The Arakan State High Court will decide at an upcoming hearing whether to reduce the sentences of four students in Arakan State who are facing more than two years in prison for an October 2020 anti-war protest. 

The current conduct of Myanmar’s military regime could lead to difficulties in attaining a resolution to the country’s political crisis, said Nai Aung Ma Ngay, acting leader of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST). 

Former President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi were each sentenced to four years’ imprisonment at a hearing on December 6 by a special junta court in the capital Naypyidaw, before having those sentences halved by junta supremo Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, according to state media. 

At least two people were killed and several others injured and arrested after a military truck rammed into a crowd of protesters in Kyimyindaing Township, Yangon, at about 8 a.m. on December 5.

Pilgrims and locals have expressed concern as the Myanmar military and police are conducting security checks along the historical Sandawshin Pagoda Road in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State.

The local administration in Mya Yeik Kyun village-tract, part of Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township, is charging people K1,500 to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, with the money ostensibly going to pay for the needs of healthcare staff administering the shots. 

At least eight people in Arakan State — six from Thandwe District and one each from Mrauk-U and Kyaukphyu districts — have been arrested on suspicion of People’s Defence Force (PDF) affiliations and charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law. 

A total of K597 million ($334,645) in loans have not been repaid in the eight years since the Emerald Green Project was launched for rural populations in 2014-15, according to the state’s Department of Rural Development (DRD).

A series of thefts and robberies have taken place in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, with residents in some wards feeling compelled to hire nighttime guards to protect their neighbourhoods.

Up to seven educational employees have been arrested by the military council for joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), according to the General Strike Committee of Basic Education Workers (Thayawady). 

A local man has been arrested because his brother unwittingly transported a defecting member of the Border Guard Police in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, said the detained man’s family. 

Two education personnel from Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, who had joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), died of poor health while in hiding, the interim Thayetchaung Township Basic Education Board said. 

Local farmers whose farmlands are involved in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, are worried that they will become occupiers. 

With all witnesses having been examined in the case of a young author from Pan Maw village in Mrauk-U Township accused of illegal ties to the People’s Defence Force (PDF), both sides’ lawyers will plead at the next court hearing, according to the defendant’s legal council.

Myanmar’s military regime on December 1 brought Anti-Corruption Law charges against the country’s former deputy minister for Construction, as well as three directors-general and a former Bago Region minister for Transportation.

More than 20 residents of Lekka village in Mrauk-U Township who were arrested on suspicion of having links to the Arakan Army (AA) were arraigned on December 3, and a second appeal was presented to the court as the presiding judge did not rule in the case, according to a lawyer. 

The Arakan State regime council is keeping a watchful eye on motorways, waterways and air travel to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, said U Hla Thein, spokesperson for the state’s military government, as concerns grow over the global rise of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron.

At least 1,300 people have been killed in Myanmar since the February 1 coup, according to a press release from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) on December 1.

Fires blamed on Tatmadaw troops have again decimated neighbourhoods in the town of Thantlang, Chin State, with dozens of homes, churches and other buildings burnt down on November 27.