2020-11-30
Residents, who fled from conflict between the Myanmar army and the Arakan Army (AA), arrive at a temporary refugee camp at a monastery in Sittwe, Rakhine State, June 29, 2020.
AFP
AFPMyanmar’s military and the rebel Arakan Army are holding indirect talks through mediators to try to build on a three-week lull in fighting in Rakhine state since elections, spokesmen for the warring sides told RFA.
While contacts through a third party attempt to put an end to a two-year-long war between rebel troops and government forces has killed more than 300 civilians and displaced about 226,000 others, some war refugees have already to villages, in the face of landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her ruling National League for Democracy won a second five-year mandate in Nov. 8 general elections that were followed by an NLD outreach to ethnic-based political parties, gestures toward peace talks from the country’s powerful military, and three weeks without fighting in Rakhine state.