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.

Hope, frustration at pre-Panglong civil society peace forum.

Frontier

MYANMAR
Friday, March 29, 2019
By EMILY FISHBEIN | FRONTIER

CSO participants from Shan State pose in front of the hall in Kachin National Manaw Park before the forum. (Emily Fishbein | Frontier)

MYITKYINA — Ko Thurain Tun, 21, and a group of four friends dream of founding an organisation to provide humanitarian relief, education, and skills programmes for conflict-affected communities in their home town of Ponnagyun in Rakhine State.

Yet, with the project stalled because of a lack of funding and escalating conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army in Rakhine, Thurain Tun boarded a bus for a four-day journey to the Kachin State capital Myitkyina to attend a forum on peace.