Whether the Arakan Army (AA) will halt a devastating offensive it is blazing through Rakhine State depends on the military regime, AA spokesman Khaing Thukha has told The Irrawaddy.
The ethnic armed group in a statement Sunday said it is ready to solve internal conflict by political means rather than military action. The statement came the same day the AA took full control of Gwa Township at the southernmost tip of Rakhine State.
That means it now holds 14 of 17 townships in the western state just 13 months since it launched the offensive in November 2023.
In the process the regime lost its Western Command headquarters in Ann Township among other humiliating defeats.
“To seek political solutions to political problems has been our policy from the beginning,” Khaing Thukha said. “We continue to adhere to this policy and keep the door open [for talks]. Whether our offensives will cease depends mainly on how the regime responds.”
The AA now has dramatic leverage because it controls most Chinese projects in Rakhine, which run into billions of dollars, including oil and natural gas pipelines and access to the Indian Ocean from China’s landlocked Yunnan Province.
The AA spokesman pledged to safeguard them.
“Regarding foreign investments in our controlled areas, we have already stated that we will provide the best protection for any investments beneficial to our people, and we will cooperate as necessary. There is no change in this policy,” he said.
The AA said several junta commanders including the leader of the 11th Light Infantry Division, Colonel Than Soe Win, were killed in fighting in Gwa.
The regime used around 1,200 troops to defend Gwa, and an estimated 700 of them died in clashes, said the AA citing its own body count, accounts of prisoners of war, and seized documents.
Several damaged armored vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment were seized and many junta soldiers captured, the AA reported
In response to pressure from China, the AA’s confederates in the Brotherhood Alliance—the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army—have also expressed their readiness to engage in talks. Beijing has been pressuring ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) for months to stop fighting the regime by closing border crossings and cutting off supplies.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has repeatedly called for peace talks but continues deadly airstrikes as well as ground assaults in territories controlled by EAOs.
