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AA Raids Rice Shipment Intended for Displaced Villagers in Myanmar’s Chin State

March 31, 2020/in News

By NAN LWIN HNIN PWINT 30 March 2020 YANGON—The Arakan Army (AA) looted part of a shipment of 100 sacks of rice intended for more than 1,700 displaced Chin villagers in Paletwa Township on Sunday, but returned most of it after media reports about the incident were published, according to the Chin State government. AA fighters stopped […]

Myanmar journalist hit with terrorism charges for interviewing insurgents

March 31, 2020/in News

By AFP MANDALAY — A Myanmar journalist faces up to life in prison for publishing an interview with an ethnic armed group operating in the country’s restive Rakhine State, a week after the insurgents were classified as a terrorist organisation. The western region has long been a tinderbox of conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army […]

AA Raids Rice Shipment Intended for Displaced Villagers in Myanmar’s Chin State

March 31, 2020/in News

Myanmar journalist hit with terrorism charges for interviewing insurgents

March 31, 2020/in News

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AA Raids Rice Shipment Intended for Displaced Villagers in Myanmar’s Chin State

March 31, 2020/in News

By NAN LWIN HNIN PWINT 30 March 2020

YANGON—The Arakan Army (AA) looted part of a shipment of 100 sacks of rice intended for more than 1,700 displaced Chin villagers in Paletwa Township on Sunday, but returned most of it after media reports about the incident were published, according to the Chin State government.

AA fighters stopped a truck transporting the rice from Samee to Paletwa, where it was to be supplied to 1,771 displaced people on Sunday morning. The shipment was arranged by a community-based committee in Paletwa that is working to bring extra food into the township.

The rice was bought by the Chin State government and local civil society organizations for displaced persons in Paletwa some two months ago, but clashes delayed delivery.

The fighting between the AA and the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) has displaced thousands of Paletwa Township villagers; a total of 1,771 are now sheltering in Paletwa town, and 2,945 are in Samee town, also in Chin State.

After the committee lost contact with the three men who were in the truck bringing the rice to Paletwa, Chin State Minister of Municipal Affairs, Electricity and Industry U Soe Htet told The Irrawaddy on Sunday that the AA had stolen the rice.

According to committee chairman U Sein Tun Hla, the AA phoned him at around 2 p.m. the same day and asked him whether the rice was really intended for civilians. He said the AA called him back in the evening and asked him to sell 20 bags of rice to AA members in the area, who are also struggling to pay for food at current prices, which have risen sharply this year due to the fighting in the area. He said he agreed to the request.

However, the AA members did not pay for the 20 bags of rice up front, saying they would contact the committee and pay for it later, he said.

The AA then allowed the three men to pass, along with the truck and 80 bags of rice at around 5.30 p.m. They arrived in Paletwa on Monday morning.

U Soe Htet, the Chin State minister, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the AA at first drove the rice truck into the forest. Later, after the media started reporting on the incident, the armed group said it only did so in order to question the drivers.

“The transport committee and displaced people are so happy that they can keep bags of rice, so they don’t blame the AA for taking some. We are satisfied, whether or not they pay [for the rice]. We are happy that some [food] can be transported now; none could be transported previously,” U Soe Htet said.

Fierce clashes have been going on between the Myanmar military and the AA since Feb. 5 along the Kalandan River in Paletwa and Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township, effectively blocking food supplies to Paletwa.

“We ran out of rice in February. The price of rice even went up to 100,000 kyats [about US$72] per bag. But we could not afford it. We are hoping for some aid. We are suffering a severe food shortage. I would like to appeal to both sides, because we are experiencing real hardship,” said U Kyaw Kyaw, who is sheltering along with some 500 displaced persons in Meeza Village in Paletwa.

On March 23, the Myanmar government declared the AA a terrorist group and an unlawful association, saying its actions pose risks to the public and disrupt law and order, peace and the stability of the country. The AA has said it is fighting for self-determination and autonomy for Rakhine people.

The Central Committee for Counterterrorism also declared the AA a terrorist group, and the Tatmadaw has said it would take legal action against anyone who has ties to the group, under the Counterterrorism Law.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

Irrawaddy News

Myanmar journalist hit with terrorism charges for interviewing insurgents

March 31, 2020/in News

By AFP

MANDALAY — A Myanmar journalist faces up to life in prison for publishing an interview with an ethnic armed group operating in the country’s restive Rakhine State, a week after the insurgents were classified as a terrorist organisation.

The western region has long been a tinderbox of conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA), a group demanding greater autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine people.

Clashes have left scores of civilians killed, hundreds injured and about 150,000 displaced since January last year, and both sides have traded allegations of abuse.

A March 27 interview with a top-ranking AA representative published by the Mandalay-based Voice of Myanmar landed editor-in-chief Ko Nay Myo Lin in court on terrorism charges Tuesday.

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His report on the encounter was published after the government declared on March 23 that the insurgents had been classified as a “terrorist group”.

“I was accused under two charges of the counter-terrorism law,” he told reporters after leaving the court in Mandalay.

The charges, which cover violations including allowing terrorist groups to spread fear, gather or hide, were filed by Special Branch, Myanmar’s intelligence arm, he said.

They carry penalties ranging from three years to life in prison.

“This is disturbing for press freedom,” said the journalist, who previously worked for the BBC’s Burmese-language news service.

His wife Ma Zarni Mann, a reporter with independent local news outlet The Irrawaddy, said her husband’s laptop was seized.

She decried the use of counter-terrorism laws against journalists.

Myanmar has come under fire in the past for the high-profile jailing of two Reuters journalists who were convicted in 2018 of breaching a law on state secrets after revealing a massacre of Rohingya Muslims.

The pair were eventually freed by presidential pardon after spending more than a year in jail.

Myanmar is ranked 138 out of 180 countries for press freedom by campaign group Reporters Without Borders.

Frontier Myanmar

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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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