“To put it bluntly about these groups (Northern Alliance), the Tatmadaw welcomes them if they will come to the peace conference. If they want to fight, we are ready for that too,” Maj-Gen Soe Naing Oo said.

The Yangon western district court set up a tribunal yesterday to deal with the case of Arakanese youths of Arakan Association (Singapore) who have been charged under Counter-Terrorism Law, according to lawyers.

Eleven people from Shinletwa village in Paletwa Township and two homeowners from Kyauktaw town have been accused for involvement with the AA and providing food for the AA members.

The Tatmadaw and the AA have been intensely fighting since early Friday at Taung Phyu mountain range in Minbya Township, two helicopters provided air strikes for the Tatmadaw, local sources said.

A new charge has been brought against a primary school teacher from Buthidaung Township’s Kyuak Yan village who has been detained and charged under Counter-Terrorism Laws, according to his family members.

The ICRC said it will work with proper authorities if Tin Nyo IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township needs rice and other food in spite the regional government’s recent order to stop providing rice for the camp.

A local resident from Rathedaung Township was taken by a military troop as a guide on 21 August, and he has not returned home yet, villagers said.

The directorate is going to construct an office building on the plot in Sittwe city’s Set Yone Zu Ward and released notification on 7 August to remove 18 houses from the plot.

Internally displaced persons in Tin Nyo IDP camp, Mrauk U, are facing food shortages because the government has stopped rice deliveries from the International Committee of the Red Cross, camp official U Soe Naing said.

Although the government has set up the repatriation camp at Taung Pyo Let Wae town in Maungdaw Township, no people returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh on August 22.

Over 500 vendors from Sittwe’s Myoma market are going to be relocated to the New Town project, according to the office of the City Development Committee in Sittwe Township.

At the moment, the government has not started to provide help to more than 3,000 people stuck in Phon Thar Chaung area, and social organizations also aren’t allowed to go there and help.

As many as 10,000 units of the vaccine against the H1N1 has been allocated for Arakan State and it is insufficient for the region, said Dr Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Department of Public Health in Arakan State.

Journalists are not restricted to access information in Arakan State’s conflicted areas but journalists are limited when attempting to travel to “hotspots” because of safety risks, said Major General Aung Thu, deputy minister for Home Affairs.

Muslims who fled from Myanmar and are living in the IDP camps in Bangladesh are going to wage a demonstration on 25 August for the two year anniversary of being displaced from their homes.

Displaced people from Myanmar who fled to Bangladesh are going to be accepted at the reception center in Taung Pyo Let Wae town in Maungdaw Township on 22 August, said U Soe Aung, administrator of Maungdaw district.

Author Maung Maung Soe, an observer of ethnic affairs, told media that military columns entered and checked villages with the suspicion that members of the AA are pretending to be villagers, and these checks prompted an increase in the number of IDPs in Arakan State.

Myanmar traders have been given lower prices when they cannot go to Bangladesh to seek new markets due to the entry ban while traders from Bangladesh cannot come and see goods in Myanmar, said Ko To Phate, a trader from Maungdaw town.

The incident occurred at about 10 p.m. Sergeant Hla Tun from No. 537 Regiment in Rathedaung Township was killed and his wife was hit by a piece of shrapnel and sent to hospital.