Arakan State News Summary (September 1-7, 2022)

By DMG 07 Sep 2022

1 September

• The Myanmar Oil Merchants and Oil Industry Association sold one viss of cooking oil to the grassroots for K5,500 at Wingabar Ground in Sittwe.
• The Arakan Army (AA) reportedly ambushed a truck traveling in an area under the control of the military’s Western Command in Ann Township.
• Clashes had continued for about a month between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Maungdaw Township and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township, with the first hostilities exchanged in early August and military tensions running high across other parts of Arakan State as well, AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha said.
• Maung Kyaw Aye Kyan, a 25-year-old man from Hseemawa Village in Paletwa Township, was severely injured in a landmine blast after he stepped on a landmine while going to his farm to harvest paddy.
• The Arakan Army (AA) alleged that Myanmar military personnel torched a free monastic school, its hostel for students and the dining hall of the monastery compound in Khamaung Seik village, Maungdaw Township, on August 30. 

2 September

• The junta-controlled Myanma Alin newspaper reported that the regime was trying to reoccupy a regime outpost near the Bangladeshi border that the Arakan Army (AA) had seized on August 31.
• A junta court sentenced the country’s detained former State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to three more years in prison over alleged fraud in the 2020 general election, bringing her cumulative prison sentences since being arrested in February 2021 to 20 years so far, with more charges still pending.
• Residents of Buywet Manhyo village in Mrauk-U Township reportedly fled to nearby villages as junta troops entered their village.
• Air attacks by Myanmar’s military regime have forced almost all 500 residents of Myeikwa village in Chin State’s Paletwa Township to flee to the Indian border.
• Locals criticised the recent extension of a long-running curfew order in Myebon Township. The ongoing curfew was extended for another two months from September 2. 
• Nineteen Muslims were arrested near Dauntchaung village in Gwa Township, according to the township police station. 

3 September

• The Myanmar military carried out an air attack involving five helicopters in northern Maungdaw Township as it attempted to retake control of an outpost near the Bangladeshi border that the Arakan Army (AA) seized earlier in the week.
• With the aim of keeping Kyaukphyu Beach clean and peaceful, the residents of Kyaukphyu organised a football competition along with garbage collection.
• More than 6,600 people have been newly displaced by renewed fighting and rising military tensions over recent weeks in three Arakan State townships and Chin State’s Paletwa Township, according to volunteers helping those displaced.
• Myanmar’s military regime has recently installed two checkpoints in low-income neighbourhoods of the Arakan State capital Sittwe, according to residents. 

4 September

• The Myanmar military reportedly arrested a local man in Mrauk-U hours after entering the town and indiscriminately opening fire.
• A police officer shot dead a Muslim man in front of Police Battalion No. 36 near Bumay village in Sittwe Township.
• The Arakan Army (AA) chief lashed out at Myanmar’s military regime via Twitter, accusing the junta of “unleashing their dastardly playbook” on civilians in Mrauk-U, which has hosted some of the latest fighting between the military and Arakan Army.
• Seventeen Muslims attempting to leave Arakan State for work opportunities in Malaysia were arrested by junta authorities in Gwa Township. 

5 September

• It is becoming increasingly difficult for charity clinics that provide free medical treatment to sustain themselves over the long term due to the seemingly inexorable rise in drug prices in Myanmar.
• Shop owners at Mrauk-U’s central market packed up their merchandise and moved to their homes after the township General Administration Department ordered them to close their shops, saying there were mines to be cleared at the market.
• The market exchange rate of Thai baht to Myanmar kyat in Kawthaung, Tanintharyi Region, nearly doubled the official rate set by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM), as the kyat continued to perform poorly against other regional currencies and the US dollar. 

6 September

• Ko Kyaw Zan Wai aka Ko Yin Hsot, a local man from Mrauk-U, was arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and National Unity Government (NUG), Myanma Alinn, the junta-controlled state-owned newspaper, reported.
• The Myanmar military detained a doctor from Chaungkauk ward in Taungup Township.
• There was growing concern among residents after an explosion occurred near an old hospital east of Nandawyargon Field in Mrauk-U at about 10 a.m. on September 6.
• Family members of a Muslim man who was shot dead by a police officer at a security checkpoint near Bumay village in Sittwe Township on September 4 were reportedly compensated with K500,000.
• Arakanese activists have lashed out at their ethnic Arakanese brethren serving in the regime’s administrative bodies, accusing them of failing to speak up for ordinary Arakanese people amid the renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA).
• Arakanese civil society organisations donated K88 million to over 600 people displaced by fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army in Paletwa, Chin State, and fled to Mizoram State in India. 

7 September

• The Arakan State Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has instructed local manufacturers of foods flagged by the FDA head office as unsuitable for consumption to stop production and recall their products from markets, according to an official of the state FDA.
• Union Minister for Home Affairs Lieutenant General Soe Htut of Myanmar’s military regime instructed police forces in Arakan State to cooperate with the military for security services in the state, according to a September 7 issue of the junta-controlled newspaper Myanma Alinn.
• The Myanmar military reportedly blockaded the Myebon-Minbya road after a roadside bomb or landmine blew up in front of the office for Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs (NATALA) in Myebon, Arakan State.
• Several teachers were reportedly stranded in Paletwa for about a week due to the military closure of roads in the remote Chin State township.