UN World Food Program decries looting and burning of its warehouse in western Myanmar combat zone

The Washinton Post
By Associated Press
June 25, 2024 

The United Nations’ food agency has strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine

BANGKOK — The United Nations’ food agency on Tuesday strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses over the weekend in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine.

A statement released by the World Food Program said the destroyed building in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township held 1,175 metric tons (1,295 U.S. tons) of food and supplies — enough to sustain 64,000 people for a month in case of an emergency.

A Myanmar Rebel Group Is Accused of Persecuting Rohingya

The New York Times
By Verena Hölzl
June 3, 2024,

Allegations against the Arakan Army, a key force in the fight against the junta, threaten to revive old horrors of sectarian atrocities. 

People rebuilding homes after fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State last month.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

International courts are still investigating the Myanmar military’s slaughter of the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017 that the United States has called a genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and those who stayed faced persecution from the junta. Now a new threat to the group is looming, this time at the hands of a powerful rebel force.

‘The entire town is burning.’ Fires rage as Rohingya caught up on the front lines of Myanmar’s civil war

CNN
Helen Regan and Avery Schmitz,
Thu May 23, 202

Satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs, PBC, taken on May 20, shows thermal scarring across Buthidaung, Myanmar.

CNN-Families of Rohingya people trapped in Myanmar’s west are desperately trying to contact loved ones after a weekend of widespread arson attacks displaced up to 200,000 people and caused extensive destruction of homes.

Arakan Army captures hundreds of junta soldiers in Rakhine

Dhaka Tribune
AFP
Publish : 06 May 2024,

• Clashes between the Arakan Army and the military have intensified since November
• The conflict has resulted in significant displacement and casualties
  

File photo: Arakan Army fighters raise their flag over an artillery gun after seizing a junta outpost in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township. Photo: Collected

A Myanmar ethnic armed group said on Monday it had captured a military command and taken hundreds of junta personnel prisoner in western Rakhine state, the latest blow to the military.

More Rohingyas to find new abodes in US

dailyobserver
Published : Saturday, 4 May, 2024
Md Jahedul Islam; Monir Hossen Sarek

The Rohingya, an ethnic minority group from Myanmars Rakhine State, have endured decades of systematic discrimination, persecution, and violence at the hands of the countrys military. Their plight came to the worlds attention in 2017 when a brutal crackdown by Myanmars security forces forced over 740,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands of others already languishing in squalid refugee camps. While the 2017 exodus was the most significant and most recent, it was not the first time Rohingya refugees sought sanctuary in Bangladesh. The first considerable influx occurred in 1992 after Myanmars military launched another campaign of violence and forced displacement against the Rohingya minority.

Battle intensifies between rebels and military in Myanmar’s Buthidaung town

NORTHEAST NOW
NE NOW NEWS
May 2, 2024

Representative Image

Guwahati: Many people from the Hindu and Rakhine communities are trapped in Myanmar’s Buthidaung town in Rakhine state as there is a clash that is happening between the military and the rebel group, the Arakan Army.

‘Human shields on the battlefield’: Myanmar forces Rohingya into military

Al Jazeera
16 Apr 2024

Forced conscription into the military is the latest tactic Myanmar’s military-led government is using to target the persecuted Rohingya population.

Link : Here

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.

Rakhine situation may lead to risks of geopolitical conflict

prothomalo
Interview: Maj. Gen. Emdadul Islam (retd)
Published: 11 Feb 2024,

Bangladesh is facing a fallout from the Myanmar civil war. Bullets and mortar shells are crossing over the border into Bangladesh creating danger and alarm. Members of the Myanmar army, its Border Guard Police (BGP) and government officials, a few hundred in number, have fled into Bangladesh for shelter. In an interview with Prothom Alo's Partha Shankar Saha, security analyst Major General Emdadul Islam (retd) talks about the prevailing situation in Myanmar, its impact on Bangladesh, Rohingya repatriation and the role of China, India, the US and others. Maj. Gen. Emdadul Islam is the author of the book 'Rohingya: Nishango Nipirito Jatigoshti'.

‘Still waiting’: Myanmar’s Kayah looks for justice over military killings

ALJAZEERA
By Andrew Nachemson
Published On 10 Jan 2024

The vehicles in which 33 people were set alight lie rusting by the roadside, as families call for end to military impunity. 

Flowers have been placed on the burned remains of the vehicles to mark two years since the attack [Andrew Nachemson/Al Jazeera]

Kayah State, Myanmar – On December 28, in his clinic in Myanmar’s eastern Kayah State, Dr Oak wrapped up a routine check on a pregnant woman and removed some non-threatening shrapnel from the leg of a resistance fighter.

2 soldiers killed, 5 captured as KIO-AA clash with junta forces

Narinjara
| Date: 03 October 2023 

A joint force of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Arakan Army (AA) attacked a junta column, who came down from the hilltop outpost to carry food items, where 2 soldiers were killed. Moreover, 5 including a captain with their weapons were captured, said a source close to the AA.

3 northern alliances (MNDAA, TNLA & AA) will meet military council's unit in Monglar on 1 June

Narinjara
By: Web Master
| Date: 31 May 2023 

Three northern alliances comprising Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Taung National Liberation Army (TNLA) and The Arakan Army (AA) will have a discussion with military council's National Unity and Peacemaking Coordination Committee on 1 June in Monglar of Shan State of Myanmar, said a press statement.

