Myanmar govt may end Rakhine internet blackout in August

NAY PYI TAW, Jun 12, 2020, Myanmar Times. The internet blackout in Rakhine State may end in August, said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, as the government had ordered the country’s telecoms to block access in the area until August 1, Myanmar Times reported.

“We will restore internet service if there are no more threats to the public or violations of the telecommunications law,” U Soe Thein, the ministry’s permanent secretary, told a press briefing.

In June 2019, the government cut off internet access in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, and Myebon townships in Rakhine, and Paletwa township in Chin State, saying the Arakan Army (AA) was using it to launch attacks on the Tatmadaw (military).

Although the blackout was lifted in five Rakhine townships in September 2019, the government blocked the internet again in February 2020 when fighting increased between AA and Tatmadaw.

On May 3, the government restored internet access in Maungdaw, saying the security situation had improved.

U Tun Thar Sein, a Rakhine parliament lawmaker for Mrauk-U, said the blackout had done more harm than good.

“Internet access is good for the people,” he said. “We have often submitted proposals in parliament to reopen the internet. Almost all lawmakers agreed, which shows how much people want it back,” he said.

International and local aid organisations have also repeatedly called on the government to reopen the internet during the pandemic, saying that the blackout was a serious threat to people’s right to information, especially in war-torn areas.

On May 26, the Human Rights Watch appealed to the deputy director-general of the World Health Organization to pressure Myanmar to end the internet shutdown, saying that because of it more than one million people in Rakhine and Chin had no access to information.

But the government has countered that the shutdown had no effect on efforts to fight COVID-19, as the area still had mobile phone and SMS service, and the government used radio and television, as well as public awareness campaigns in villages, to inform the public about the disease.

Rakhine has six confirmed COVID-19 patients, four of whom had returned from Bangladesh, and two others who had returned from Malaysia and China.

There have been no reports of clashes between the AA and Tatmadaw in the past two weeks, and government negotiators recently offered to resume ceasefire talks with the AA and its three allies in the Northern Alliance.

The AA and Tatmadaw, which declared the AA a terrorist group on March 23, have been fighting since November 2018. The fighting has killed or injured hundreds of civilians and forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes to refugee camps.