YANGON, Myanmar —
Myanmar has officially designated an armed ethnic rebel group known as the
Arakan Army a terrorist organization.
The declaration,
published in official notices in Tuesday's newspapers, came after more than a
year of bitter fighting between government forces and the guerrilla group,
which represents the Buddhist Rakhine inhabitants of Rakhine state in western
Myanmar. It is one of more than a dozen ethnic minorities in Myanmar seeking
autonomy.
The notice says the
Arakan Army and an affiliated organization, the United League of Arakan,
"have caused serious losses of public security, lives and property,
important infrastructures of the public and private sector, state-owned
buildings, vehicles, equipment and materials."
The Arakan Army says
it is seeking self-determination. It has engaged in increasingly fierce combat
with government forces since late 2018. It has formed alliances with several
other armed ethnic rebel groups which have helped it keep the government off
balance by staging joint attacks in other areas of the country.
In a statement, the
group said the government declaration "indicates that the Myanmar colonial
rulers do not have a policy to solve political problems with other non-Burmans
by equitable and peaceful means. But it indicates (the intention) for a
solution by force." Burmans are the majority ethnic group in Myanmar and
dominate the government and military.
Since getting
independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar has been wracked by fighting with
minority groups in border areas seeking greater autonomy from the central
government.
In the past three
decades, the government has reached various cease-fire arrangements with many
groups, but it is striving for a comprehensive, more permanent political
situation. Most of the groups have so far rejected the government's attempts at
a settlement, and combat is ongoing in northern and western areas of the
country.
Rakhine state is best
known for a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the
Muslim Rohingya minority which caused more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring
Bangladesh. The much less organized and poorly armed Rohingya insurgents have
been largely inactive since 2017.
An official
designation as a terrorist group allows it to be termed illegal. A separate
government notice on Tuesday declared the Arakan Army and its affiliate to be
unlawful organizations, which criminalizes contact with them.
Source: Stars and
Stripes- 24 March 2020
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