Buthidaung township, Tha Peik Taung village is being burnt down by the terrorist military

Myanmar Pressphoto Agency
MPA
September 24, 2022

Residents have confirmed that the 22nd Division of the terrorist military started burning Tha Peik Taung village (Rakhine) near the No. 8 Border Guard Police Battalion in the southern Buthidaung Township on September 23rd at 9:00 p.m. today.

There is Ah Lal Chaung Rohingya village near No.8 Border Guard Police Battalion, and the Tha Peik Taung village is also located nearby.

Myanmar, Bangladesh must solve border tensions peacefully

ASIA TIME

By TILOTTAMA RANI CHARULATA

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

The Bangladeshi government’s diplomatic and military preparations need to be strengthened

Myanmar border guard police patrol the fence in the 'no man's land' zone between the Myanmar and Bangladesh border. Photo: AFP / Phyo Hein Kyaw

Many Rohingya people fled from Myanmar a few years ago in fear of their lives, but recently the Myanmar army has had to face strong resistance from other independence-seeking rebels. Along with the Arakan Army, the military is in serious conflict with the Cochin Army, and elements of the Shan, Karen, Mong, Shin and Kaya peoples.

As a result, the Tatmadaw (military) has adopted a slightly different strategy from its persecution of the Rohingya to avoid international surveillance of its suppression of the rebels. As a part of this, it has mounted a campaign on the border with Bangladesh.

UN-appointed expert says better sanctions on Myanmar needed

The Washington Post

By David Rising | AP
September 22, 2022

FILE - A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an air strike hit the school. A United Nations-appointed human rights expert called Thursday for governments and companies to coordinate efforts to cut off the military-led government of Myanmar from its revenue and weapons sources, saying life in the Southeastern Asian nation has become a “living hell” for many since the generals seized power last year. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP

BANGKOK — A United Nations-appointed human rights expert called Thursday for governments and companies to coordinate efforts to cut off the military-led government of Myanmar from its sources of revenue and weapons, saying life in the Southeastern Asian nation has become a “living hell” for many since the generals seized power last year.

Tom Andrews, in Geneva to deliver his annual report on Myanmar to the U.N. Human Rights Council, told reporters that while many countries have been imposing sanctions on individuals, military entities, financial institutions and energy companies, what is needed is “coordinated action.”

Can Bangladesh-Myanmar military ties stabilise the region?

The Daily Star
Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan
Sun Jun 19, 2022

A power shift in Myanmar and the subsequent polarisation among major powers triggered a new geopolitical flashpoint in Bangladesh's strategic backyard, which the latter cannot afford to ignore. It seems that the US and other western countries are taking a heavy-handed approach while other big powers, such as Russia, China, India, and Japan, have started explicitly (or covertly) normalising their relations with the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military).

Myanmar always gets priority in Bangladesh's economic and security strategy. Although democratic Bangladesh has a moral dilemma in supporting the military government, it has yet to formally condemn the military coup or demand Aung San Su Kyi's release. It underscores Dhaka's careful support for the junta's "one-Myanmar government policy." So, in foreign policy circles, the immediate discussion is whether Dhaka's stance is a "well-thought-out approach or simply a premature polarisation."

UN and US condemn Myanmar military after protest reportedly turns deadly in Yangon

CNN

By Pierre Meilhan and Cape Diamond,
December 6, 2021

Protesters walk down the street to protest against the military coup and demand the release of deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

(CNN)At least five people were killed in Myanmar when a vehicle plowed into anti-junta protesters this weekend, according to local media. The attack took place in a Yangon township, news outlet Myanmar Now reported Sunday, citing protesters and eyewitnesses. 

One reporter who witnessed the incident told CNN that it was a military vehicle that rammed demonstrators. 

Torture in Myanmar: Don’t Let the Junta Normalize Cruelty

THE I DIPLOMAT 

By Tomas Max Martin, Ergun Cakal, and Hannah Russell
JULY 13, 2021

Torture – and the fear that it engenders – has been central to the military junta’s efforts to quell popular resistance.

On June 26, CNN reported the story of American-Burmese journalist Nathan Maung, who was released by the Myanmar military after three months of detention, during which time he experienced severe torture. On June 22, Human Rights Watch published the account of a 17-year-old boy, who endured repeated beatings with a bamboo stick filled with cement, blows to the head with the butt of a rifle, and burial up to his neck in a mock execution.

Rohingya genocide case at ICJ: Myanmar military regime organises new legal team

The Daily Star

Digital Report
June 26, 2021

Armed police confront protesters on the streets of Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital, on Monday, February 8. Photo: AP

The Myanmar military regime has organised a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The regime's order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.

Internet ‘Whitelist’ Highlights Myanmar Military’s Wishful Economic Thinking

THE I DIPLOMAT

Sebastian Strangio
May 26, 2021

Facebook and Twitter are out. A suite of business applications and messaging services are in.

Myanmar’s military junta has drawn up a list of more than 1,200 online services and domain names to which it plans to grant the public access under its embryonic system of internet controls. A copy of this “whitelist,” which was given recently to local internet service providers and telecoms companies, was obtained by Nikkei Asia and published yesterday.

Since seizing power on February 1, Myanmar’s military has drastically tightened its controls over the internet in a bid to quash the rising protests against its coup. It has ordered the blocking of websites and the virtual private networks that are used to circumvent such blocks. It has also instituted nightly internet blackouts and cut off mobile data.