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Myanmar’s junta has rebuffed a New Year’s proposal for political dialogue by rebels in Rakhine state with a week of deadly airstrikes, residents say.
Observers said the military’s actions following the proposal indicate that the junta has no interest in talks, despite frequent calls by chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing for political means to end the crisis.
On Dec. 29, Arakan Army, or AA, insurgents captured the west coast town of Gwa from the military, a major step toward their goal of taking the whole of Rakhine state, and then said they were ready for talks with the junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat.
The seizure came slightly more than a week after the AA took a major military base in Ann town on Dec. 20, and the rebels have now captured 14 of the state’s 17 townships, pushing the military into shrinking pockets of territory.
On Dec. 30, the AA said it was open to talks with the military to resolve Rakhine state’s “internal issues through political means rather than military solutions,” although the group did not refer specifically to a ceasefire.
However, as of Monday, the military had carried out at least six airstrikes since the proposal in the AA-controlled townships of Ponnagyun, Ann, Gwa and Myebon, killing 10 civilians and injuring more than a dozen others, residents told RFA Burmese.
Week of airstrikes
Most recently, on Sunday, a military airstrike on Ponnagyun’s Aung Zon Pyin village killed three members of the ethnic Rohingya community, including a child, and a female resident, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“As this area has access to mobile signals, residents [of the state] come here to make phone calls, and the area is normally crowded,” said an aid worker in Ponnagyun. “[On Sunday], when people were talking on the phone, an aerial attack took place, causing some [deaths and] injuries.”
The aid worker said another airstrike took place the same day on nearby Taung Pauk village.
The three Rohingya killed in the airstrike on Aung Zon Pyin had traveled there from nearby Kyauktaw township to place phone calls, he said.
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The airstrikes followed a Jan. 3 military bombing of a hospital in Myebon township’s Kan Htaung Gyi town, which killed a woman, residents said.
And on New Year’s Eve — a day after the AA proposal — military jets struck Ponnagyun’s Yoe Ta Yoke village, residents said, killing five civilians and injuring 10 others.
Residents are living in constant fear of aerial bombings, Tin Aung Htay, of Ponnagyun township, told RFA.
“[On Sunday] evening, the junta carried out continuous bombings, with a jet flying overhead for 15 minutes,” he said. “Residents were terrified and fled. Children lay flat on the ground while the plane passed. [No one] dared go to work while the junta’s jet was in the area.”
‘No political dialogue’
A commentator on military affairs in Rakhine state said that the junta’s bombings demonstrates a stance of “no political dialogue,” despite the AA’s offer.
“The recent bombings indicate that the junta has no intention of engaging in political dialogue,” said the commentator, who also declined to be named. “Targeting civilians who are not part of any armed group was both malicious and deeply unethical. These were inhumane acts.”
Attempts by RFA to contact both AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha and junta spokesperson and Rakhine state attorney general Hla Thein for their comments on the attacks went unanswered by the time of publishing.
In November, the AA said that since the Nov. 13, 2023, start of its offensive in Rakhine state, military airstrikes, artillery strikes and small arms fire has killed more than 700 civilians and injured more than 1,500 others.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.