On the morning of September 16, round two months after intensive clashes resumed between the Arakan Military (AA) and the Myanmar army in northern Rakhine State, Bri. Gen. Dr. Nyo Twan Awng, the AA’s deputy commander in chief, shared a message to the Rakhine folks by way of his social media accounts. The message described the return to struggle in opposition to the junta as “a last struggle and decisive struggle” for constructing “the state of the Arakan.”
The AA, the armed wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), was fashioned by 26 Rakhine youths in April 2009 in Laiza, in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State, beneath the steerage of the Kachin Independence Military (KIA). In early 2015, the AA moved to Rakhine and commenced participating in clashes with the Myanmar army in Kyauktaw township and Paletwa township in neighboring Chin State. Preventing escalated late in 2018 and raged till simply earlier than the nationwide election in November 2020.
Simply earlier than the election, and three months earlier than the Myanmar army overthrew the elected civilian authorities led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on February 1, 2021, the AA agreed to a casual ceasefire in Rakhine, brokered by a Japanese peace envoy. After the coup, the AA initially averted preventing in Rakhine, as an alternative taking the chance to construct up its army energy and prolong its administration within the areas beneath its management. Six months later, the group claimed it had de facto management over two-thirds of Rakhine State, and to have 30,000 troops beneath arms, together with at the very least 6,000 in areas managed by its allies in Kayin, Kachin, and Shan states, in addition to elsewhere in Myanmar.
In early June, the tensions between the AA and junta regime grew due after the army regime strengthened its troop presence throughout Rakhine State and the AA refused an invite to participate in junta-brokered peace talks within the capital Naypyidaw. Because the scenario escalated, the deputy chief of the junta administration throughout a go to to Rakhine ordered his troops to be “able to combat any time.”
Quickly after, junta forces started arresting dozens of individuals affiliated with the AA in Mrauk-U, Sittwe, Kyauktaw, and Ponnagyun townships, blocked the gates of those cities, and performed common checks of lodges, guesthouses, and residences seeking AA/ULA members. The AA responded by arresting at the very least 20 junta personnel within the areas of Rakhine State beneath its management.
These tit-for-tat strikes culminated within the army regime launching an airstrike on July 4 in opposition to an AA base in a territory managed by the Karen Nationwide Union in Kayin State, near the border with Thailand, killing at the very least six troopers and injuring many others. Twelve days later, the AA launched a retaliatory assault in opposition to junta forces in northern Maungdaw township near the Bangladeshi border, killing at the very least 4, injuring many others and capturing at the very least 14 alive. Since then, a collection of armed clashes have taken place throughout Rakhine, particularly in northern Maungdaw township and neighboring Paletwa township of Chin State.
Preventing in Northern Maungdaw
Primarily based on native information studies and statements from the AA, the creator has recognized at the very least 18 places in Maungdaw township, together with 16 within the northern a part of the township, which have seen clashes between the AA and junta forces since July 16. The AA has killed at the very least 100 junta troopers and seized dozens of weapons whereas at the very least 36 junta outposts and camps in Rakhine and Paletwa township, Chin State have been destroyed, together with at the very least 31 in northern Maungdaw. Almost 200 junta outposts and camps, together with these of border guard forces, are estimated to have been stationed in Maungdaw alone, together with greater than 8,000 troops straight commanded from a headquarters in Kyee Kan Pyin.
The AA additionally just lately seized three tactical army camps, particularly the Mild Infantry Battalion No. 352 about three kilometers southeast of Jeitchaung village, a border police outpost close by milestone 40 of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, and Mee Taik station close to milestone 37 of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, two miles east of Taungpyo city. If the 4 remaining main Myanmar army camps have been seized or overrun by the AA, the group might declare efficient management over the whole township.
On August 23, the AA issued a press release, observing that “army tensions are escalating day-to-day and the theater of struggle is increasing in Rakhine,” and asserting that the junta has been mobilizing its troops and bringing in reinforcements and extra weapons. The AA additionally urged folks to not journey close to junta and border guard outposts and checkpoints, certainly, to not journey in any respect besides in instances of life-threatening and well being emergencies. It mentioned that individuals ought to notify the related AA and ULA places of work prematurely if they should journey.
