Myanmar: Full Scale Civil War In Rakhine State – Analysis

eurasiareview

April 14, 2019 SAAG 0 Comments

By SAAG, By S.Chandrasekharan

A burnt down house in a Rohingya village in northern Rakhine State. File photo by Moe Zaw (VOA), Wikipedia Commons.

The situation in the ethnic front is rather grim, with a full scale civil war going on in Rakhine state where the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army are engaged in heavy fighting resulting in the civil administration coming to a stand still within two months of the ongoing conflict.

Is Bangladesh Really Interested in Justice on Rakhine Issue?

The Irrawaddy
12 April 2019
By NYEIN MAUNG

ICOE members in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, in August 2018. / ICOE

Bangladesh has finally allowed the Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) to visit the country. According to a press release on the ICOE’s website, the Bangladeshi foreign minister has agreed in principle to meet with the commission next month. What is unclear—and frankly, this must be the crux of the issue—is whether Bangladeshi authorities will allow the ICOE to conduct evidence gathering in Cox’s Bazar. No information on this is available on the ICOE’s website.

Myanmar rebels storm police base in Rakhine state amid fresh clashes in temple town.

REUTERS
APRIL 10th, 2019

YANGON (Reuters) - Arakan Army rebels overran a police base in Rakhine state, killing two officers and one of their wives, the Myanmar government said on Wednesday, as fresh fighting broke out in a historic Buddhist temple town popular with tourists.

The Information Ministry said around 200 insurgents stormed a police headquarters in Mrauk U before being repelled, but that they abducted four women and three children as they left.

President sets up new committee on Rakhine.

MYANMAR TIMES
NYAN LYNN AUNG | 10 APR 2019

President U Win Myint has established a new committee on Rakhine State to help ensure peace and stability in the region.

Members of the Assistance Committee on Rakhine State Peace and Stability arrived in Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe, on Tuesday to meet officials and local people, according to U San Kyaw Hla, speaker of the Rakhine parliament. 

New curfew imposed in Rakhine State.

MYANMAR TIMES 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 03, 2019

NYAN LYNN AUNG

Rakhine ethnic people travel by motorbike in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Photo - EPA

A curfew was imposed from 9pm to 5am in five townships in northern Rakhine State on Tuesday following clashes between the Tatmadaw (military) and Arakan Army (AA), according to the state government.

The state issued a statement signed by Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Phone Tint on Monday that said the curfew had been ordered to enforce the administration, rules and regulations of the government as well as to protect the state’s businesses and economy.

“There is a public curfew in the late evening,” said a state official who asked not to be named.

Two Villagers Shot Dead in Latest Fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

RADIO FREE ASIA

2019-03-29

A Myanmar villager is rushed to the hospital after being wounded by gunfire in Outthagan village, Mrauk-U township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, March 29, 2019.
Photo courtesy of the Mrauk-U Ga Yunar Hlaing blood donors group

An armed clash between Myanmar soldiers and rebel Arakan Army (AA) fighters in a village in Mrauk-U township in western Myanmar’s violence-ridden Rakhine state on Friday left two villagers dead and seven others injured, local residents and a Rakhine lawmaker said.

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.

Fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine Estimated to Have Displaced 22,000 People

RFA 
2019-03-27

Members of the Arakan National Party conduct a field visit to a displacement camp in western Myanmar's Rakhine state in an undated photo.Photo courtesy of Htun Aung Kyaw

Intense fighting this week between Myanmar forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state's Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships has displaced 2,000 villagers, raising the prospect of additional food and water shortages in the war-torn region, relief and disaster management workers said Wednesday.

Myanmar -- investors should be cautious but take the risk.

         NIKKEI

ASIAN REVIEW

MARCH 27, 2019

If government pursues humanitarian agenda, foreign partners can back projects, even in Rakhine State.

Simon Tay

Aung San Suu Kyi told investors that "much of Rakhine's economic potential still remains untapped." © Reuters

A humanitarian crisis that has been brewing at the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh since 2016 is reaching a critical point. At Cox's Bazar, just inside Bangladesh, an estimated 740,000 displaced Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar's Rakhine State are encamped in temporary shelters, hoping that the international community will take them in as refugees or facilitate their safe return to the homes they claim in Myanmar.

Tatmadaw likens Arakan Army demands to ‘a child daydreaming’

Frontier 
MYANMAR
Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Major-General Tun Tun Nyi attends an earlier press conference in Yangon on February 23. (Thuya Zaw | Frontier)

By SU MYAT MON | FRONTIER

YANGON — The Tatmadaw has blamed the Arakan Army for an escalation in fighting in Rakhine State, with military spokespeople accusing the armed group of harming civilians and labelling its demands “impossible”.

“With the thoughts of a child daydreaming, some of the armed groups are asking for what is impossible,” Major-General Soe Naing Oo, chair of the Tatmadaw’s True News Information Team, said at a press briefing in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday to discuss recent fighting with the AA. “Don’t ask for impossible things,” he said.

