Junta offices in some Arakan State townships close for security reasons

By Admin 23 Dec 2023

DMG Newsroom
23 December 2023, Ponnagyun

The regime’s administrative offices such as those for township General Administration Departments (GADs), municipalities and courts in the Arakan State towns of Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya have reportedly been shuttered for security reasons.

The administrative offices have had to be closed as civil servants under the junta who are typically only working to support their families are not coming to the office, saying they do not have security guarantees amid ongoing fighting between the military and Arakan Army (AA).

“The civil servants under the junta dare not go to their offices due to lack of security guarantee. Superiors moved to safer locations without taking their subordinates’ security into consideration,” said a source close to the junta’s offices in Kyauktaw.

According to residents, the regime’s administrative offices in Kyauktaw have been closed for about a month.

The regime’s administrative offices in Ponnagyun have also been closed, locals said.

“The township GAD office has been closed and civil servants don’t go to their offices. There are only security guards at the junta offices. Officers fled to safer locations,” said a local woman in Ponnagyun.

In a statement on December 3, the regime accused the AA of stealing nine vehicles owned by junta departments in Mrauk-U since fighting between the two sides broke out on November 13.

Some junta department offices have been closed since the AA’s seizure of nine junta vehicles while civil servants from the municipality, Electricity Supply Enterprise, Fire Services Department and Department of Archaeology and National Museum continue to work, said Mrauk-U residents.

The closure of junta departments in Arakan State indicates that the regime’s administrative apparatus is collapsing, residents said.

“Since the beginning, the regime’s administrative mechanism has not been active in Arakan State, and now it is worse. The administrative mechanism has broken down because the employees are not coming to their offices,” said a social activist in Rathedaung.

The AA also seized more than 140 BGF outposts and police stations abandoned by junta troops and two tactical command bases in Arakan State  and Chin State’s Paletwa Township within the 45 days of the latest hostilities, which began on November 13.