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

By DMG 15 Jun 2022

8 June

• At least 209 people have been given life imprisonment or death sentences for their anti-regime activities since the coup last year, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), a Myanmar-based political research institute.
• Fertiliser prices in Arakan State have tripled since last year, making it difficult for local farmers to grow paddy.
• Thai police identified nine Arakanese people as suspects in the death of a Thai man in Songkhla Province, southern Thailand, near the Malaysian border, according to the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN), a not-for-profit organisation working to promote the rights of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
• Students in Arakan State from 5 to 12 years old have been administered the Covid-19 vaccine since schools reopened on June 2, with 82,788 children having received their first dose as of June 8, according to the Arakan State Education Department.
• The Myanmar military has made a series of arrests of locals in Paletwa Township, Chin State, where military tensions between junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) have simmered, and another 100-household head was arrested on June 8.

9 June

• A junta-appointed ward administrator was stabbed to death near an office of the township war veterans’ association in the town of Ann, according to locals.
• Financial losses due to fires across Arakan State’s 17 townships totalled K93,234,700 in the five months from January to May of this year, according to the Arakan State Fire Services Department.
• There are more than 35,000 ethnic Mro people in Arakan State, and 75% of school-age Mro children are not in school due to poverty and remote living circumstances, according to Mro youth organisations.
• Locals from Yaynan Dwein village in Kyaukphyu Township say the village faces annual flooding because a creek that flows through it gets shallower year after year.
• Arakan State’s salt industry has been in decline for a decade, with the number of salt farmers plummeting from more than 1,000 across 12 townships to just 50 or so today, according to the Arakan State Salt Department.
• An 11-month-old baby girl died at the People’s Hospital in Taungup Township due to an allergic reaction, according to the Taungup Hospital.

10 June

• More than a week after schools opened on June 2, a group of ethnic Kaman high school students in the Arakan State capital Sittwe remain unable to enrol.
• There were 192 cases of dengue fever reported in Arakan State this year from January 1 to June 10, according to a source from the state’s Department of Public Health.
• A man and woman in Kyaukphyu who were detained on suspicion of raising funds for the Arakan Army were charged with incitement under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code.
• Arakan Army spokesman Khaing Thukha called the military regime’s arrest of local administrators in Chin State’s Paletwa Township a human rights violation amid rising military tensions between the two sides.
• The Sittwe Township municipality has instructed residents to dump their garbage only between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

11 June

• Local residents in Sittwe have complained about the condition of thoroughfares and other heavily trafficked streets in the Arakan State capital that are riddled with large, deep potholes now filled with water since the onset of the monsoon season.
• Grade 11 students at a high school in Minbya Township are reportedly struggling to learn due to the lack of a school building to accommodate them.
• Residents in Tinma village, Kyauktaw Township, said unburned homes there were demolished by junta soldiers, who are using the materials to build camps.

12 June

• Arakanese political analysts say the military junta’s ostensible efforts to repatriate Muslims from Bangladesh are unlikely to succeed as long as political instability prevails in Myanmar.
• High costs of living have forced some distance learners who come from other parts of Arakan State to study at Sittwe University to stay at monasteries.
• Three utility poles on the Thandwe-Gwa road collapsed due to flooding.
• An event to put a rural healthcare centre into commission was held in Hlanpyauk village in Kyaukphyu Township.
• Kyaukphyu Airport is set to undergo renovations during the current fiscal year, with runway and parking lot upgrades expected.
• The Department of Archaeology and National Museum in Mrauk-U has not yet been able to begin removing illegal settlements from the ancient city, ahead of the expected visit of experts evaluating the former Arakanese royal capital’s bid for UNESCO World Heritage status.
• The Japan-based Arakan National Democratic Party and Arakan FC – Japan donated 400 rice sacks to fire victims at Mahamuni displacement camp in Kyauktaw Township.

13 June

• A farmer in Pauktaw Township was struck dead by lightning, according to locals.
• The Myanmar regime’s second in command, Vice Senior General Soe Win, called on his troops in Arakan State to be ready to fight, as the Arakan Army’s spokesman accused the junta of preparing to wage a full-scale war.
• The township Red Cross Corps provided free first aid training to staff from the Department of Social Welfare in Kyaukphyu, Arakan State.
• Daw Aye Nu Sein, a member of the junta’s governing council, met with Kaman children who are unable to attend school in Thayargon village, Sittwe Township.
• A total of six children — a girl from Sittwe, two boys from Kyaukphyu and three children from Maungdaw — drowned in the span of two weeks.

14 June

• Eleven homes in the airport area of Ann Township have been ordered to be demolished, but the owners said they would not demolish their homes.
• The ULA/AA says that it is focusing on reconciliation between people of different religions and ethnic groups in Arakan State.
• Internally displaced people (IDPs) called for more effective healthcare services in Arakan State’s displacement camps due to the rising dengue fever, malaria and diarrhoea caseloads that accompany the arrival of the monsoon season each year.
• Hundreds of Myanmar military soldiers have defected to the Arakan Army since last year’s coup, said U Khaing Thukha, a spokesman for the ethnic armed group, at a press conference.
• An internally displaced person (IDP) was killed and another injured in a landmine explosion near Sanyin village in Myebon Township.
• The Arakan People’s Government of the United League of Arakan/ Arakan Army (ULA/AA) is levying tax on almost all the business owners in Arakan State, said AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha, during the third online press conference of the ethnic armed group.
• Via intermediaries, the Arakan Army is negotiating with the military about the latter’s increased troop deployments in Arakan State recently, but tensions may rise if negotiations fail, U Khaing Thukha said. He added that junta efforts to interfere in AA governance initiatives in Arakan State were contributing to tensions in the region.
• Speaking of prisoners of war, U Khaing Thukha said the Arakan Army was open to the possibility of arranging a prisoner exchange with the military regime.

15 June

• Nearly three years after the installation of power cables, more than 40 villages in Manaung Township still do not have access to electricity, according to residents.
• Flooding is frequent in wards such as Shwepyar, Mingan, Hsinkulan and Lanmataung in the Arakan State capital Sittwe due to blocked drains and poor water flow, according to locals.
• A fifth meeting of the Myanmar-Bangladesh joint working group on repatriation of Muslim refugees was held via video conference, according to reports from the junta-run newspaper Myanma Alin.
• U Ba Htwee Sein, the Arakan State education officer, confirmed to DMG that the 2022 matriculation results would be announced on June 17 at the respective examination centres.
• An inter-village road in Kyaukngu village-tract, Kyaukphyu Township, was built at a cost of K65 million, but the road has not been completed yet, making it difficult for locals, including students, to travel.