Myanmar rebels abduct Border News Agency reporter Mu Dra

Myanmar’s Arakan Army must account for and immediately release local Border News Agency reporter Mu Dra, who was abducted by the rebel group’s forces on September 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

“All combatants in Myanmar’s civil war have a responsibility to protect and not target journalists in retaliation for their news reporting,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “The Arakan Army must release reporter Mu Dra now and allow all journalists to report freely on the conflict in Rakhine state.”

Mu Dra was taken from her home in the Rakhine state city of Maungdaw at about 11:00 a.m. on September 20, according to a Border News Agency statement issued on September 22 and CPJ’s email communication with the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Kaung Mrat Naing.

She is being held incommunicado at the Arakan Army’s intelligence office, those sources said. Naing told CPJ that Mu Dra reports on human rights and conflict issues in Rakhine state, including regular documentation of forced recruitment, abductions, and violence against vulnerable populations.

Arakan Army spokesperson Khine Thu Kha did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment sent through the group’s website. The Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group formed in 2009 and fighting for autonomy from military government control, currently controls 14 of Rakhine state’s 17 townships, according to news reports.

Rebel groups have targeted and detained journalists since the nation’s long-running civil war escalated following the 2021 military coup, according to CPJ’s reporting. Myanmar was the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, with 35 behind bars, in CPJ’s latest annual prison census.

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