In early 2023, I began planning a reporting assignment to the war-torn territories in southern Chin State and Rakhine State in western Myanmar. When the plans were finalized toward the end of June 2024, after months of relentless efforts, I buzzed with excitement. This region offered the possibility of a different experience from the other conflict zones I had visited in the country last year.
Operating in western Myanmar, the Arakan Army has captured more land from the military than any other resistance group in the country since the coup nearly four years ago. From its origin as a guerrilla outfit engaging in hit-and-run operations, the Arakan Army had reportedly transformed into a regular army engaging the military in open battles with sophisticated weaponry. Observing the situation first-hand would help in gaining a clearer perspective of the conflict in the region.
Within a span of 24 days between June 13 and July 6, I covered a vast swathe beginning from Paletwa in Myanmar’s Chin State, contiguous to India, which was occupied by the Arakan Army in January, to the deserted and semi-destroyed town of Pauktaw located 18 miles from Rakhine’s state capital, Sittwe. The journey entailed stopping at almost regular intervals at Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Minbya, and Mrauk-U, and an extended stay in Buthidaung, which was also almost deserted. A senior functionary of the United League of Arakan (ULA) – the political wing of the Arakan Army – accompanied me during the assignment to facilitate gathering information on the topics that I had planned to cover ahead of the journey.
As expected, the visit to Arakan did turn out to be different from my previous assignments in Myanmar. The entire journey was replete with memorable episodes, beginning with my struggle to cross the border zone.
Crossing the Border
The instruction from the Arakan Army was to reach a place along the border in the southern zone of the Indian state of Mizoram located about 470 miles from my hometown at Guwahati in Assam. That region in Mizoram was devoid of the high mountains usually found along the borderlands of India and Myanmar. Instead, there were only densely forested hillocks that did not seem difficult to negotiate from a distance.
When I reached the designated spot around noon, three people had been waiting since morning to receive me. Within seconds after alighting from the vehicle, we stepped on to a secret, slender, and meandering route off the highway that soon vanished into the forests.
The trek began, albeit at a slow pace owing to the wet and slippery ground after a heavy downpour that had continued for about four hours in the morning. Trouble began to brew after 15 minutes during the ascent over the first hillock.