Myanmar’s Rakhine torched anew by insurgent fire
Arakan Army has escalated its rebel fighting against government forces, stoking instability in a region where China, India and Bangladesh all have much to lose By David Scott Mathieson Yangon, January 3, 2019 5:43 PM (UTC+8) An Arakan Army rebel soldier at an undisclosed location. Photo: Youtube Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state has been wracked by armed conflict over the past several weeks, as escalated and expanded fighting between Myanmar security forces and the rebel Arakan Army erupts across several townships. The new clashes are destabilizing a region already wracked by the Myanmar military’s now notorious “clearance operations” that drove over 700,000 Rohingyas into neighboring Bangladesh, a campaign of violence the United Nations has reported as crimes against humanity. While Myanmar authorities have justified those operations launched in August 2017 as a legitimate response to Arakan Rohingya Salavation Army (ARSA) insurgent attacks on border security outposts, t