Arakan State News Summary (August 8-15, 2022)

By DMG 15 Aug 2022

8 August

• The Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) detained a Sittwe resident on suspicion of having been involved in the detention of Lieutenant Colonel Khaing Paw Lin, an ALP executive committee member, said Lt-Col Khaing Kyaw Soe, the ALP information officer.
• Words about ethnic rights, equality and federalism that come from the mouth of Myanmar’s military regime are hollow and will fool no one, critics told DMG.
• Shops removed from the vicinity of the No. 1 police station in the Arakan State capital Sittwe will receive compensatory shop spaces within Mizan Market upon its completion. 

9 August

• The Myanmar military seized a villager in Ann Township, alleging that he had illegally transported Muslims, according to local residents.
• The residents of Taung Pauk village in Kyauktaw Township fled their homes after junta troops entered the village.
• Family members said they have not been in contact with four men in Kyauktaw Township since they were arrested by the Myanmar military over recent weeks, and are worried about their safety.
• Residents of Kyaytaw village, Sittwe Township, were said to be seething after a poultry farmer cut down dozens of acres of mature mangroves that were planted to protect the coastal area against natural disasters. 

10 August 

• Junta troop deployments in villages and tightened security checks were reported to be severely affecting the livelihoods of local residents in Arakan State.
• Junta-appointed ward and village administrators in Maungdaw Township, where junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) have exchanged fire in recent weeks, said they were prepared to resign amid rising military-AA tensions.
• Myanmar and Bangladesh authorities are taking steps to run a coastal shipping line to promote direct trade between the two countries, according to the Arakan State Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• The prices of consumer goods including rice and fuel have soared in Chin State’s Paletwa, where tensions are escalating between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army, causing hardship for residents.
• An owner of “Swanpakar” rice mill and a rice broker’s sales centre donated a bag of rice (12.5 kilograms) each to 500 members of the grassroots in Sittwe. 

11 August

• “If the ministers of the regime’s Arakan State government only indulge in their power and authority against the people, and continue to harm the people just to please the regime … we have previously warned that we would handle [them] accordingly, in accordance with the needs of the situation, our revolution, public security and the Way of Rakhita,” said U Khaing Thukha, spokesman for the Arakan Army, at an online press conference.
• The Arakan Army spokesman warned of the potential for escalating hostilities with the Myanmar military if the junta continues to arrest civilians in Arakan State, saying dozens of civilians detained over recent weeks remain behind bars.
• There has been greater trust and unity of late among the diverse ethnic groups and races in Arakan State, Arakan Army spokesman U Khaing Thukha said during the Arakanese ethnic armed group’s monthly press conference.
• Residents of Phayapaung, Taung Pauk and Ponnar villages in Kyauktaw Township fled their homes after junta troops entered the villages, and though the soldiers have since left, more than 100 villagers remained unwilling to return to their homes, according to locals.
• Myanmar’s military has withdrawn from seven outposts in Maungdaw Township amid heightened military tensions with the Arakan Army, the ethnic armed group’s spokesman U Khaing Thukha said at Thursday’s press conference. 

12 August

• The justice department of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the Arakan Army (AA), has received approximately 800 complaints regarding land disputes, according to ULA/AA spokesperson U Khaing Thukha.
• The Arakan Army is carrying out landmine risk education among locals in parts of Arakan State, which is plagued by landmines after some two years of fighting between the military and AA from 2018-2020, according to U Khaing Thukha, spokesman for the ethnic armed group.
• Deforestation of mangroves has increased in Arakan State as a result of power cuts, according to local mangrove conservationists.
• Six men from Khamaung Seik village in northern Maungdaw Township went missing, according to relatives.
• Family members said that a woman from Yishin village in Myebon Township died of her injuries last week after being beaten by a shaman who claimed that she was possessed. 

13 August

• Some 700 residents reportedly fled their homes for safer locations as the Myanmar military and Arakan Army clashed in the Mayu Hills between Rathedaung Township’s Donpaik and Cheinkhali villages.
• A member of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) and a civilian were reportedly shot dead in Gyinchaung (Muslim) village, part of Hkwaynyaung village-tract in Maungdaw Township.
• The National Literature Award winner and Arakanese national writer Maung Paw Tun passed away at a military hospital in Yangon.
• The domestic gold price reached a new record high of more than K2.75 million per tical for 24-K gold, according to gold shop owners.
• Four people were injured in a landmine blast in Ponnagyun Township, with one of the victims said to be in critical condition. 

14 August

• The Myanmar military blockaded the Angumaw-Maungdaw road, said locals and drivers.
• Arakanese farmers said they are facing difficulties replanting paddy fields that have been hard-hit by drought in Arakan state.
• Hundreds of residents who fled their homes for safer locations after the Myanmar military clashed with the Arakan Army in Rathedaung Township over the weekend reportedly remained unable to return home.
• As a result of Myanmar’s political and economic crises, women are more vulnerable to violence and predation than they were pre-coup, according to Arakanese women’s activists. 

15 August

• A woman died and three other people were injured in a road accident near Kyaukseik village in Ponnagyun Township.
• Locals reported hearing up to 30 artillery shells and gunfire near Paletwa Township’s Sein Nyin and Namada villages from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) continued for three consecutive days in Arakan State and Chin State’s Paletwa Township, the AA said, as some of the latest fighting was reported east of the Kaladan River in Paletwa Township.
• An 18-year-old woman was killed with two stab wounds to her neck in a shop near the government offices in Sittwe, Arakan State.
• The Arakan National Council/Arakan Army (ANC/AA) and Arakan Liberation Party/Arakan Liberation Army (ALP/ALA) have rejected recent remarks from the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) spokesman, in which he asserted that there was no need for revolutionary armed forces in Arakan State other than the AA.
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year could have the unintended side effect of delaying a decision on the bid to have the ancient Arakanese city of Mrauk-U designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to the Department of Archaeology and National Museum.