Around 300 villagers in northern Myanmar’s Shan state fled their homes on Thursday, fearing renewed fighting between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups who were seen approaching Namtu township, RFA reported on 2 August quoting local sources.

Northern Alliance troops had taken up positions around Mangche village, where farmers saw them a villager told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

The Northern Alliance, a military coalition of four ethnic armies, has been engaged in recent fighting with government troops in Shan and neighbouring Kachin state. </s> Around 300 villagers in northern Myanmar’s Shan state fled their homes on Thursday, fearing renewed fighting between the national military and ethnic armed groups seen approaching Namtu township, according to local sources.



Northern Alliance troops had taken up positions around Mangche village, where farmers saw them,” Mi Lenda, chief of Namtu’s Panglon village, told RFA’s Myanmar Service.



“These farmers told other villagers, and they fled their homes,” he said.



The Northern Alliance, a military coalition of four ethnic armies, has been engaged in recent fighting with government troops in Shan and neighboring Kachin state.



One armed group, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), had joined in July with another, the Shan State Progress Party, in fighting against rival ethnic army the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army South (RCSS/SSA-S), sources said in earlier reports.



“The TNLA and SSPP are fighting with the RCSS,” Ta Phone Kyaw, a TNLA spokesperson said on Thursday.



“We haven’t seen any fighting for the last three days, but the local villagers got worried and fled from their homes,” he said.



“The RCSS has threatened and arrested villagers, so they have legitimate fears,” he said.



“We heard that four villagers were arrested and taken from Namtu township’s Pangkut village on July 31, and that one villager was shot by the RCSS in Hsipaw township’s Sanphe village as well.”



The TNLA has been fighting the Myanmar army and the RCSS in Shan state since late November 2015, about six weeks after the signing of a nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) between the government and some of the country’s more than 20 ethnic armed groups.



The RCSS is one of 10 signatories of the NCA, while the TNLA has been excluded from signing the accord because of its ongoing hostilities with Myanmar’s armed forces.



Township residents are now sheltering in Buddhist monasteries in Hsipaw and at Mangsan village, with another 13 staying at relative’s homes, sources said, adding that local residents and government departments are providing aid to those displaced.



About 20 returned home as Northern Alliance troops near Mangche began to withdraw, sources said.



“The armies are fighting only because they want to grab more territory,” one Namtu resident told RFA on Thursday.



“But the local people are the ones who suffer,” he said.



Reported by Kan Thar and Tin Aung Khine for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Richard Finney. </s> YANGON
• Myanmar troops opened fire on hundreds of fleeing Rohingya villagers with mortar shells and machine guns yesterday, said an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene and Bangladesh border guards.

The firing occurred at Ghumdhum border post, where the villagers have been stranded since Friday after fresh violence broke out in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

"They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the (border) zero line," Border Guard Bangladesh station chief Manzurul Hassan told AFP. "They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians."

It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar are trying to cross the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said yesterday. Denied entry by the authorities, many were left without shelter in no-man's land on the border, or forced to return to villages, trapping them between militants and security forces.

The death toll from widespread attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 96, including nearly 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said, prompting it to evacuate staff and villagers from some areas.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since last October, when a similar offensive prompted a major military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Late on Friday, she condemned the morning raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The government said there had been several large clashes involving hundreds of Rohingya across north-western Rakhine yesterday. The fiercest fighting took place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, near the Alodaw Pyae Buddhist monastery.

Maungdaw resident Nay Myo Lin, 27, told Reuters by telephone that security forces opened fire on scores of what appeared to be Muslim men with guns near the monastery.

The government said in a statement: "Extremist Bengali terrorists are attacking using man-made mines... swords, sticks, guns. They also killed Islamic religious people of their own faith who were village administrators."

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which instigated the October attacks, has claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army. </s> The night after a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents in northern Rakhine State, frightened residents of one area found themselves trapped by attackers’ land mines, and those evacuated from another area gathered in a nearby town patrolled by the army and police.

Authorities said police posts came under attack in the early hours Friday by an estimated 150 insurgents armed with guns and homemade explosives. The attackers were believed to be Muslim, a minority in Rakhine State, where a religious divide centers on the stateless Rohingya, who are disdained by many Buddhists and seen as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

The attacks resulted in at least 71 deaths, with Burmese officials saying 59 of them were insurgents and the rest security personnel.

Members of the local Buddhist community, who are a minority in the Maungdaw area, spent a fearful night after officials warned them that attackers had mined roads in the rugged coastal area.

“We don’t want people to get hurt,” Maung Ohn, the Maungdaw representative in the Rakhine State legislature, told VOA Burmese. “Now they are trapped inside the town.”

One Maungdaw resident, a provincial government employee, told VOA that although Buddhist Rakhines fear for their safety, “there is no way out of here. We heard about land mines and roadside bombs planted along main roads. Not even one vehicle dares to drive to Buthee Taung, two hours away. We can’t go until the mines are cleared.”

