Arakan Army

The Arakan Army (Burmese: ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော်; abbreviated AA) is a Rakhine armed group in Myanmar (Burma) based on Kachin State, founded on 10 April 2009.[1] It is the armed wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), currently led by Major General Twan Mrat Naing. Myanmar's Anti-Terrorism Central Committee designates Arakan Army as a terrorist group under the country's counter-terrorism law.[8][9] According to Amnesty International, AA has perpetrated violence and abuse against civilians, including abductions and forced labour.[10]

Not to be confused with the Arakan Army (Kayin State) or the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Arakan Army
ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော်
LeadersTwan Mrat Naing[1]
Nyo Twan Awng
[2]
SpokespersonKhine Tu Kha
Dates of operation10 April 2009 (2009-04-10) – present
HeadquartersLaiza, Kachin State (currently)
Mrauk-U, Rakhine State (planned)
Active regionsChin State,[3]
Kachin State,
Rakhine State,
Shan State,
Bangladesh–Myanmar border
IdeologyArakanese nationalism
Arakanese self-determination
Ethnic federalism
StatusActive
Size~7,000–8,000[4]
AlliesNorthern Alliance[5]

Other allies

OpponentsState opponents

Non-state opponents

Battles and warsInternal conflict in Myanmar
Designated as a terrorist group by Myanmar[8][9]
Flag
Websitewww.arakanarmy.net

The AA is a participant in the Kachin conflict, fighting alongside the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) against the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces). Most AA soldiers were originally trained at the KIA Military Academy; however, the AA has additional training camps in Rakhine State. According to the Myanmar Peace Monitor, the AA had more than 1,500 troops in 2014,[11] including personnel stationed in the Rakhine State near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.[12][13][14] The Irrawaddy stated in September 2015 that the AA had 2,500 troops and 10,000 supporters.[15] In January 2019, the AA's numbers increased to an estimated 7,000–8,000 troops.[16][4]

Objectives

The Arakan Army purportedly advocates for self-determination for the multi-ethnic Arakanese population, the safeguarding and promotion of the national identity and cultural heritage of the Arakan people, and the "national dignity" and best interests of the Arakan people.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy, Arakan Army commander-in-chief Twan Mrat Naing replied to an interviewer's question by saying, "Whether the objective is to obtain a federal union of democracy or the more autonomous confederate status like that of Wa State, the political objective of the group is to obtain confederate status for Rakhine State, and we prefer confederate status like that of Wa State, which has a larger share of power in line with the constitution."[17] The purpose of the AA, as stated by its second-in-command Brigadier General Nyo Twan Awng, is to "protect our Arakan people, and to establish peace, justice, freedom and development."[18]

History

The Arakan Army (AA) was founded on 10 April 2009 along with its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), in what it describes as its "temporary headquarters" in Laiza, Kachin State.[19]

Following training, the group had planned to return to Arakan State and fight for self-determination; however, with the outbreak of fighting in Kachin State in June 2011, they were unable to return. As a result, they took up arms against the Myanmar Army in support of the KIA. In 2014, the AA started a settlement in Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh and another near the border of Thai-Myanmar with which it has become much stronger and its combat abilities have been positively impacted.[20]

In February 2015, AA fought alongside the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic armed group, and its ally the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in their conflict with the Myanmar Army.[21] Hundreds of armed men from the Myanmar troops were reportedly killed in this conflict.

On 30 May 2020 the Arakan Army released a statement demanding the immediate withdrawal of Burmese Government administration and Burmese armed forces from Arakan. [22]

Clashes in Western Myanmar

In April 2015, the AA clashed with the Myanmar Army in Kyauktaw Township of Rakhine State and Paletwa Township of Chin State.[23] On 27 August 2015, there was a clash between the AA and Bangladesh border guard forces, with both sides opening fire near the Boro Modak area of Thanci in the Bandarban district, near the shared Burma-Bangladesh border.[24]

On 20 August 2015, the Arakan Army clashed with a Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), after ten of their horses had been confiscated by the BGB earlier that day.[25]

In December 2015, the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army engaged in several days of fighting, around 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Sittwe at the border between Kyauktaw and Mrauk U townships. An unknown number of military personnel were killed in the fighting.[26] Several Tatmadaw personnel, including one commanding officer, were killed in sniper attacks. Many others were injured.[27]

Following clashes between Rohingya insurgents and Burmese security forces in northern Rakhine State in October 2016, the Arakan Army released a press statement, calling the perpetrators (the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) "savage Bengali Muslim terrorists" and the violence a "rampage of the Bengali Islamic fundamentalist militants in northern Arakan."[6]

According to the BBC, there is popular support for the Arakan Army in Mrauk U and a number of men from the town have recently joined the group.[28]

In November 2017, the group was involved in heavy clashes with the Tatmadaw in Chin State, in which 11 Tatmadaw soldiers were killed.[29]

On 21 December 2018, the Myanmar Army declared a four-month unilateral ceasefire in five conflict areas, saying it would hold talks with non-signatories of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) during the ceasefire period. However, the Western Command (stationed in Chin State and Rakhine State) was notably excluded from the unilateral ceasefire announcement and an increase in clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army was reported.[30][31]

On 4 January 2019, around 300 members of the Arakan Army launched pre-dawn attacks on four border police outposts—Kyaung Taung, Nga Myin Taw, Ka Htee La and Kone Myint—in northern Buthidaung Township.[32] Thirteen members of the Border Guard Police (BGP) were killed and nine others were injured,[33][34][35] whilst 40 firearms and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were looted. The Arakan Army later stated that it had captured nine BGP personnel and five civilians, and that three of its fighters were also killed in the attacks.[36][37] Following the attacks, the Office of the President of Myanmar held a high-level meeting on national security in the capital Naypyidaw on 7 January 2019, and instructed the Defense Ministry to increase troop deployments in the areas that were attacked and to use aircraft if necessary.[38]