Since clashes with the AA, junta forces have launched each airstrikes and heavy artillery assaults in opposition to the AA in a bid to take again their misplaced outposts and camps, and it has despatched at the very least 800 further troops to northern Maungdaw. Most of the residents who have been arrested by the junta troops within the space are believed to have been used as human shields throughout assaults on close by AA posts. Moreover, the junta has warned Rakhine and Rohingya, in addition to civilians of different ethnicities, to stay of their villages and to report on AA troop actions. They’ve additionally been warned nor to publish something on social media or document the motion of Myanmar army personnel.
Throughout the preventing earlier this month, quite a few mortar shells fired by the junta landed throughout the Bangladeshi border. Consequently, the Bangladesh authorities has issued at the very least three official protests to the junta-appointed Myanmar ambassador. On September 16, Myanmar mortars fell in Bindrabin District, Bangladesh, killing a 17-year-old Rohingya refugee and injuring at the very least 5 others.
The current preventing between the AA and the junta has in the meantime displaced greater than 7,000 folks in northern Rakhine, primarily folks from Maungdaw. The army regime has blocked the United Nations and worldwide NGOs from accessing the northern a part of Rakhine State. Likewise, the AA additionally issued a press release, mentioning that each one automobiles shifting alongside rivers and roads in Rakhine State will probably be checked according to the army’s wants.
A Strategic Turning Level?
There are a variety of the reason why the renewed preventing in Maungdaw might have outsized strategic impacts for the AA’s long run ambition of making “an unbiased Arakan.” To its east, the township borders Paletwa, Chin State, which occupies an vital part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Mission, an infrastructure venture which is being developed by the Indian authorities. The venture will join the jap Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe by sea, after which to Paletwa township through the Kaladan River, after which by highway to Mizoram state in Northeast India.
On August 11, a ULA spokesperson mentioned in a web based press convention that the group had had some negotiations with the federal government of India on the Kaladan venture. Two weeks later, Bibekananda Bhattamishra, India’s consul-general within the state capital Sittwe spoke at a gathering with Rakhine State-based businessmen, throughout which he talked about that the highway part of the Kaladan venture was nearly full. Management of Maungdaw would put the ULA in an excellent place to have interaction overtly with the Indian authorities over the Kaladan improvement, one thing that New Delhi would doubtless be unable to keep away from.
Second, if the AA established its management over Maungdaw, the group may resolve to cooperate with the United Nations consultants investigating the massacres and compelled displacement of Rohingya civilians from the area. Maungdaw was as soon as residence to round 750,000 Rohingya, who fled to Bangladesh after allegedly genocidal assaults by the Myanmar army in 2017. In September 2019, the AA despatched two Myanmar troopers who admitted to participating within the allegedly genocidal killings of Rohingya households, together with girls and infants, to the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) at The Hague. The troopers had been captured by the AA some months earlier. In October of that yr, the AA and two allies issued a assertion supporting makes an attempt to prosecute the Myanmar army for abuses, together with these dedicated in opposition to Rakhine State’s “Muslim minority.”
Lastly, Maungdaw township is the principle financial and commerce conduit between Rakhine State and Bangladesh. Subsequently, the AA’s makes an attempt to regulate the township displays its want to have interaction overtly with the Bangladesh authorities in border commerce, and for the potential future repatriation of Rohingya refugees. By way of each of those interactions, the group may construct an excellent relationship with the worldwide group – an integral a part of its ambition of being handled because the area’s authentic authorities. This week, the AA/ULA introduced that it will cooperate within the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, on the situation that overseas governments acknowledge it because the authentic authorities of Rakhine State.
For all of those causes, the army junta will undoubtedly defend Maungdaw and combat fiercely to retake misplaced floor. However how lengthy its remaining territories will be defended stays an open query. The Myanmar army is presently preventing a multifront struggle with the remainder of the nation ‘s resistance forces, creating a possibility for the Arakan Military to determine its unchallenged management over Maungdaw – and notch a major milestone on its path towards independence.
