The Arakan Army released Paletwa Township parliamentarian Hawi Tin on Tuesday after holding him for more than two months in the group’s custody. According to a statement published by the Arakan Army on January 21, they freed the National League for Democracy MP, an ethnic Khumi, in order to rebuild trust and foster reconciliation between the Rakhine and Khumi communities. Aung Gyi, Hawi Tin’s father-in-law, confirmed to Khonumthung News by phone that his son-in-law had been released and that he had spoken to him, but that he had not yet arrived home. “He is on the way back to Paletwa.…
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More than 200 teachers in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township have applied for permission to transfer to other areas, the director of the township’s education department said. “We have yet to receive resignation letters. Teachers have applied to transfer from Paletwa to other regions,” director Salai Aung Min told Khonumthung News. Although he said that this type of request was “usual” and no reasons were given, Paletwa has seen intensified fighting between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army in recent years, with thousands of villagers displaced, and reports of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. There are 1,554 teachers working…
International peace NGO called Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) hosted a peace education seminar in Burundi on January 11, in cooperation with Leoboth School and Lycée communal of Cashi. The seminar was attended by the foundation director, principals, teachers, and school officials from 4 schools in Burundi. HWPL stated that peace education is to nurture human resources with the values of peace and spirit, which has been developed at the core with values such as “the dignity of life”, “loyalty” and “coexistence and sustainability.” Furthermore, with the aim of applying these values within a wider community as…
After a primary school principal and two villagers were found dead of knife injuries in the jungle in Paletwa Township on January 10, the Khumi Affairs Coordination Council (KACC) accused the Arakan Army (AA) of playing a role in their disappearance and murder. Khonumthung News spoke to the AA’s spokesperson Khine Thukha about the allegations. People have accused AA soldiers of murdering Sihpalaung primary school principal Abyayla and two Kyet-Ou-Wa villagers. What response do you have to this? KACC accused AA troops of arresting a schoolteacher, who was ethnic Khumi, and two Rakhine villagers in Sihpalaung village. Then the dead…
A 44-year-old woman in Rakhine State’s Ann Township was tortured by soldiers from the Burma Army’s Western Command on January 4, the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) reported on Friday. CHRO said that soldiers poured boiling water on Ma Hla during an interrogation lasting through the night, cutting her legs with a knife and hitting her kneecaps with a hammer. They reportedly suspected her 51-year-old husband Tin Tun of having ties to the Arakan Army and searched for him at their family home in Hkamaung-wa village. When they didn’t find him, the interrogation of Ma Hla and her 21-year-old son…
A foundation created in the memory of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother is building 50 houses for Chin internally displaced people (IDPs) in Thantlang Township, Chin State. The village where the houses will be located, Tikir, is the home community of Burma’s vice president Henry Van Thio. Moe Zaw Oo, executive director of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, said that the homes would be 24 x 24 x 10 feet in size and have been requested by the Chin State government, at a cost of 6.5 million kyat (US$4,395) per house. Construction is 60 percent completed, and expected…
Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Meezar village in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township are facing a shortage of rice due to ongoing clashes in the area between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army. Civil society organizations, religious groups and the government used to provide rice to the IDPs, but for the last two months have been unable to send the food aid, locals said. As a result, IDPs have had to take on day labor—when available—to be able to buy food. “We have been here in Meezar for more than a year. NGOs used to provide assistance to us.…
The Burmese government will continue the controversial Manipura hydropower project in Chin State’s Falam Township this year, a spokesperson said. According to Chin State’s municipal minister Soe Htet, nearly 200 million kyat has been allocated to the dam during the 2019-2020 financial year. An upcoming meeting on the project is scheduled for this month, the results of which will be forwarded to the Union government. “The Union government already allocated 197 million kyat (US$133,055) for this project in 2019-2020 financial year. The Union irrigation ministry also allocated 50 million kyat ($33,770) for this project. We are still preparing to discuss…
A school principal and two villagers who had gone missing in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township were found dead in the jungle on Friday. Abyayla, the principal of the primary school in the village of Sihpalaung, and Kyaw Than Win and Hla Thein from the community of Kyet-Ou-Wa, had disappeared on January 7. Villagers searched for them and found their bodies in the jungle between the villages of Inn-Hko-Wa and Sein Sin on the morning of January 10. The cause of death appeared to be knife injuries, and the men were found with their hands tied with rope behind their…
Recent public activities for Christmas and New Year were not able to be held in the southern Chin State town of Paletwa due to ongoing conflict between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army, as well as a curfew imposed in the area. Local authorities have enacted a curfew under Section 144 of the Criminal Code for “security reasons,” prohibiting people from going out between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and from holding public gatherings of more than five people. As a result, churches could not hold evening Christmas celebrations in 2019, as they traditionally had done in previous years. …