The Arakan Army (AA) has no plan to hold political talks with the Myanmar junta because the military regime is not an elected government, said the ethnic armed group’s spokesman U Khaing Thukha.

A young man from Arakan State’s Thandwe town was sentenced to more than a year in prison for participating in a protest against the military dictatorship, according to family members.

More than 20,000 locals in areas controlled by Brigade 1 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), in Kayin State have been displaced by fighting there since February, sources told DMG.

Negotiations are underway through the Myanmar military and intermediaries for the release of those arrested on suspicion of having links with the Arakan Army (AA), the ethnic armed group’s spokesman U Khaing Thukha said at a press conference Saturday.

The United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the Arakan Army (AA), said it is carefully handling a series of criminal cases in Arakan State that made headlines late last year, and which the ethnic armed group at the time characterised as a potential attempt to foment sectarian strife.

The young writer Ko Aung Naing Myint aka Ko Min Di Par, from Pan Maw village in Mrauk-U Township, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with labour by the Maruk-U District Court on February 25 for violating the Counter-Terrorism Law.

Rising global oil prices in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia military conflict have also pushed up domestic fuel prices in Myanmar, with the grassroots particularly hard-hit as a result.

The Arakan State Agriculture Department is planning to expand cultivation of oil crops in some townships for local oil sufficiency, the deputy director of the department Daw Hla Theingi told DMG.

The Department of Fisheries warned locals on March 1 that 2,065 acres in the vicinity of Khwa Sone village in Myebon Township and Maylun village in Minbya Township, Arakan State, had been declared a hilsa fish no-catch area.

U Hla Thein, a spokesman for the Arakan State Administration Council, said vendors at traditional markets and supermarkets in Arakan State would be scrutinised for Covid-19 vaccination status.

A letter was sent to junta chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing on March 3 seeking approval for the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) to Tinma village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State.

With the price of fuel skyrocketing globally and domestically, Myanmar’s tourism, travel and logistics industries are contending with related difficulties at a time of already existing, enduring struggles in the wake of last year’s military coup and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

At least 22 people from Arakan State died in military custody after being detained for alleged ties to the Arakan Army (AA) while the ethnic armed group was fighting against the military from 2018-2020. In 2019, the Myanmar military said that it had formed a tribunal to probe those deaths, but some three years later, there are still no results from the investigation.

Five men from Kyaukseik village and its vicinity in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township, who have been accused of having illegal ties to the Arakan Army (AA), appeared before the Sittwe District Court on Thursday, according to a lawyer involved. 

At least 75 civilians were killed and some 180 houses were destroyed by Myanmar junta air and artillery strikes during the first two months of this year in Kayah (Karenni) State, according to the Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF).

The case of two men from Arakan State’s Thandwe Township who have been accused of ties to the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF) will be examined for basis at their next court hearing, according to their lawyer.

Myanmar’s military regime on Thursday charged detained former Arakan State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu and his subordinate municipal minister, U Min Aung, under the Penal Code for alleged violations of election law, according to their lawyers.

Myanmar’s military regime on Wednesday released some detained celebrities after they reportedly signed legal documents pledging that they would not participate in any anti-regime activities in the future, a source close to Yangon’s Insein Prison told DMG.

More than 540 tonnes of illegal timber were seized in Arakan State in February, according to figures from the state’s Forest Department.