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Myanmar military court jails 144 villagers detained after massacre

September 3, 2024/in News

Junta troops suspect the villagers were helping Arakan Army insurgents closing in on the state capital. Myanmar’s junta jailed 144 civilians for supporting insurgents more than three months after they were detained following a massacre of nearly 80 people in their village, which residents blamed on junta troops, families of the detained told Radio Free Asia on […]

More than 40,000 war displaced flood across border into Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region

August 29, 2024/in News

Two-thirds of the population of Rakhine’s Gwa township have fled fighting between the military and ethnic rebels. As the fight between the military and ethnic rebels for the southernmost township in Myanmar’s Rakhine state escalates, more than 40,000 civilians have streamed across the border into neighboring Ayeyarwady region, residents said Thursday. The push to the […]

Myanmar military court jails 144 villagers detained after massacre

September 3, 2024/in News

More than 40,000 war displaced flood across border into Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region

August 29, 2024/in News

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Myanmar military court jails 144 villagers detained after massacre

September 3, 2024/in News

Junta troops suspect the villagers were helping Arakan Army insurgents closing in on the state capital.

Myanmar’s junta jailed 144 civilians for supporting insurgents more than three months after they were detained following a massacre of nearly 80 people in their village, which residents blamed on junta troops, families of the detained told Radio Free Asia on Monday.

Relatives of the jailed residents of Byain Phyu in Rakhine state dismissed the convictions, denying they had supported Arakan Army insurgents, who have been making significant advances on the battlefield against the military.

“How can we support the AA when day to day we’re struggling ourselves and hardly making ends meet?” said a relative of one of those jailed on Friday under a law against unlawful association by a military court in the main prison in the western city of Sittwe.

“But the court didn’t accept this and convicted them anyway.”

Byain Phyu is on the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, and junta forces have been keen to ensure that AA fighters can not dig into positions there from which to attack the city.

Shortly after the May 29 killings, a junta spokesman said the military had conducted a clearance operation there and rebel forces had attacked with “drone bombs and artillery”.

At the time, the military said it found bunkers built from sandbags in houses throughout the village, which it said were positions for AA soldiers.

The military detained some 300 villagers at the time. Only four people on trail on Friday were found not guilty, residents said, adding that more than 150 more were due to be tried by the court on Monday.

The AA has made unprecedented gains in fighting in Rakhine state since late last year, leaving junta forces increasingly confined to pockets of territory, including Sittwe.

A Sittwe resident, who also declined to be identified for safety reasons, said junta forces were enraged by their setbacks and were taking out their frustration on civilians.

“Sources close to the court told us before that only 38 people would be jailed and the rest would be released, but days before the verdict, the Sittwe-based Regional Command Headquarters was attacked with heavy weapons by the Arakan Army,” he said.

“It seems as if the attack might have caused casualties, so they convicted the villagers.”

Neither the junta’s main spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, nor the Rakhine states junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, responded to attempts by RFA to contact them for information.

Byain Phyu is largely deserted now with nearly 2,000 of villagers sheltering in monasteries and schools in Sittwe, residents said, with junta troops deployed to prevent anyone returning.

In Sittwe, nervous junta soldiers are conducting many checks and detaining people, residents said.

The AA has also made gains in both the north and south of Rakhine state.

RFA News

More than 40,000 war displaced flood across border into Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region

August 29, 2024/in News

Two-thirds of the population of Rakhine’s Gwa township have fled fighting between the military and ethnic rebels.

As the fight between the military and ethnic rebels for the southernmost township in Myanmar’s Rakhine state escalates, more than 40,000 civilians have streamed across the border into neighboring Ayeyarwady region, residents said Thursday.

The push to the southern border with Ayeyarwady region is the latest advance for the Arakan Army, or AA, which ended a truce with the military in November and has gone on to control nine townships and three sub-townships in Rakhine state, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state to the north.

The AA’s advance south into areas traditionally on the edge of its influence could signal that the army wants to establish a foothold in central Myanmar and take on a more central role in any post-conflict national reconciliation process, rather than staying on the sidelines as a marginal ethnic armed group.

People displaced by fighting in Rakhine state’s Gwa township are seen in Nga Thai Chaung township of Ayeyarwady region on Aug. 12, 2024. (Eternal Loving-kindness Free Funeral Services Society – Gwa)

Speaking to RFA Burmese on Thursday, residents of Ayeyarwady region’s Thabaung township said that the fighting in Rakhine state’s Gwa township is now centered on Kyeintali town, and that 42,434 civilians – or two-thirds of Gwa’s population – had crossed into Ayeyarwady seeking shelter over the past two weeks.

“War-displaced persons have arrived in Thar Paung township via jungle routes, as they were prohibited from entering at junta checkpoints on the roads,” said one resident of Thabaung who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “They had nothing to eat for about seven days during their journey.”

The resident said that many of the displaced lack travel documents and residence permits from their local officials, and that authorities in Ayeyarwady are allowing them to stay on the outskirts of their towns.

Most of the displaced have taken refuge in the Ayeyarwady townships of Thabaung, Yegyi, Kyonpyaw, Kyangin, Myanaung, Kwin Kauk and Nga Thai Chaung, he added.

Prices are high

Residents of Ayeyarwady told RFA that with the influx of displaced people from Gwa township, home rental prices have risen three-fold from about 200,000 kyats (US$95) to 600,000 kyats (US$285) per month.

A resident of Gwa township who fled to Nga Thai Chaung township in Ayeyarwady said that the financial situation facing the displaced is dire.

“Around two-thirds of residents from Gwa township are now displaced persons, while the remaining one-third is still trapped in Gwa,” he said. “All the commodity prices, except rice, are high here [in Ayeyarwady]. We all are facing various challenges.”

RFA News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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