myanmar, along with the towns of Minbya and Kyauktaw. In fact, since the resumption of war between the AA and the country’s military junta on November 13, the AA has now successfully taken over six cities in the state, as well as two cities in neighboring southern Chin state, while destroying at least seven navy vessels and a helicopter. These ongoing victories have invigorated the long-standing dreams of Rakhine nationalists for an independent Arakan.

Arakan Army gains ground in Rakhine conflict, seizes control of Paletwa and other towns

BORDER LENS
The Borderlens Desk
February 20, 2024 

Reports emerging from Myanmar on Thursday have indicated that an ethnic army in the country has launched an attack on yet another major city in the west, with the state’s capital not far behind. The Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group, has intensified its fighting against Myanmar’s army in the strategically significant city of Sittwe in Rakhine province. This area holds particular importance due to India’s construction of a port for connectivity to its northeastern states via the Bay of Bengal.

Myanmar junta in a make-or-break Rakhine fight

ASIA TIMES
Anthony Davis
February 1, 2024

Arakan Army poised for all-out Rakhine war but replication of recent insurgent successes in Shan state is far from guaranteed 

Arakan Army insurgent fighters take aim in their conflict against Myanmar state forces in Rakhine state. Photo: YouTube / Arakan Army promotional video

 

As the tempo of conflict in Myanmar’s northeast slows after months of dramatic insurgent advances, the civil war’s center of gravity has shifted decisively to the western seaboard state of Rakhine.

China success, Western failure in revolutionary Myanmar

ASIA TIMES
David Scott Mathieson
January 27, 2024

Rebel gains on junta forces owe more to China’s tacit support than the West’s ineffectual soft and quiet diplomacy 

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army fighters, part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, hold their flag atop a captured Myanmar army vehicle. Photo: The Kokang 

 

Myanmar all but fell from the international conscience in 2023, with the world subsumed by the Ukraine war, conflict in the Middle East and the dumpster fire of domestic American politics Myanmar, which competed with Sudan for most neglected conflict, was further marginalized by misconceptions that its post-coup civil war had settled into a grinding post-coup stalemate.

300 Myanmar junta troops who fled attack return from Bangladesh

RFA
By RFA Burmese
2024.02.16

The troops had been stationed at a border post that the rebel Arakan Army captured earlier this month.

Myanmar citizens and Border Guard Police who crossed the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to seek shelter in Bangladesh are escorted back into Myanmar after arriving by ship at Cox’s Bazar on Feb. 15, 2024. (AFP

Some 300 members of a junta military unit and a border police force who fled to Bangladesh during an attack by the rebel Arakan Army have been repatriated to Myanmar, according to several Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Renewed conflict in Rakhine State poses new threat to Rohingya

ARAB NEWS
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
February 16, 2024  

Displaced Rohingya refugees from Rakhine state in Myanmar rest near Ukhia, at the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. (AFP)

Since November, Rakhine State in Myanmar has been marred by renewed violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, shattering a year-long unofficial ceasefire and exacerbating an already dire situation for the Rohingya population. This latest wave of conflict is not only deepening the existing humanitarian crisis, but also leading to large-scale displacement of the Rohingya, further compounding the suffering of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

How Rohingya refugees are digitally reclaiming their culture

TRT WORLD
Tarushi Aswani
Feb 13, 2024,

An Istanbul-based youth or a refugee at a Bangladesh camp…Many people are striving to preserve the Rohingya way of life, which is under threat of being wiped out amid persecution in their ancestral land in Myanmar.

Others ,For nearly 3 million Rohingya in exile, creative initiatives give them hope and solace as they dream of returning to their homeland one day and living in peace as a community. / Photo: Zita Tv

Sufaira Begum, 15, is among an estimated one million Rohingya Muslims who call the world's largest refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar their home.

‘It’s about saving our heritage’

The Daily Star
Staff Correspondent
Tue Feb 13, 2024

Say speakers on GI tag of products; blame lack of coordination for Tangail sari debacle 

Given the absence of India's GI registration details pertaining to the Tangail saree, certain conjectures exist. FILE PHOTO: MIRZA SHAKIL

 

Due to a lack of coordination among government departments, alongside pre-emptive measures and planning, the country could not claim geographical indication (GI) tag of many of its heritage, said speakers at a discussion yesterday.

