Rebel militia in Myanmar’s Rakhine state joins other minorities in condemning junta

REUTERS

By Reuters Staff
APAC

MARCH 23, 2021

(Reuters) - The Arakan Army (AA), a major ethnic militia in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, on Tuesday joined other ethnic groups in condemning last month’s military coup and the ensuing violent crackdown on protesters.

While several other armed groups fighting long-running wars in Myanmar’s borderlands have signalled their support for pro-democracy protests, the AA, which had agreed a ceasefire with the government ousted on Feb. 1, had not commented publicly.

“It is a great sadness that innocent people are being shot and killed all over Myanmar,” AA spokesman Khine Thu Kha said in a message, adding that the group was “together ... with the people”.

Amid Fragile Ceasefire, Frustration Over Missed Election in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

Radio Free Asia ( RFA ) 

2020-12-31 

People wearing face shields and face masks to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus queue to vote at a polling station in Rakhine state, Nov. 8, 2020.

 

Rakhine’s ethnic army and politicians blamed Myanmar’s ruling party and electoral authorities Thursday for the failure to hold elections in the war-torn state, as analysts warned that holding a vote will be critical to keeping a fragile ceasefire going into 2021.

After a violent 2020 in Myanmar’s westernmost state, Rakhine residents were largely left out of voting in Nov. 8 general elections, with only a quarter of the state’s registered voters able to go to polls after authorities scrapped the election, citing security concerns.

Rohingya Complain About Myanmar’s Relocation Plans to ‘Flooded’ Camp

The Irrawaddy 

Khine Rola
23 December 2020

Rohingya at the Kyauk Ta Lone camp. / Ko Phyu Che

Sittwe — The Rakhine State government is planning to relocate a camp for displaced Rohingya Muslims near Kyauk Ta Lone pagoda in Kyaukphyu Township.

The plan to close the camp is part of a national resettlement strategy by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement adopted in 2018.

Land has been developed near Gone Chein village around 200 meters from the Kyauk Ta Lone camp to resettle the Rohingya and home building will begin soon, according to the state government.

“The current camp is only a shelter but the new camp will have detached houses like a village,” said state municipal minister U Win Myint.

In Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Trust in Armed Group Grows as Election Hopes Fade

Pulitzar Center

The New Humanitaria

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing and Emily Fishbein

November 05, 2020 

 

Conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has uprooted some 227,000 people since late 2018. Aid access is restricted in many areas. Illustration by Thu Ra Kyaw/TNH.

Many Arakanese in Myanmar’s Rakhine State were optimistic in the lead-up to the country's first openly contested elections in a quarter of a century, in 2015. There’s a stark difference five years on, as 8 November polls are clouded by an escalating civil war and voting cancellations across most of the state.

“An Open Prison without End” Myanmar’s Mass Detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State

Human rights group urges Myanmar to end arbitrary and indefinite detention of 130,000 Rohingya Muslims

TODAY NEWS AFRIC

By Press Release

08.10.2020

Aung San Suu Kyi

Although we are headquartered in Washington D.C. USA, our reporters and editors are working around the globe to cover what you care about. We invite you to donate to our fundraiser to help us keep our quality news free and available to all. 

 

The Myanmar government should urgently end the arbitrary and indefinite detention of approximately 130,000 Rohingya Muslims in squalid and abusive camps in Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Thursday.

Myanmar finds soldiers guilty in Rohingya atrocities court martial

Frontier

MYANMAR

By AFP

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

A Myanmar soldier guards an area at Sittwe airport in Rakhine State on September 20, 2018. (AFP)

YANGON — Three Myanmar military officers were found guilty by a court martial investigating atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in conflict-ridden Rakhine State, the army announced Tuesday.

The rare action against military members came as Myanmar faces charges of genocide at the United Nations' top court over a brutal 2017 crackdown against the Rohingya.

Myanmar’s Rakhine State Revokes Order Evicting Squatters From Rohingya Land

RADIO FREE ASIA
2020-05-26 

Structures built in Sittwe township's Seyton Su ward in Myanmar's Rakhine state are shown in a file photo.

Authorities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state have revoked an order requiring Rakhine Buddhist families to vacate land in a former Rohingya Muslim area of Sittwe township that was razed eight years ago during a flare-up of sectarian violence.

The May 14 order was revoked on May 19, frustrating members of the Rohingya community originally displaced from their homes in Sittwe’s Seyton Su Muslim quarter, who called the rescinding of the order evicting thousands of squatters from their former land evidence of a lack of the rule of law in the conflict-torn region.

US Embassy will urge the State Government to be effective in the provision of aid to Rakhine IDPs

Narinjara

Monday, February 24, 2020

The US Embassy will urge the Rakhine State Government to be effective in aid provision to Rakhine IDPs, the Yangon based US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Mr George Neil Sibley has confirmed while meeting with Rakhine State Parliamentarians.

