In Laiza, building an ‘iron spirit’

Frontier
MYANMAR
Friday, April 19, 2019
By YE MON | FRONTIER

A visit to the Arakan Army “temporary” headquarters in the stronghold of the Kachin Independence Army reveals a large number of fresh recruits and newly minted officers ready to be dispatched to Myanmar’s latest conflict zone.

 
AS WE passed through the entrance gate into the Arakan Army compound, the two uniformed soldiers on sentry duty stood to attention, raising their rifles in acknowledgement.

I looked again. Women soldiers?

The Arakan Army and the ‘storm of the revolution’.

Frontier
MYANMAR

Friday, March 29, 2019

Arakan Army deputy chief Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung during an interview at the group's base near Laiza. (Hkun Lat)

The deputy leader of the Arakan Army tells Frontier in the border town of Laiza in Kachin State about the group’s shift in focus to Rakhine State and why the Rakhine people may have to endure more suffering in the years ahead.

By YE MON | FRONTIER

Photos HKUN LAT

THE SECURITY situation in Rakhine State continues to worsen as fighting between a defiant Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw spreads to more townships, claiming more lives on both sides and displacing thousands of frightened and anxious villagers.

Shortly before the latest flare-up in fighting, Frontier interviewed the Arakan Army’s deputy chief, Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung, near Laiza, the town on the Chinese border where the Kachin Independence Organisation has its headquarters.