Myanmar reimposes internet shutdown in Rakhine, Chin states

Myanmar has reimposed an internet shutdown in two conflict-torn western states, after partially lifting the blackout five months ago, a leading telecoms operator said late on Monday.

Norwegian mobile operator Telenor Group said in a statement the transport and communications ministry had once again ordered a three-month stop on mobile internet traffic in five townships in Rakhine and Chin states.

A months-long internet blackout imposed on eight Rakhine townships and one in Chin state was partially lifted in September 2019 – with services returning to Rakhine’s Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and Myebon as well as Paletwa in Chin – amid talks seeking to end clashes between government troops and opposing fighters.

Officials cited “security requirements and public interest” for the reinstatement, Telenor said, adding that four other Rakhine townships – Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Minbya – remained under the blackout that was first imposed in June last year.

Tun Tun Nyi, a Myanmar military spokesman, said the army was unaware of the shutdown.

“We don’t know and we haven’t heard about it,” he told Reuters by phone on Tuesday. Ministry officials did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.

The order comes amid escalating violence. Two women were killed and seven others wounded last month when a Rohingya village in Rakhine state came under artillery fire.

Plagued by fighting

The Myanmar military has rejected accusations that it was responsible for the shelling, which came two days after the United Nations’s highest court ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya.

Some 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee northern Rakhine state in 2017 after a military crackdown that the UN has said was executed with genocidal intent. The army has denied any wrongdoing, describing the crackdown as a legitimate counterinsurgency operation in response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya fighters.

The area has been plunged into further chaos by fighting between the military and the Arakan Army, a Rakhine ethnic rebel group that has been fighting for greater autonomy in the state for more than a year. That conflict has displaced tens of thousands and killed dozens.

Legislators in the affected areas said the internet blackout had hurt businesses and could prevent aid from reaching villages caught up in the fighting.

“Some villagers have to flee from their villages when the fighting happens,” Khin Saw Wai, a member of the national parliament for Rathedaung, told Reuters.

“We can help them if we see from Facebook posts that they are in need of food or are in trouble.”

Another legislator, Maung Kyaw Zan of Buthidaung township, said the shutdown was “not good for Rakhine” given ongoing clashes.

Aung Marm Oo, the editor-in-chief of a Rakhine-based online media group, said the blackout had disrupted the publication of news on the conflict.

“Internet shutdowns negatively impact on journalism… The Internet is essential for us to be able to send video files and pictures for our news stories,” he said