Around 100 Arakanese people welcomed and received the well-known historian Dr. Aye Chan at Yangon airport on the 15th of September when he returned to Burma to attend a conference in Yangon entitled “National Identity and Citizenship in 21st Century Myanmar”.
When he reached the airport at Yangon, Arakanese Buddhist monks, politicians, artists, members of Arakanese literature and cultural groups and female traditional dancers, amongst others received Dr. Aye Chan with warm welcomes.
“There were about 100 Arakanese who came to welcome Sayar (Dr. Aye Chan) at the airport. We came to know around 1 pm that he would arrive here at 3 pm. He is a well respected historian amongst Arakanese people. So the three of us went to the airport to receive him”, said Win Ko Khine, a well known Arakanese musician who welcomed Dr. Aye Chan.
Musician Ko Win Ko Khine, actor Ko Nay Htet Lin, lyricist Ko Nyi Min Khine and another singer were also said to be included among the artists who warmly welcomed Dr. Aye Chan.
“Sayar Dr. Aye Chan is an honorable and respectable person for his research and works done on the histories of Arakan. As another senior historian Sayargyi Dr. Aye Kyaw had already passed away he is now the only remaining senior Arakanese historian who can talk about the histories of Arakan at the world level. So he is now very important for the Arakanese, so we went to welcome him”, said Ko Win Ko Khine.
Arakanese were said to have held placards and banners that included one which read “Dr. Aye Chan, Save the Land of Arakan” while welcoming him at the airport.
Dr Aye Chan attended a panel at the conference of “National Identity and Citizenship in 21st Century Myanmar” sponsored by Myanmar Egret, which many scholars and human rights activists also attended on the 16th of September.
According to sources, Dr Aye Chan presented a paper about Arakan history including the settlement of Banali people in Arakan during British rule. Narinjara has not received any further details about his paper as yet.
Dr. Aye Chan is now living in the USA and working as a Professor of History at Kanta University in Japan.
He was arrested and sentenced to a lengthy jail term by the Burmese military regime around 1990 for his activities as part of the democracy movement in Burma.
He has written many articles and books about Arakan history among those “Influx Virus” the book he wrote about the Rohingya.
