AA rejects MOI’s announcement

28 Jul 2019

Aung Htein | DMG

July 28, Sittwe

The Arakan Army (AA) has denied the Ministry of Information’s announcement, which said AA together with ARSA attacked a Border Guard Police station in Buthidaung Township.

Khaing Thukha, AA’s spokesperson, said that the allegation of a joint attack was a groundless accusation and the AA had attacked the police station alone.

“This isn’t the first time they have made this accusation. There have been so many times before that they accused us of working with ARSA, now they have done it again. They are doing this because they want to make us look like terrorists,” he said.

The Nyaung Chaung border guard station was attacked on July 26. The Ministry of Information announced the same day that the AA and ARSA had started to shoot with large and small weapons from the Eastern South and Western South side of the police station and the policemen in the station returned fire. The AA and ARSA jointly retreated when another police troop led by a police head arrived to reinforce the station.

“The Myanmar military is creating a misconception between the public, the international community and us. We have already issued announcements many times stating that we do not cooperate with any terrorist groups,” Khaing Thukha said. 

Tatmadaw said that AA attacked the police station.