Sat 29 June 2019:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Saturday urged an immediate end to a mobile data blackout in parts of two Myanmar states, saying a service restoration would help provide transparency to what the government says are law enforcement actions to avert unrest. Morgan Ortagus, the State Department spokeswoman, said the United States was “deeply concerned” by the data shutdown that has curbed internet-based communications for as many as 1 million people in Rakhine and Chin states.
On Monday, Yanghee Lee, the special U.N. rapporteur who monitors human rights in Myanmar, said the Myanmar military was conducting a “clearance operation” against Arakan Army rebels in the blacked out areas. He said he feared troops were committing “gross human rights violations” against civilians under the cover of the shutdown. The Arakan Army, an insurgent group fighting for greater autonomy for Rakhine state, recruits from the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority.
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