Arakan State News Summary (May 1-7, 2021)

By DMG 08 May 2021

3 May 

• A landmine exploded at 7 a.m. near Pane Nae Daw village in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, killing a 62-year-old man from the village. The man was identified as U Khin Maung Aye.
• Ethnic groups from Arakan State are returning to their hometowns amid anti-dictatorship protests throughout Myanmar after the February 1 coup, but large numbers of one such group, the ethnic Kaman people, cannot return home and are facing livelihood difficulties in Yangon.
• The State Administration Council is reported to be collecting new members of a militia group in Manaung Township to substitute for deceased members and to restructure the group. The militia group was formed with 30 people per village-tract previously.
• Ramree Township residents said Wun Paik mangrove forest, the biggest of its kind in Myanmar, has seen increased logging since the military coup in February.
• A group of youths opened a free clinic at Sit Kae Taw Min Monastery in the Arakan State capital Sittwe. The clinic was funded by the humanitarian organisation Food Not Bombs Rakhine and individual donors, and aims to provide healthcare services to low-income families.
• The Japan-based Arakan National Democratic Party (ANDP-Japan) donated K10 million to build 40 houses at fire-hit Tin Nyo IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township, and to buy 100 bags of rice for the IDPs. 

4 May 

• Yangon’s Western District Court heard the case of the brother of Arakan Army chief Major-General Twan Mrat Naing and seven others who were arrested in 2019 and charged under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law.
• In the aftermath of the coup, some returnees to Arakan State from Yangon report facing difficulties due to job scarcity in the state.
• Seven of 37 ward and village administrators appointed by the military junta in Arakan State’s Ann Township are reported to have submitted resignation letters.
• The Students’ Union  (Universities – Yangon) released a statement urging university students in Yangon Region to boycott the education system under military rule.
• Four residents of Arakan State’s Thandwe Township were interrogated on Tuesday morning at the Thandwe police station over their alleged support for the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and were released that evening after signing papers stating that they do not support the CRPH.
• The Ministry of Information announced that those who install illegal satellite dishes to watch illegal news agencies’ TV programmes will face one-year imprisonment or a K500,000 fine for breaching the Television and Video Law. 

5 May 

• The Arakan National Party told the media that it had suspended cooperation with the military-led State Administration Council.
• A traffic accident in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, killed one person and injured at least 10 others.
• Closed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cultural Museum and Buddhist Museum in Sittwe have yet to reopen to the public, according to the Department of  Archaeology and National Museum. 

6 May 

• Basic education schools across Myanmar will accept enrolment as of May 24, said Arakan State education officer U Tin Thein.
• With the shelters affected by a large fire at Tin Nyo camp in Mrauk-U Township having been rebuilt by donors, a new school will also be built for IDP children.
• The Ngasayine Chaung IDP camp in Sittwe reports facing a severe water shortage and is in urgent need of water supplies.
• An Arakanese journalist, Ko Kyaw San Hlaing, was announced as a winner of the 25^th Human Rights Press Awards, which is based in Hong Kong.
• The Sittwe Township Court orders Ko Toe Toe Aung, Ko Oo Than Naing and Ko Kyaw Naing Htay to pay a K20,000 fine each after they admitted to committing an offence under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly Law. The Arakanese students protested against the Tatmadaw over human rights abuses. Ko Oo Than Naing, Ko Kyaw Naing Htay and Ko Myat Soe Win from Kyaukphyu Education College, and Ko Kaung Tun from the Dagon University Arakan Students Union, continue to face another two charges.

 7 May 

• Ethnic Mro IDPs, many of whom are sheltering at Ahtet Myat Lae IDP camp in Ponnagyun Township, and Wartaung IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township, have also faced difficulties living in displacement.
• A joint force of the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army and Arakan National Council/Arakan Army occupied an outpost of military council (SAC) forces at Kayin State’s Mutraw District in the KNU Brigade 5 area and seized ammunition and weapons, the ANC/AA announced.
• The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture said it is working to submit the final proposal intended to put Mrauk-U on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in January 2022.
• Thirty-five instructors from Sittwe University in the Arakan State capital have been suspended from their duties for joining the civil disobedience movement, according to a letter signed by the acting rector of the university.
• Arakanese civil society organisations called for systematic monitoring of entries and departures at Myanmar’s westernmost borders in response to alarming rates of recent coronavirus infection and related fatalities in neighbouring India and Bangladesh.