This archive report was first published on 26 December 2019.
December 26, 2019, marked a somber day for the National League for Democracy (NLD) as news emerged of the death of Ye Thein, the party's chairman in Buthidaung township, in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Ye Thein was detained by the Arakan Army, a rebel group fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, on December 11. The rebels claimed he was killed in military attacks on Christmas Day, but the claim could not be verified.
NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt stated that the group bore responsibility for Ye Thein's death, saying, "We, all members of NLD, are very sorry for the loss. His gathering to support her was righteous and it was not a crime."
The Arakan Army has carried out a series of daring kidnappings, bombings, and raids against the army and local officials in Rakhine state. In response, Myanmar's military has deployed thousands of additional soldiers to the western state and carried out what Amnesty International called enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions.
The clashes are taking place in the same area where the military drove around 740,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border to Bangladesh in a bloody 2017 campaign.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice in The Hague heard arguments from the small African state of Gambia, which accused Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN genocide convention in its operations against the Rohingya.
