Hoisting Arakan State flag is treasonable offence: regional government says

21 Sep 2019

Khaing Roe La | DMG
21 September, Sittwe
   
Flying the flag of Arakan State at homes is an offence against the State and it is an incitement to fracture the Union, said Colonel Min Than, minister for Arakan State Security and Border Affairs.

The flag of Arakan State was hoisted in front of houses from some townships in Arakan State in March. Local Residents were blatantly flying their national flag by their own free will; no one instructed them to do this. The regional government found it an unusual incident and recorded notes of the houses flying the Arakanese flag.

“The Arakan State government on 16 March addressed respective district administrators and state police force to meet with local residents who fly the Arakan state flag in the precinct of their house and to explain to them that they will fall foul of the law if they continue to fly the ethnic national flag at their homes,” Col Min Than said.

He added that action for high treason as well as under section 7 of the National Titles Law can be used against people who continue to fly the flag.

U Hla Thein Aung, Arakan State MP for Minbya Township, however, said that flying the flag of Arakan State was not an offence against the union government and the remark of the minister was a threat towards Arakanese people.

“We have observed that flying the national flag is not an offence of inciting a plan to disintegrate the State using any ill means,” U Hla Thein Aung said.

According to section 121 of the Penal Code, the offender, upon conviction, would face life imprisonment or 20-year imprisonment. Under section 7 of the National Titles Law, an offender would be sentenced to one year.