Local charity stopped from donating food to needy at Ann Twsp military checkpoint

By DMG 27 Aug 2021

DMG Newsroom
27 August 2021, Ann

Members of a local charity group looking to provide food aid to more than 200 households in Darlat Chaung village-tract facing livelihood hardships amid the Covid-19 pandemic were not allowed to pass a military checkpoint in Arakan State’s Ann Township, according to the charity.

An army officer from the unit, Light Infantry Battalion No. 373, which is located beside the Sittwe-Yangon Road in Ann Township, said the philanthropists from charitable group “Myittar Shin” would be allowed to go only with the permission of the township administrator, Ko Soe Win.

“Military officials say we will only be allowed to cross the checkpoint with the permission of the security and border affairs minister and the township administrator,” the chairperson of the charity group told DMG. “We went to the township administrator and asked for his permission, but he refused. The township administrator said that the letter must be submitted to the military.”

Ko Soe Win said they went to Darlat Chaung village-tract to provide rice, iodised salt, fish paste and seasoning powder to more than 200 households thast were struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

When DMG spoke to Ann Township administrator U Aye Aung about the matter, he suggested contacting the military.

DMG also phoned the Arakan State minister for Security and Border Affairs, Colonel Kyaw Thura, but he could not be reached.

Ko Soe Win said he felt the government was deliberately trying to create a social crisis by not allowing them to travel freely when people were in trouble.

“We are planning to furnish the poor with food items as much as we can. In fact, the people’s government must protect the lives and property of the people,” he said. “I am very sorry that the military, which is supposed to protect the people, will not allow the charitable communities to support those in need with food.”

The working class and poor have been struggling to make ends meet as the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted closure of businesses and other economically far-reaching public health measures.