According to Deputy Speaker U Myat Than, who spoke with Narinjara, Mr George Neil Sibley said this while being received by the Rakhine Parliament Speaker U San Kyaw Hla on February 20th.

Myanmar president calls for prosecutions for Rohingya killings

THE Star ONLINE
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State, at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw. Myanmar's president on Tuesday (Jan 21) called for soldiers to be prosecuted for killing Rohingya civilians during a 2017 military campaign that forced more than 730,000 of the minority to flee to Bangladesh. - AP

YANGON: Myanmar's president on Tuesday (Jan 21) called for soldiers to be prosecuted for killing Rohingya civilians during a 2017 military campaign that forced more than 730,000 of the minority to flee to Bangladesh.

Asia-Pacific ministers vow to end regional rows

Bangkok Post
3 Aug 2019

newspaper section: News
writer: Thana Boonlert

 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo smiles as he stands between Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai during a family photo at the East Asia Summit meeting in Bangkok on Friday. (Reuters photo)

Foreign ministers of Asia-Pacific countries have affirmed they were committed to resolving conflicts in the South China Sea, Myanmar's Rakhine state, and the Korean Peninsula, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Singaporeans advised to avoid travelling to Myanmar's Rakhine State amid violence

 A

CNA

12 Jul 2019 

 

 A Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine state has already sent more than 700,000 people feeling over the border into Bangladesh. (Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu)

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans have been advised to avoid travelling to several areas in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State and Chin State due to violent clashes there.

In a travel advisory dated Jul 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Singaporeans should avoid the townships of Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Ponnagyun and Rathedaung in northern Rakhine State, as well as Paletwa township in neighbouring Chin State. Advertisement

Myanmar: Military commits war crimes in latest operation in Rakhine State

29 May 2019

 Myanmar,War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

• New abuses come after government order to “crush” armed group

• Military units responsible for past atrocities are committing war crimes, while deployment of additional units suggests involvement of senior generals

• International community is failing – ICC referral urgently needed

Following a recent investigation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Amnesty International has gathered new evidence that the Myanmar military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. The military operation is ongoing, raising the prospect of additional crimes being committed.

Family Members of Three Rakhine Villagers who Died in Detention Demand Investigation.

RADIO FREE ASIA  
2019-05-10

Daw Ahla, wife of Thein Tun Sein who died in detention after being arrested by Myanmar's military.

RFA

The family members of three villagers from Myanmar’s Rakhine state who died while being detained by the military are demanding justice, saying that the military’s explanation for the villagers’ deaths were lies.

Bangladesh: Chinese Envoy Rapped for Linking Rohingya Crisis to Economic Trade.

RADIO FREE ASIA  
2019-05-10

Chinese envoy to Bangladesh Zhang Zuo (center) answers questions during a news conference in Dhaka, May 8, 2019.

BenarNews

A Bangladeshi official and political observers on Friday criticized a statement by the Chinese ambassador, who suggested this week that the Rohingya refugee crisis could be solved through economic development in neighboring Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Myanmar troops kill six in Rakhine for suspected rebel links.

Aljazeera

3rd May 2019

Soldiers opened fire as a clash erupted with the detained villagers, according to member of parliament.

More recently, civilians have been caught up in clashes between the military and the Arakan Army [File:Min Kyi Thein/AP Photo]

Myanmar security forces have shot dead at least six people in the troubled western state of Rakhine after soldiers and police detained hundreds of people at a school, a military spokesperson said.

Six people killed, eight injured in Rakhine unrest.

MYANMAR TIMES

NYAN LYNN AUNG| 03 MAY 2019

Members of the Myanmar Red Cross Society carry a wounded man from a boat to Sittwe Hospital in Rakhine State on Thursday. Photo - EPA

Six people were killed and eight others injured during a disturbance at a school compound where hundreds of villagers were being detained by government forces in a village in Rathedaung township, Rakhine State, a senior spokesman of the Tatmadaw (military) said on Thursday.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said the casualties happened before dawn on Thursday when some detainees crowded around the police officers guarding them, and the police fired warning shots to stop them.

Violence is returning to Burma’s Rakhine State

GLOBAL COMMENT
By Steve Shaw
Posted on May 1, 2019

 The farmers who had been tending to cows and seeing to paddy fields didn’t stand a chance when the peaceful evening on April 3 was shattered by two military attack helicopters.

By the time the bombs had stopped falling and the pointless barrage was over, at least seven were dead and another 18 injured.

Chinese Investment in Myanmar's Rakhine State Questioned

VOA

April 27, 2019
Libby Hogan 

Myanmar's defacto leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is welcoming businesses to invest in Rakhine State, more than a year and a half since a brutal military crackdown forced hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. Despite the push for investment, many residents in Rakhine State worry they will not see any of the benefits. Libby Hogan has this report from Kyaukpyu Beach in Rakhine State. 

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UN aid chief: No progress so Rohingya can return to Myanmar.

Mail online
30 April 2019
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday there has been "no progress" in dealing with the reasons why more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh from western Myanmar's Rakhine state.