Some areas of Buthee Taung remain outside official control, said Tun Aung Thein, who represents the town in the legislature. “There are places in a Buthee Taung suburb where security forces cannot reach, and people from there have moved into the town proper. That’s where about 100 people from three villages, Thabeit Taung, Kin Chaung and Thabawh Chaung, have taken refuge, too.

“We’ve got the army and police patrolling the downtown area because everyone’s worried … because the attacks last night were around 1:30 in the morning. Nobody dares to sleep. They are frightened,” Tun Aung Thein said.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the assaults, and warned of more.

ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, or “Faith Movement,” emerged last October claiming to lead an insurgency based in the remote May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said on his Facebook page late Friday that the attacks were planned to coincide with the release of a report by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to gain attention during the General Assembly next month.

After the attacks, government forces evacuated several dozen government staffers and their families, as well as some 400 villagers from near the Nanthataung Philanthropic School, according to the State Counsellor Office Information Committee in Rangoon.

“It is clear that today’s attacks are a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine State. We must not allow our work to be derailed by the violent actions of extremists,” she said.

The violence follows the release of a report by the Annan commission on the conditions in Rakhine State.

The report urged the government to take immediate action to heal the divides and to abolish the restrictions of movement and citizenship imposed on 1 million Rohingya in Rakhine.

After meeting with Annan on Thursday, General Min Aung Hlaing expressed displeasure with the findings, saying Annan and others had failed to understand what was happening on the ground in Rakhine.

Annan commission member Aye Lwin, a prominent Muslim and interfaith leader, told VOA Burmese on Friday that the army and police need to mount a security operation in the area to prevent further attacks.

“I think the best way to resolve this conflict is to implement our recommendation as soon as possible,” Lwin said. “As militant attacks escalate in Rakhine State, we need to tackle the situation from all angles. Any clearance or security operation must be handled systematically but wisely and delicately if this is to be contained.”

The U.N. condemned Friday's attacks and said they confirm "the significance of the government's commitment to implement" the Annan commission recommendations.

Amnesty International said the attacks marked a dangerous escalation of violence in the area.

"We urge all sides to show the utmost restraint and ensure that ordinary people are protected from human rights violations and abuses," the rights group said.

The area of Rakhine closest to Bangladesh has been in lockdown since October 2016, when years of friction between the Rohingya and Myanmar's Buddhist majority exploded with a military crackdown in response to attacks on border police stations that left nine police officers dead. During the crackdown, thousands of Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh, complaining of systematic killings, arson and rapes by Myanmar military forces.

The U.N. said the security forces' clearances have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

The army and the Myanmar’s civilian government deny allegations of widespread abuses, including rapes and murders. </s> Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, a local official said Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.

Villagers heard gunfire as fighters from the armed group, which recruits from the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, raided a police post in the village of Yoe Ta Yoke late on Saturday night.

The village’s administrator San Aung Thein confirmed nine police were killed by the Arakan Army there, but said he did not have additional details about the attack.

Reuters was unable to reach police officials for comment.

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 police in a similar attack farther north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.

Myanmar’s leaders vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, but clashes have spread to new areas, displacing more than 5,000 people in all. Authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies.

In 2017, attacks on security posts by insurgents from the Muslim Rohingya minority provoked a military crackdown in the north of the state. U.N. agencies say more than 730,000 people fled into camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.

Saturday night’s attack took place about 50 km (31 miles) north of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, along the main road connecting the city with the rest of Myanmar.

A villager in his 50s told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 p.m. local time.

“The battle went on for about 20 minutes,” said the villager, who asked not to be named. “I was in village at that time and I heard gun shots, but the villagers didn’t run away.” </s> YANGON (Reuters) - Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, the government said on Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.

Villagers heard gunfire as fighters from the armed group, which recruits from the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, raided a police post in the village of Yoe Ta Yoke late on Saturday night.

The Myanmar Ministry of Information said on its Facebook page that nine police, all of them recruits from nearby the village, were confirmed dead and one other was still missing on Sunday.

“Around 60 members of the AA terrorist group attacked using small and large weapons,” the statement said.

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 police in a similar attack further north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.

Myanmar’s leaders vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, but clashes have spread to new areas, displacing more than 5,000 people in all. Authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies.

In 2017, attacks on security posts by insurgents from the Muslim Rohingya minority provoked a military crackdown in the north of the state. U.N. agencies say more than 730,000 people fled into camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.

Saturday night’s attack took place about 50 km (31 miles) north of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, along the main road connecting the city with the rest of Myanmar.

A villager in his fifties told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 p.m.

“The battle went on for about 20 minutes,” said the villager, who asked not to be named. “I was in village at that time and I heard gun shots, but the villagers didn’t run away.”

