"Myanmar’s upstart Arakan Army (AA) has intensified its insurgent operations in recent months, opening a new front of instability in the nation’s long-running ethnic civil wars. The armed conflict has compounded volatility in Rakhine state, from where over 700,000 Muslim Rohingya have been expelled in government “clearance operations” beginning in 2017 the United Nations and others suggest may have had “genocidal intent.” In January, over 300 AA troops raided four border posts in northern Rakhine state, underscoring the 10,000-strong armed group’s rising capabilities since its formation in 2009, with support among the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority. The Myanmar government has doubled down in its tit-for-tat reprisals, classifying the group as a “terrorist organization” and threatening reporters who cover the AA’s side of the surging conflict with unlawful association, an anti-state criminal offense. Asia Times spoke to the AA’s leader and founder General Tun Myat Naing in mid-April in Pangsang at the 30th anniversary celebrations of the United Wa State Army, another armed group which enjoys de facto statehood within Myanmar. In a wide-ranging interview, Tun Myat Naing spoke to his ambition of achieving autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and what he and his fighters are willing to do to achieve it. Excerpts follow..."