Myanmar Army soldiers from the 22nd Light Infantry Division, elements of the 66th and 99th Light Infantry Divisions, and battalions from the Western Command of the Tatmadaw were reportedly involved in the subsequent military offensive against the Arakan Army. Clashes were reported in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung and Ponnagyun Townships, located in the northern and central parts of Rakhine State. The Rakhine State government issued a notice blocking non-governmental organisations and UN agencies, except for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Food Programme, from travelling to rural areas in these townships affected by the conflict. The fighting prompted 5,000 civilians to flee from their homes and to take shelter in monasteries and communal areas across the region, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.[39] Civilian casualties,[40] arbitrary detention of ethnic Rakhine villagers,[41] and military blockage of food aid and medical relief were also reported.[42]

On 9 March 2019, around 60 AA insurgents launched an evening attack on Yoe-ta-yoke Police Station. According to a leaked combat report, nine policemen were killed, two were injured, and a dozen weapons, including 10 BA-63 assault rifles, were stolen by the attackers.[43] On the same day, AA insurgents managed to conquer the front line commanding post of Rakhine State's Gwa Township-based No. 563 Light Infantry Battalion under the supervision of Light Infantry Division No. 5. According to a press release by the Arakan Army, 11 personnel, including four military engineers, were captured and 16 backhoe excavators, one Toyota car, a dump truck, and 60 mm and 80 mm mortars were confiscated.[44]

On 9 April 2019, around 200 AA insurgents attacked the No. 31 Police Security Unit at 10 pm. The Tatmadaw retaliated with fighter jets, bombing AA positions until 6 am the next day.[45]

In July 2019, the Myanmar Police, in cooperation with the government of Singapore, arrested AA leader Twan Mrat Naing's younger brother, Aung Mrat Kyaw, along with others who were accused of financially supporting the AA. In September, his younger sister and brother-in-law were also detained by Myanmar Police when they returned to Myanmar from Thailand.[46]

On 22 September 2019, fighting broke out near Taunggyi Village in Myebon Township, as the ceasefire expired.[47]

On 26 October 2019, AA soldiers captured a ferry on the Mayu River between Sittwe to Buthidaung Township and abducted a group 58 passengers, which included soldiers, police officers and government workers. A rescue attempt by the Tatmadaw using a helicopter resulted in exchange of gunfire, killing several of the hostages.[48]

On 6 February 2020, the Arakan Army attacked an outpost of the Tatmadaw on a bank of Kaladan River in Chin State. Fighting continued for weeks and peaked in the second week of March when the Arakan Army claimed it had captured 36 soldiers, including a battalion commander. [49] On 19 March 2020, the Tatmadaw made a statement claiming that its forces could break the Arakan Army's siege of the outpost.[50]

On 23 June 2020, Thai authorities raided a house in the border town of Mae Sot (close to Kayin State), seizing a large stash of newly manufactured weapons originating from China. Local insurgents on the Burmese side of the border told The Irrawaddy that the weapons were likely being smuggled for the Arakan Army because "they pay good prices".[51]

References
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  2. "ARAKAN ARMY ( AA )". Arakan Army. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. "Internet Blackout Imposed on Myanmar's Restive Rakhine State". Agence France-Presse via Voice of America. 23 June 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  4. "Myanmar's Arakan Army is Recruiting and Training to Fight Government". Voice of America. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  5. Lynn, Kyaw Ye. "Curfew imposed after clashes near Myanmar-China border". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  6. Mathieson, David Scott (11 June 2017). "Shadowy rebels extend Myanmar's wars". Asia Times. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  7. Ranjan Sen, Sudhi. "India Accuses China of Helping Rebel Groups on Myanmar Border". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  8. "Myanmar army ordered to take offensive against Arakan Army". AP via Washington Post. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  9. "Spokesman: Myanmar Army Kills 13 Rebels in Rakhine Clashes". Reuters via VOA. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  10. ""No one can protect us": War crimes and abuses in Myanmar's Rakhine State". Amnesty International USA. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  11. Administrator. "Armed ethnic groups". mmpeacemonitor.org. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
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  14. "Arakan Army Calls for Calm After Bangladesh Border Clash". Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  15. "I Want to Stress That We Are Not the Enemy". Retrieved 28 September 2015.
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  17. "AA စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ် ဗိုလ်ချုပ် ထွန်းမြတ်နိုင်နှင့် အင်တာဗျူး (အပိုင်း - ၂)". ဧရာဝတီ (in Burmese). 11 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  18. Administrator. "ရက္ခိုင် ပြည်သူ့ အာဏာပိုင် အဖွဲ့ကို ထူထောင်တော့မယ်". irrawaddy.com. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
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  21. Times, The Myanmar. "Ethnic allies join Kokang fight". mmtimes.com. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
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  23. "Refugees From Ruined Village Say Myanmar Army Trapped Them". Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  24. "Arakan Army Calls for Calm After Bangladesh Border Clash". Retrieved 9 September 2015.
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  43. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/myanmar-says-9-police-killed-in-arakan-army-attack/2019/03/10/082ac49e-432d-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html
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  50. မီးဝစခန္းအား ရက္ေပါင္း ၄၀ ေက်ာ္ၾကာ ဝိုင္းပတ္ပိတ္ဆို႔ထားသည့္ AA အၾကမ္းဖက္ ေသာင္းက်န္း သူမ်ား အက်ဆုံးမ်ားစြာျဖင့္ ဆုတ္ခြာ ထြက္ေျပး၊ (in Burmese). Retrieved 4 August 2020.
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