Arakanese politicians and teachers have criticised the way the Arakan State Administration Council is handling the kidnapping of a school principal and female teacher last week.

The Myanmar military reportedly blocked the Ponnagyun-Rathedaung road after the Arakan Army detained a junta soldier on June 16, causing difficulties for travellers, transporters and locals.

The Myanmar military detained Ko Zaw Win aka Ludu Zaw Win, a political and social activist in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, on Tuesday morning. 

Mud crabs and crayfish without white-spot syndrome virus (WSSV) have been allowed to re-export from Arakan State to China, according to the state’s Fisheries Department.

The Arakan Army detained three policemen from Kyauktaw Myoma police station at about 6 p.m. on Monday, according to locals. 

Internally displaced people (IDPs) driven from their homes by past military conflict in Arakan State — and kept in displacement camps by fear of renewed hostilities — called for an end to fighting in Myanmar on World Refugee Day, which falls on June 20. 

The Karen National Union (KNU), one of the oldest ethnic armed groups (EAOs) in Myanmar, said the regime has twice now invited EAOs to peace talks because it is overwhelmed by the fallout from last year’s military coup. 

A school principal and a teacher were kidnapped by a group of unknown men last week, and the spokesman for the regime’s Arakan State Administration Council said he had no knowledge of any developments in the case. 

Arakan Army (AA) spokesman U Khaing Thukha has confirmed that the ethnic armed group has detained junta soldiers in retaliation for the regime’s arrest of AA members. 

Two women from a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Paletwa Township, Chin State, were injured in a landmine blast on Monday morning. 

A rice distribution programme funded by Japan’s Nippon Foundation, and targeting internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Ann Township, has been suspended due to lack of permission from the township Disaster Management Department and the General Administration Department.

The Arakan Army (AA) does not intend to object to the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project being implemented by the Myanmar and Indian governments if it will benefit the Arakanese people. 

Schools that were built on a self-reliant basis in Dooplaya District, a territory in southern Kayin State controlled by the Karen National Union’s Brigade 6, need supplies to support students’ education, according to locals. 

The Myanmar regime has detained at least five residents in Ponnagyun Township after the Arakan Army (AA) detained a junta soldier on Thursday, according to locals. 

Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, a former Mandalay Region chief minister who was ousted along with the rest of the leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government in last year’s coup, was sentenced to 21 years in prison on five counts of corruption by a junta court at Mandalay’s Obo Prison on Friday.

The Myanmar military has tightened security along the Tanintharyi-Kawthaung road and in Dawei Township, Tanintharyi Region, since June 16, according to locals.

With the results of the matriculation examination out on Friday, 19,729 of 41,775 students who sat for the test in Arakan State passed, and the pass rate was 47.25 percent, according to the Department of Examinations. 

A primary school principal and a female schoolteacher from Thinbawhla village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township went missing at around 1 p.m. on June 16 and the pair has not been found yet. 

Members of the Arakan Army (AA) detained a policeman from a police outpost in Tinnyo village in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township at around 7 a.m. on Friday, according to locals.