Tatmadaw warns public not to believe Arakan Army.

MYANMAR TIMES
CHAN THAR | TUESDAY, 26 MAR 2019

The Tatmadaw (military) has not killed any civilians or damaged any of their property during its clashes with the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State, Major General Tun Tun Nyi of the True News agency said.

“Everyone can see that the AA is trying to create racial conflict between the Rakhine and Bamar races. (Government spokesperson) U Zaw Htay has said that the situation in Rakhine has become a threat to the Union. The Tatmadaw has taken measures against the insurgents, but we are not always in a position protect the lives and property of people. We urge people to be cautious and not be exploited by the insurgents,” he said.

Gunfire wounds six in temple town.

THE Star ONLINE
Wednesday, 20 Mar 2019

YANGON: At least six people were wounded in firing as Myanmar soldiers hunted ethnic Rakhine insurgents in the western town of Mrauk U, residents said, while the military issued a statement saying a convoy was ambushed entering the historic temple town.

Eight injured in Mrauk U violence.

Frontier 
MYANMAR
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
By AFP

People look at an unexploded rocket in Mrauk U township in Rakhine State on March 16. (AFP)

YANGON — Fighting between Myanmar's military and the Arakan Army in Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakhine kingdom, has left at least eight injured, scaring tourists and sparking fears that the historical monuments are under threat.

Plight of Rohingya Muslims tied to Britain, Japan and World War II.

nzherald.co.nz

16 Mar, 2019

Nearly one million Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh. Photo / The Washington Post by Ismail Ferdous

Washington Post
By: Jayita Sarkar analysis

Last month the United Nations and its partners appealed for US$920 million ($1.34 billion) to assist nearly one million Rohingya refugees now encamped in Bangladesh. These refugees are fleeing the violence in the northern part of the Rakhine state in Burma. That violence has been perpetrated by the Burmese military under the pretext that the Rohingya are not citizens of Burma, also known as Myanmar, but "resident foreigners" from Bangladesh who neither speak the Burmese language nor are part of Burma's myriad ethnic groups.

China denies offering cash to lure Rohingya to Myanmar.

The Peninsula Qatar
08 Mar 2019

Rohingya refugee children play football at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

By SM Najmus Sakib I Anadolu

DHAKA: A Chinese official has denied reports that his country’s government delegation had promised each family of Rohingya refugees $6,000 if they returned to restive Rakhine State in Myanmar, a media report said.

According to BenarNews, an online news service, Chinese Embassy Attaché in Dhaka Vera Hu said: "China never offers money to Rohingya people for them to go back.”

Myanmar: Arakan Army Is Not A Terrorist Outfit – OpEd

eurasiareview
March 9, 2019

By S. Chandrasekharan

Location of Burma. Source: CIA World Factbook.

It looks that both the Myanmar Government and its Army with the tacit support of China are trying make out that the Arakan Army is deeply in cohort with the terrorist outfit- the ARSA in causing depredations in Rakhine State.

Rohingya Trading Identity for Partial Citizenship, More Rights in Rakhine State

The Irrawaddy
By Moe Myint 7 March 2019

Lawmakers take a rare stand for persecuted Muslims in western Burma after learning that the movement of about 500 people recently awarded citizenship remains restricted.

YANGON — More than half of the 7,000-plus Muslim Rohingya who have applied for citizenship in Rakhine State over the past three years have now been accepted following a wave of approvals in just the last few months, according to the Ministry of Labor, Population and Immigration.

Suu Kyi urges investment in Rohingya crisis' epicenter.

Myanmar leader keen to boost rural economy as 2020 election looms

NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW
YUICHI NITTA, Nikkei staff writer

FEBRUARY 27, 2019 12:42 JST

The economic potential of Rakhine State "remains untapped," Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi told investors and businesses last week. © Reuters

THANDWE, Myanmar -- Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader, has chosen impoverished Rakhine State as a venue to issue a new call for foreign investment, even as her government faces international criticism for failing to stop persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority there.

Daw Suu's Rakhine investment forum speech in full.

MYANMAR TIMES
THIHA KO KO | 23 FEB 2019

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaking during the opening ceremony of the Invest Myanmar Summit 2019. Photo - EPA

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi touted Rakhine State's "untapped" economic potential to investors and trade organisations on Friday in a Japan-sponsored investment forum held in Ngapali beach. But she glossed over violence and humanitarian nightmare in the area, saying the international community had “focused narrowly on negative aspects” of the ongoing northern Rakhine crisis, which led to an estimated 730,000 Muslim refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi: Invest in Rakhine.

THE Star ONLINE
Saturday, 23 Feb 2019

New ventures: Investors looking at the schedule of the Rakhine State Investment Fair at Ngapali beach in Thandwe, Myanmar. — Reuters

NGAPALI BEACH: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for investment in the crisis-hit western state of Rakhine, saying the world had “focused narrowly on negative aspects” in the state from which some 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled since 2017.