Arakan State News Summary (October 23-31, 2022)

By DMG 31 Oct 2022

23 October

• Myanmar’s military regime detained more than 20 people, including Arakanese and Muslims, in Buthidaung Township, according to relatives of the detainees.
• More than 100 people injured by a junta aerial bombardment in an area controlled by Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Battalion No. 9 near Kan Zee Village in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township were said to be struggling to receive medical treatment.
• The Myanmar military reportedly abducted U San Ko, an Arakanese composer and owner of the Arakan Ar Mahn bus gate in Thandwe, at around noon. 

24 October

• Locals fled their homes in Pauktaw Township following strong winds caused by cyclonic storm Sitrang. Some houses, boats and fish farms were damaged in two villages, according to locals.
• Farmers in several Arakan State townships were reported to be having difficulty harvesting paddy due to renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army.
• The Buthidaung Township administrator instructed internally displaced people (IDPs) at camps in Buthidaung town to vacate by October 31 or face eviction.
• Nine boat owners arrested near the Min Chaung Bridge in Sittwe were charged under the Inland Water Transport Vessels Law. 

25 October

• Junta troops searched the Mya Tazaung camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Mrauk-U Township.
• The Kachin Independence Organisation/Kachin Independence Army (KIO/KIA) released a statement on the junta’s aerial bombardment of a KIA-organised event on October 23, saying it would turn sorrow into strength and step up the revolution against Myanmar’s military regime.
• Arakanese author and politician U Kyaw Than aka Boe Kyaw Than died at the age of 88 at his home in Sittwe.
• More than 1.6 million people in Myanmar have been displaced over the past 18 months, since last year’s military coup, said the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), a Myanmar-based political research institute. 

26 October

• Farmers in Arakan State, who were already facing difficult circumstances due to ongoing fighting in the state, faced the added challenge of damage to paddy fields caused by a recent storm.
• Thousands of people displaced by fighting between the military and Arakan Army in Arakan State need warmer clothes and blankets for the coming months as seasonal temperatures begin to fall, according to displacement camp officials.
• More than 1,500 residents from villages including Chaungtu and Daywun in Kyauktaw Township and Buddhaw and Aung Mingalar villages in Ponnagyun Township fled to safer locations after the military fired artillery shells into residential areas.
• Forty-six Muslims attempting to leave Arakan State for work opportunities in Malaysia were arrested by regime authorities in Gwa Township. 

27 October

• The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) reached a deal to send 200,000 tonnes of rice to Bangladesh, of which Arakan State will supply 2,500 tonnes, according to U Than Shwe, chairman of the Arakan State Rice Millers Association.
• Of four employees from the Department of Agricultural Land Management and Statistics Department in Kyaukphyu, two have been released, but the two others remain under military detention.
• Relatives have not yet been allowed to meet some 20 Arakanese and Muslim detainees who were arrested by the Myanmar military from the central market and jetty in Buthidaung Township.
• Correspondent students from Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Pauktaw townships attending Sittwe University said they’ve been unable to return home as Myanmar’s military regime has blockaded both land and water routes in northern Arakan State.
• Eighteen people who were detained by Malaysian authorities during a raid on the office of the Arakan Refugee Relief Committee (ARRC) in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month were released, though a 16-year-old girl remained detained.
• A Muslim cleric in Phokhaung Chaung Village, part of Buthidaung Township, was injured by a junta artillery strike, according to family members and the villager administrator.
• Activists organised a campaign against a China-backed deep-sea port project in Kyaukphyu Township. 

28 October

• Family members said they had not been in contact with 13 Arakanese from Haigyi Island in Ayeyarwady Region for more than a month, after they were arrested on suspicion of having links to the Arakan Army (AA).
• The military detained U Hla Tun Tha aka Kyaw Kyaw, 49, and U Ba Waing, both residents of Ngapali town.
• Family members said they had not been in contact with two men from Kyauktaw Township for about a month, after they were arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army (AA).
• The military regime charged about 15 local residents in Arakan State who were arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act. 

29 October

• An annual pagoda festival at Bay Ngar Rar Mountain near Yoke Tayoke Village in Ponnagyun Township will not be held this year due to ongoing fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), the pagoda board of trustees said.
• A monastery in Yokethar Village, Kyauktaw Township, was damaged after reportedly being attacked with a drone by the military.
• Sittwe residents are calling for arrangements to be made to ensure that the public is not at risk after the drowning of three children at View Point Beach in the Arakan State capital.
• Myanmar’s military regime has blockaded roads in northern Maungdaw Township since August following escalating military tensions with the Arakan Army (AA), and affected residents said they now even require approval from their village administrators and nearby police stations to travel locally.
• Six elderly men were abducted by the military in Maungdaw Township, according to local residents.
• A Grade 10 student was injured when an artillery shell landed and exploded in Hsinmakyaw Village, Kyauktaw Township, according to the village administrator.
• Around 20 junta soldiers and police raided Tin Nyo IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township and conducted interrogations of IDPs.
• Maung Nyi Char, 25, the son of U Kyaw Hla Maung, a retired police officer in Sittwe, was seriously injured when junta soldiers hit him on the head with an iron rod, and had to be treated at Sittwe Hospital. 

30 October

• Arakan State’s agriculture industry has suffered significant setbacks this year, including an anticipated drop in the state’s rice production, making it necessary to take special care to ensure domestic food security, according to an official from the Arakan Farmers’ Union.
• Locals from at least four villages in northern Maungdaw Township reported that wild elephants are devouring and damaging their paddy fields.
• The Arakan Students Union has objected to changes recently made by Myanmar’s military regime to the National Education Law, which set Burmese as the official language of the country’s classrooms.
• A fire broke out in Sittwe’s Aung Mingalar Ward, engulfing four homes. 

31 October

• Women living at camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State were reported to be in need of contraceptive pills and sanitary pads.
• A mother, father and their 13-year-old daughter were killed by artillery fire while sleeping at home in Pisi Village, Kyauktaw Township, with the Myanmar military being blamed for the shelling.
• About 200 people are struggling to make ends meet after they were forcibly evicted from a location in front of Yanaungmyay Monastery in Buthidaung Township.
• Myanmar military jet fighters attacked hills west of Gutarpyin Village in Buthidaung Township, without indications of armed conflict in the vicinity.