Arakan State News Summary (July 16-22, 2022)

22 Jul 2022

16 July

• An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was reported among cattle across several villages in Manaung Township, according to local residents.
• With a view to promoting the tourism industry in ethnic areas of Myanmar, “Ethnic Tourism 2022” will be held in Sittwe for the first time in October of this year, it was announced.
• Two villagers from Kyaukphyu Township detained and charged with incitement under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code were brought to trial.
• The World Bank warned that due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the military takeover in Myanmar, financial sector reforms of the past decade are “at severe risk of stagnation or reversal.”
• Kanbawza Bank opened a case against two senior clerks of the Manaung bank branch for alleged misappropriation of deposits.

17 July

• Fuel prices have decreased slightly across much of Myanmar, but they remain high in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, according to local residents.
• Women’s rights activists say violence against women in Myanmar is increasing year after year, but women who are victims of such violence are demanding justice less and less.
• Cases of dengue fever have nearly tripled this year compared with approximately the same period in 2021, according to statistics from the Arakan State Department of Public Health (DPH).
• The Myanmar regime has imposed travel restrictions on international and local nongovernmental organisations working in Maungdaw Township and other parts of northern Arakan State, according to a spokesman for the state’s military government.

18 July

• A clash broke out between the Myanmar military and an armed group on the Taungpyo road between Tarein and Myawady villages in the northern part of Maungdaw Township.
• Nine Sittwe residents detained by Myanmar’s military regime and facing criminal prosecution were brought to trial in the Arakan State capital Sittwe.
• Residents of four settlements in Rathedaung Township fled in fear after scores of Myanmar military soldiers and police officers entered their communities.
• Myanmar’s military regime sealed off a Buddhist monastery in Thandwe Township earlier this month, citing possible threats to community tranquillity.

19 July

• The Arakan Army captured 14 junta soldiers and police personnel after the ethnic armed group clashed with the Myanmar military in northern Maungdaw Township on July 18, AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha told DMG.
• A free monastic school run by a Buddhist monk in Khamaung Taw village, Ann Township, is seeking donations to pay its teachers and feed the students.
• Local residents in Buthidaung Township have called for the soonest possible opening of a technical institute being built near Kutoe Seik village, with construction on the education facility having begun some four years ago.
• The Myanmar military arrested two men from Sanpya ward in Ponnagyun Township, according to family members of the detainees.
• Villagers fled in fear and some shopkeepers in Rathedaung Township shuttered their businesses after nearly 100 junta troops showed up near Pyarchaunggyi village.
• A Mrauk-U Township resident had to receive medical treatment in Yangon after he was tortured while in military custody, according to relatives.
• An official from Thayargon village in Maungdaw Township was detained by members of the Border Guard Force (BGF), according to family members.

20 July

• A combined contingent of Myanmar military troops and Border Guard Force personnel detained an administrator and two other men from Kyeinchaung village in Maungdaw Township, according to family members.
• A Chin State court reduced by one year the prison term of Ko Tin Tun Aung, a resident of Paletwa Township who had been sentenced to three years in prison for incitement.
• The Sittwe District Court sentenced two Ponnagyun Township men accused of having illegal Arakan Army (AA) ties to three years in prison under Section 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, more than two years after the pair were arrested.
• Internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering at a Buddhist monastery in Rathedaung Township felt compelled to flee after Myanmar military troops were deployed at the monastery.
• A man from the Kavi Yadana camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kyauktaw went missing and has not been heard from since, according to family members.

21 July

• Nine Kyaukphyu Township men were sentenced to three years in prison each under Section 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, more than two years after they were arrested and accused of having illegal ties to the Arakan Army (AA).
• Myanmar’s military regime has closed a bridge crucial for nearly 20 villages along Sammati Creek in Ponnagyun Township, severely disrupting the daily lives of locals.
• Myanmar’s currency has slumped against the Thai baht as a consequence of the Myanmar military regime’s restrictions on US dollars, according to businesses that trade with Thailand.
• Family members of those killed or injured in encounters with landmines and explosive remnants of war in Arakan State require additional assistance for rehabilitation, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC).
• The Arakan Army (AA) this week urged local people to exercise caution while travelling in the state, citing the military regime’s recent arrests of dozens civilians on a variety of specious grounds.

22 July

• Many students in Arakan State who must travel by boat in order to attend school are still in need of life jackets, nearly two months after the issue was raised and promises for government provision of the safety gear were made.
• The Arakan State Fisheries Department ordered 10 mud crab and lobster exporters to halt their exports after white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was found in their exports.
• The military detained three residents from Kyeinchaung, including the village administrator. Those arrests and others in the region recently have left local administrators on edge and fearing that they could be next.
• A military checkpoint set up by junta troops and affiliated border guard police in Kyeinchaung village, which is strategically located in northern Maungdaw, has prevented travel in the area for days. The road blockade is causing problems for the residents of more than 20 villages in Maungdaw Township.
• The diamond bud of Lawka Manaung Pagoda in Mrauk-U Township, which went missing after the pagoda was struck by lightning, was retrieved, according to the pagoda board of trustees.
• Internally displaced people (IDPs) from a displacement camp in Kanhtaungyi town, Myebon Township, who recently returned to their homes said they have not yet received the financial assistance that the regime had promised them for resettlement.