Access to food, money, information and even rice fields is becoming more perilous in Rakhine State due to severe restrictions on movement imposed by the junta last month, residents of Myanmar’s westernmost state say.
In some townships, residents have had to climb trees to access internet and telecom networks since the blockade on all roads and waterways in and out of the state was imposed on November 13 following renewed fighting between junta and Arakan Army troops.
Moreover, in some villages junta troops are opening fire on farmers trying to harvest rice, residents say.
Food, fuel and other basic necessities are in short supply, but without access to the internet residents of the state are unable to receive the cash transfers that would give them the money to pay for what little is left, they say.
The internet has been unavailable because telecom towers have run out of fuel (most run on diesel generators) or need repairs but cannot be accessed by maintenance staff due to restrictions on movement, sources said.
“Internet services have been unavailable for more than a month in much of rural Kyauktaw,” a resident of the township told The Irrawaddy on Monday. “Telecom towers have run out of power, but staff from the town who repair them cannot travel to [fix them] due to the blockade. Mobile phone signals are so poor we have to leave our village to find a better signal to make calls,” the resident said.
A resident of Minbya Township said internet connections have been “on and off” since early December and that some residents have to “climb trees or hills to find a better signal.” The resident said the best location for accessing the internet where he lives is on a riverbank near his village and that that mobile money agents have set up makeshift shops on the riverbank to process cash transfers.
A resident of Ponnagyun Township said there was no internet access at all in Ponnagyun and two other townships – Buthidaung and Rathedaung – recently and that residents of the townships ran out money after cash transfers ground to a halt.
Ponnagyun Town was already in distress after its central market was destroyed by a fire ignited by junta artillery shells in late November. “Many residents fled the town [and] all mobile money agents have shut their shops,” the township resident said, adding that in some rural areas money agents were charging people 6 to 8% for withdrawing money because internet connections were so poor.
Rakhine State, like every other state and region in Myanmar, has had chronic power outages as well as restrictions on fuel sales.
Rice may be next. Residents say that in some areas farmers face gunfire if they try to harvest their paddy fields. Junta troops fire randomly at paddy fields near their bases, making it impossible for farmers to harvest their rice, sources said. Moreover, sailors on the junta’s warships do the same at fields along the shore, while villages are shelled nightly by junta’s artillery units.
Junta troops recently incinerated Ye Yoe Pyin Village, which was located on a riverbank opposite Rakhine’s capital Sittwe. One resident of the village told The Irrawaddy that it had been “completely reduced to ashes.”
Even the rice fields near the village had become inaccessible. “Some young people tried to harvest paddy fields nearby, but as soon as they got to the fields, sailors fired artillery shells,” the resident said. “We can do nothing.”
