Arakan State News Summary (November 1-7, 2022)

By DMG 07 Nov 2022

1 November

 Eleven civilians were killed and 31 others were injured in shooting incidents and landmine explosions in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township last month, according to a DMG tally.

 Hundreds of Myanmar migrant workers who went to work in Thailand under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) did not get the jobs described in employment contracts and some recruitment agencies are refusing to take responsibility, according to activists engaged in defending and promoting Myanmar migrant workers’ rights.

 Myanmar’s border trade with Bangladesh via Maungdaw has declined by almost 90 percent since the military regime imposed travel restrictions in mid-August along the Agnumaw-Maungdaw road, a key route for border commerce with Bangladesh, according to traders in Maungdaw.

 More than 100 people are struggling to make ends meet and need assistance after they were evicted from a plot of land adjacent to Yanaungmyay Monastery in Buthidaung Township that the Myanmar military claims ownership of, according to camp officials and IDPs.

 Myanmar military and Border Guard Force (BGF) personnel detained a woman and a motorcycle taxi driver at the Kyeinchaung security checkpoint in Maungdaw, and the pair have not been in contact with their families since.
 
2 November

 Clashes between the military and Arakan Army (AA) were reported across three townships in western Myanmar over the past two days.

 Frequent artillery strikes by Myanmar military battalions and bases in Minbya, Kyauktaw and Buthidaung townships are making the rice harvest virtually impossible, many local farmers say.

 Four journalists were killed in Myanmar since last year’s military coup, and five others were killed before the putsch dating back to 1999, with the perpetrators of these crimes enjoying impunity, Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) said in a statement marking International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

 Muslim students attending Sittwe University are being denied the chance to apply for grant-based financial assistance despite the fact that university authorities have indicated that first-year students would have that opportunity for the 2022-23 academic year.

 U Kyaw Zaw Oo, vice chairman of the Arakan Front Party (AFP), was abducted by a group of unknown people.

3 November

 Recent meetings between Myanmar and Bangladesh border guard and police force officials will not result in substantial cooperation between the two sides, and will do little to quell Arakan Army (AA) attacks on Myanmar military positions along the border, observers told DMG.

 With fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army ongoing across much of Arakan State, the AA spokesman said the military’s conduct going forward would determine the ethnic armed group’s response.

 Myanmar’s military regime enacted the Organization Registration Law, which in the view of civil society organisations, activists and politicians is intended to restrict the operations of various organisations and associations, and contain the popular revolt against the junta.

 An internally displaced person (IDP) and another local man in Kyauktaw Township, who had been detained by the military for some three months, were reportedly transferred to a local police station.
 
4 November

 Several civilians were seriously injured after artillery shells landed and exploded across multiple villages in Kyauktaw Township.

 Only seven of 21 Arakanese and Muslim people detained by the Myanmar military at the central market and near the local jetty in Buthidaung Township on October 23 had been released as of November 4, and the others have been denied family visits nearly two weeks into their detention.

 A police officer at Maei Police Station in Taungup Township was reportedly abducted by the Arakan Army (AA), according to a ward administrator and a local.

 Two boat owners from Rathedaung Township were charged under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly paying taxes to the Arakan Army (AA).

 U Maung Tu Chay, an 86-year-old man who was gravely wounded by an artillery strike in Shwepyithit Village, part of Kyauktaw Township, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital later that same day.

 The veteran Arakanese vocalist Khaing Pyi Kyaw died unexpectedly at Minbya Hospital. He was 50 years old.

 Ko Sithu Kyaw Zan aka Ko Michael, a 46-year-old man from Kanpaing Ward in Taungup, was detained by police, according to family members.

 Security affairs officials from the Myanmar military abducted the abbot of a village monastery in northern Maungdaw Township.

 U Thar Gyi Maung, the Thandwe postmaster, was arrested by junta soldiers at the post office compound.
 
5 November

 A Muslim schoolteacher was killed and two other people including a child were injured by artillery strikes in Tharekin Manu Village, Buthidaung Township, according to local residents.

 An internally displaced person (IDP) and another local man in Kyauktaw Township who had been detained by the military for some three months before being transferred to police custody this week, were reportedly charged under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act.

 Local business owners urged the Arakan State Administration Council (ASAC) under Myanmar’s military regime to do more than merely provide lip service to its stated aim of facilitating the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Arakan State.

 Ko Bo Than Kyaw, 42, manager of the Shwe Yoma filling station in Thandwe Township, was arrested by the military.

6 November

 U Thet Oo, director of the Arakan State Fisheries Department, was shot three times on Sittwe’s Strand Road on November 6 and was being treated as an emergency patient at the local hospital.

 Ko Than Lwin, 30, who is a member of the local blood donor group Arakan Blood Donor (ABD), was detained at Sittwe Hospital, ABD chairman Ko Maung Maung told DMG.

 Junta soldiers and police raided Thukhakaryi Monastery in Sittwe, and detained four monks including the abbot.

 The military detained U Thein Tan, 47, and U Tin Aung, 50, from Mintettaung Village, about seven miles south of Kyaukphyu town.
 
7 November

 Nanthar Island, the site of a marine national park and home to dozens of globally endangered species in Rathedaung Township, is suffering from understaffing and neglect, with only two staff taking care of the island, which covers more than 20,000 acres.

 Ko Oo Htay Naing, a 32-year-old resident of Pyainetaing Village in Kyauktaw Township who was sheltering at Buddhawmaw Monastery in Sittwe, was arrested by the military.

 In order to reunite the residents, a lighting festival was held in Ramree, Arakan State on the full moon day Tazaungdaing on November 7.