The army cannot accept the existence of the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State but acceptable if the AA was to be based in Laiza, said Brig-Gen Zaw Min Htun from the Ministry of Defence during a press conference held at Ministry of Information on May 27.

“As we said about AA earlier, we cannot accept the existence of the AA in Rakhine State in bilateral agreement,” he said.

He said although he cannot say exactly about the agreement, Rakhine State was a “white” territory before. Fighting occurred in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya after AA entered those areas.

He said, “The AA was founded in Laiza. I don’t mean whether they sign the bilateral agreement or not or agreed it or not. One thing I am sure about is we cannot accept the existence of the AA in the state. It may be in Laiza.”

He continued that the government, NRPC and the army have no disagreements to sign bilateral agreement with four ethnic armed groups from northern allies. The army is cooperating with the NRPC in peace process as they cannot implement it alone.

He added, “We have no doubt that we do what we can about the peace process. That’s why the army announced four-month ceasefire and two-month ceasefire.”