What’s new? Following vote cancellations in conflict-affected areas of Rakhine state during the 8 November general election, Japan has helped broker an informal ceasefire between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in order to hold supplementary elections. Both sides say they are in favour, but the civilian government is reluctant.
Why does it matter? The initiative has halted almost two years of intense fighting and enabled dialogue to resume for the first time since December 2019. Negotiations over elections could be a stepping stone to a formal ceasefire, but the process remains fragile, particularly without civilian government buy-in.
What should be done? The Arakan Army should release three National League for Democracy candidates it has detained. The civilian government should support elections and – if the Arakan Army lets the captives go – drop its designation as a terrorist organisation. The Tatmadaw should stop insisting that the Arakan Army leave Rakh
What Next For Myanmar? What next
NEW DELHI: Myanmar dominated world headlines as elections concluded with a victory for Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), securing a transition of power from President Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) which is effectively a political extension of the country’s military.
As Myanmar makes a bolder push toward a democratic future, questions relating to inclusiveness, peace and nation building stem from the fact that several of Myanmar’s diverse ethnic groups have remained absent from the democratic process. This is for two reasons: one, because many ethnic groups continue to wage a war against the State, because of which inhabitants of these war torn areas were not able to participate in the democratic process; and two, the minority Rohingya community are not allowed by the State to participate, being repeatedly denied basic citizenship rights that form fundamental human rights.
India Claims China Is Supporting Insurgents on Its Border With Burma
NEW DELHI Indian officials are accusing China of supporting insurgents who have been active in recent months in its northeast region.
The insurgents are being provided with weapons by Chinese proxies inside Burma (also known as Myanmar), according to Indian media, and are helping China open a new battlefront on India’s northeastern border, at a time when India–China relations are already tense because of a conflict in Ladakh in north-western India.
“There are telltale signs, which indicate that the Chinese have been supporting the internal insurgent movement in the northeast, in the sense that some of the armed groups that are operating in the northeast do have weapons that clearly have Chinese marks on them,” N.C. Bipindra, editor of strategic affairs magazine Defence.Capital and the chairman of Delhi-based think tank Law and Society Alliance, told The Epoch Times.