Arakan Army manages handover of 21 fishermen on Bangladesh-Myanmar border

The ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military regime for control of Rakhine State announced on Monday that it had handed over a cohort of detained Bangladeshi nationals to Bangladesh border authorities the week before. In the Monday statement, the Arakan Army (AA) detailed how it had transferred 21 fishermen found in Myanmar waters to the custody of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a paramilitary group authorised by the Bangladeshi government to protect the border with Myanmar, on October 7. The fishermen had recently entered Myanmar waters illegally and the AA had facilitated their return to their home country, the statement said. According to the statement, on the morning of October 7 AA members found a boat off the coast near Kyauk Pan Du Beach in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State carrying 16 fishermen from three villages in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh. The AA also claimed to have provided medical treatment to the fishermen, who were victims of piracy and had been trapped on their own boat and stranded. After setting out from home on September 28, the 16 fishermen had been attacked by around 60 pirates in motorboats, according to the AA. They were reportedly beaten, robbed, and confined to the hold of their fishing boat before the AA found them. On Monday evening, the AA handed the fishermen over to the custody of the BGB and Bangladeshi police on Shahpuree Island, located on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River, the statement said. Five more fishermen The AA also claimed in an October 10 statement to have intercepted another two fishing boats in the Naf River—which forms part of the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar—on October 7 around 11am. They detained one of the boats, which was carrying five fishermen, but the other vessel escaped, they said. At the request of Bangladeshi authorities, the five detained fishermen were released two days later after signing a pledge to abide by border laws, the statement said. Returning the 5 fishermen from the captured fishing boat. (Photo - AA) According to reports in the Dhaka Tribune, the commander of the BGB’s Teknaf 2 battalion Lt-Col Md Mohiuddin Ahmed confirmed accepting the handover of the five fishermen from the AA. Since November of last year, the AA has been engaged in a broad offensive against the Myanmar military aimed at taking over the entire territory of Rakhine State. The AA now controls more than half of the state’s 17 townships—namely Myebon, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ramree (Yanbye), and Thandwe—as well as neighbouring Paletwa Township in Chin State. The AA also claims to be on the verge of taking full control of Maungdaw, a town on the border with Bangladesh that holds great strategic, economic, and political importance both for Myanmar’s military regime and the Rakhine ethnic armed organisation. The AA says its fighters have escalated attacks on the last remaining Myanmar Border Guard Police outpost in Maungdaw, where clashes took place the same day the AA announced the handover of the Bangladeshi nationals. Bangladesh and India have acknowledged the AA's growing control over territory near their borders on more than one occasion. Md Touhid Hossain, an adviser on foreign affairs to Bangladesh’s current interim government, said in early September that engagement with the AA was a necessary precondition for repatriating Rohingya people to Myanmar from refugee camps in Bangladesh. The Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a wave of targeted, genocidal violence in Rakhine State seven years ago, are estimated to number around a million in Bangladesh. The AA is also presenting itself as a legitimate governing authority in Rakhine State, as indicated by phrases used in its recent statements such as “Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government,” “Arakan Coast Guard,” and “Bangladesh-Arakan border.” Border trade While the military junta has blocked trade routes between Rakhine State and mainland Myanmar, in June of this year the AA opened a route—running through Paletwa Township, Chin State--from Rakhine State to the state of Mizoram, India with cooperation from the Indian side. Similarly, in February AA representatives met with a member of the Mizoram Legislative Assembly to discuss plans to build a section of road as part of the ongoing Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Project, a joint Myanmar-India development initiative. The planned road section would connect Lairam and Zorampur in eastern Mizoram with Paletwa in Myanmar’s Chin State. The AA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, a tripartite grouping of ethnic armed organisations, which since last year has been carrying out coordinated offensives against the Myanmar military, centred in Rakhine and northern Shan States,. Despite increasing pressure from the government of China for the Brotherhood Alliance to cease offensive operations against the Myanmar military and start peace negotiations, the AA has maintained the intensity of its attacks on junta forces and continued to fight for more territory in Rakhine State. A Mizoram state legislator meets with AA officials on the India-Myanmar border in February of this year (Photo: The Lairam Times)

Arakan Army manages handover of 21 fishermen on Bangladesh-Myanmar border

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