Myanmar’s military said in a separate statement on Sunday that troops clashed on Saturday with about 200 men from the Arakan Army at a different location, along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. </s> On Tuesday, troops descended on Kyauk Tan village in Rathedaung township, separating men aged between 15 and 50, local and military sources confirmed.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told AFP Thursday that 275 people "were being temporarily held in the village school for investigation".

Shots were fired in the school early Thursday morning when the detainees tried to "attack the security forces" who had no option but to shoot, Zaw Min Tun said.

"Six were killed, eight were injured and four escaped," he said, adding warning shots had been first been fired and the wounded had been sent to hospital.

The six bodies were placed "in front of the school in plain view," villager Aye Maung told AFP by phone.

"They (the remaining detainees) are being held hostage and we're worried for their safety too," he said.

By Thursday evening, the village was still completely sealed off, said 57-year-old local resident Tun Aye Thein, adding there were "no AA members" in the village.

"We don't know what they (the military) will do as they've surrounded us," he said.

Local MP Tin Maung Win tried to enter Wednesday but said he was turned away by the army, adding he was "worried" for local residents.

The north of Rakhine state is in strict lockdown, making any independent verification difficult.

The latest killings come after outrage triggered by the deaths in April of three ethnic Rakhine in military custody -- and the secret cremation of their bodies.

The armed forces said two of the deaths were due to "heart failure" but did not give details of the third, cremating all three before their families could see them.

Campaign group Fortify Rights said the deaths show the military continues to act with "total impunity".

Rakhine is one of Myanmar's poorest regions and is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. </s> NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Hundreds of representatives of Myanmar's ethnic tribes gathered Wednesday in the country's capital for historic peace talks with the government aimed at ending decades of separatist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives.

The delegates, dressed in traditional garb and headgear, streamed into a conference hall in Naypyitaw for the five-day talks called by the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Although her title is state counsellor she is seen as the country's real leader.

Suu Kyi, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the head of armed forces Gen. Min Aung Hlaing are scheduled to give speeches at the opening of the talks to determine the fate of the country's various ethnic minorities, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

"All our people around the country want peace. So I do believe we will be successful in getting it at the conference," said Khun Than Myint, the facilitator of the meeting, whose official title is Union Peace Conference -- 21st Century Panglong.

This is a reference to the Panglong Agreement brokered in 1947 by Suu Kyi's late father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, in a town called Panglong. This week's conference is being attended by 17 of the 20 main armed groups, including the Karen, Kachin, Shan and Wa, along with other stakeholders.

The 1947 deal granted ethnic minorities autonomy and the right to secede if they worked with the federal government to break away from Britain together. Aung San was assassinated the following year and the deal fell apart. Since then, ethnic groups have accused successive, mostly military, governments of failing to honor the 1947 pact, just before Myanmar gained independence from Britain the next year.

The first uprising — launched by ethnic Karen insurgents — began shortly after independence. Since then other ethnic groups have also taken up arms.

Skirmishes, particularly in northern zones where Kachin insurgents are fighting the army, have displaced more than 100,000 civilians since 2011 alone. At least 100,000 more have sought refuge in squalid camps in neighboring Thailand, and are unlikely to return home until true peace takes hold.

The rebel armies control a patchwork of remote territories rich in jade and timber that are located mostly in the north and east along the borders with China and Thailand. They represent various ethnic groups that for decades have been fighting for autonomy while resisting "Burmanization," a push by the Burman ethnic majority to propagate its language, religion and culture in ethnic minority regions.

Suu Kyi promised that bringing peace would be her top priority when her government assumed power earlier this year after decades of military rule. The previous military-backed government brokered individual truces with various insurgent groups and oversaw a cease-fire covering eight minor insurgencies last year that fell short of a nationwide deal.

"It is still too early to say" whether this Panglong conference is representative of the aspirations of all groups, said Khu Oo Reh, the spokesman of the United Nationalities and Federal Council, a group that represents all ethnic armed groups. "But we really hope that we can achieve real democracy and equality for all ethnic groups, and self-determination in our region." </s> At least 19 people have been killed in fresh clashes between Myanmar’s military and an ethnic armed group in the remote northern Shan state, as fighting in the country’s borderlands intensifies.



“Nineteen [people] were killed in fighting” on Saturday, a military source said, adding that two dozen had been injured.

Rights groups say clashes in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border have ramped up in recent months as the international community focuses on the Rohingya crisis in the west of the country.

Thousands of people have been displaced in the country’s northern-most state of Kachin since April amid renewed fighting between the army and ethnic insurgents.

Saturday’s violence was between the military and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, one of several insurgent groups fighting for more autonomy in the north.



“Fighting took place since 5am this morning at three places: two military bases in Muse and one near a bridge on the way to Lashio town,” TNLA spokesman Maj Mai Aik Kyaw said, citing two of the towns in northern Shan where the clashes occurred.
In northern Myanmar, around 300 villagers flee from their homes in Namtu Township, Shan State, after Northern Alliance insurgents take positions in the area, renewing fears of clashes between insurgents and government soldiers.