The Arakan Liberation Party ( my, ရခိုင်ပြည် လွတ်မြောက်ရေး ပါတီ; ALP) is a Rakhine

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(Burma). The party has an armed wing, the

Arakan Liberation Army The Arakan Liberation Army ( my, ရခိုင်ပြည် လွတ်မြောက်ရေး တပ်မတော်; abbreviated ALA) is a Rakhine insurgent group in Myanmar (Burma). It is the armed wing of the Arakan Liberation ...

(ALA), which has 700–1,000 personnel. The ALA signed a ceasefire agreement with the

government of Myanmar Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests. Po ...

on 5 April 2012 and became a signatory of the

Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), officially the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Ethnic Armed Organisations ( my, တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံး ပစ်� ...

(NCA) on 15 October 2015.

History

1967–1969

The Arakan Liberation Party was founded on 9 April 1967, along with its armed wing, the Arakan Liberation Army, with the help of the

Karen National Union The Karen National Union ( my, ကရင် အမျိုးသား အစည်းအရုံး; abbreviated KNU) is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), that claims to represent the Ka ...

(KNU). On 26 November 1968, Khai Ray Khai, a member of the party's central committee, along with nine other associates, were arrested at

Sittwe Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers empt ...

, the capital of Rakhine State, by Burmese authorities. On 20 December 1968 Khaing Soe Naing, the party's General Secretary, was arrested by Burmese authorities at Rathedaung Township, in Rakhine State. Following those arrests, several more ALP members were also arrested on different charges, and the party dissolved. The party has accused the government of torturing its imprisoned members.

1971–1977

Between 1971 and 1972, former political prisoners from the ALP were released on amnesty. As soon as Khaing Moe Lunn, a former ALP member, was released, he departed to Komura to meet with KNU leaders in order to re-establish the ALP and ALA. From 1973 to 1974, the ALP was re-established with help from the KNU, and 300 fighters were recruited and trained by the ALA, with Khaing as the President of the ALP and Commander in Chief of the ALA. After a failed offensive by Khaing against both

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n and Burmese forces resulted in massive arrests of party members, the ALP ceased its activities once again.

1980–present

In 1980, all ALP and ALA prisoners were released on amnesty. In 1981, the ALP and ALA were once again established, now under the leadership of Khai Ray Khai, and was once again assisted by the KNU. The ALP is presently allied with the KNU, along with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB), and the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB). The ALP signed the

(NCA) on 15 October 2015, along with seven other insurgent groups.

References

External links