Myanmar’s junta declares it will enforce military service laws for young people

The Guardian
Guardian staff and agencies
Sun 11 Feb 2024 

State media report all men aged 18-35 and women 18-27 must serve for up to two years and up to five years in a state of emergency 

Myanmar's military-controlled government has been gripped by chaos since seizing power from an elected government in a 2021 coup. Photograph: Aung Shine Oo/AP 

 

Myanmar’s junta has declared mandatory military service for all young men and women, state media said, as it struggles to contain armed rebel forces fighting for greater autonomy in various parts of the country.

Border guards who fled Myanmar tell of losing contact with commanders

Radio Free Asia
Sharif Khiam and Abdur Rahman
Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
2024.02.09

Over 300 who crossed into Bangladesh have asked for assistance in returning to their homes.

Bangladeshis deliver an injured Rohingya who tried to cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh to members of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb. 6, 2024. Abdur Rahman/BenarNews

 

Myanmar border guards and soldiers fled into Bangladesh earlier this week after losing contact with their commanders during fierce fighting in Rakhine state, an interpreter present during their conversation with Bangladesh officials told BenarNews on Friday.

Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy over border clashes

REUTERS
By Ruma Paul
February 6, 2024

DHAKA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Bangladesh summoned neighbouring Myanmar's ambassador on Tuesday to protest the escalating border violence that killed two people on the Bangladeshi side as fighting between Myanmar's rebel forces and its junta regime intensifies.

A Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man were killed and a child was injured when a mortar shell from Myanmar hit a border district in Bangladesh on Monday, as junta forces try to quell a bloody rebellion

Myanmar: Scores Of Border Guards Flee To Bangladesh Amid Fighting With Rebels

eurasiareview
By Abdur Rahman
By BenarNews
February 6, 2024

Members of the Myanmar junta-affiliated Border Guard Police (BGP) are seen at a Bangladesh Border Guard encampment in Bandarban, Bangladesh, after they fled from fighting across the border in Myanmar, Feb. 5, 2024. Photo Credit: Minhaz Uddin/BenarNews

More than 100 members of the Burmese junta’s border police force, including some wounded men, crossed into southeastern Bangladesh since Sunday to flee fierce fighting with Arakan Army rebels, Bangladeshi officials said Monday.

Rohingya: MSF Calls Attention to the ongoing Rohingya Crisis

MSF
February 1'2024 

On the 29th of January 2024, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) launched a short animation film, "Lost at Sea", that illustrates the harsh reality Rohingya endure as they try to seek safety—and their resilience.

The film “Lost at Sea” is based on the experience of Muhib, a Rohingya man who fled Myanmar and made a dangerous journey across the sea to seek safety in Malaysia. He was stranded for more than two weeks on board a fishing boat in the Andaman Sea, full of men, women and children also fleeing for their lives. He witnessed 27 people die onboard. Passengers had no choice but to put their bodies into the sea as no help arrived. In the film, dream-like flashbacks tell the story of Muhib. He is haunted by a song his mother sang him in Myanmar. He tries to remember the reasons that forced him to flee in the first place.

Rohingya refugees move court over ‘hate campaigns’ on Facebook, flag high risk in poll year

The Hindu
Soibam Rocky Singh, New Delhi
January 29, 2024

The petition was filed by Mohammad Hamim and Kawsar Mohammed, residing in the national capital for the past two to five years, seeking protection of the right to life of the members of their community in Delhi and other parts of the country.

A Rohingya refugee camp in Kalindi Kunj, New Delhi. | Photo Credit: Soibam Rocky Singh 

 

A recent public interest litigation (PIL) plea filed by two Rohingya refugees before the Delhi High Court has flagged “hate campaigns” on the social media platform, Facebook, referring to members of the community as “terrorists” and “infiltrators”, and exaggerating the number of Rohingya who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar and sought refuge in India.

Rohingya refugees in Indonesia still hope for a better future

Al Jazeera
By Jessica Washington
Published On 26 Jan 202426 Jan 2024

On the beach and in a car park, Rohingya refugees are taking shelter wherever they can amid a hostile reception in Aceh.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 70 percent of the Rohingya who have arrived in Indonesia in recent months are women and children. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Pidie, Indonesia – In December, Abdul Karim boarded a wooden boat from Bangladesh with his wife and two sons, with aspirations for a better life for the whole family.

Alarm bells sound for Kelantan folk as Rohingya refugees flood Ketereh

NEW STRAITSTIMES
By Syaherah Mustafa -
January 22, 2024

Thousands of Rohingya United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders have flooded remote villages in the Melor subdistrict of Ketereh, causing unease among the locals. - NSTP/ NIK ABDULLAH NIK OMAR

 

KOTA BARU: Thousands of Rohingya United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders have flooded remote villages in the Melor subdistrict of Ketereh, causing unease among the locals.