''In its latest report issued on Thursday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) urged China to put pressure on the Myanmar Army to extend its unilateral ceasefire to Rakhine State in order to address ongoing armed clashes there between government troops and the Arakan Army (AA). The report, entitled “A New Dimension of Violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State”, contains five sections detailing the insurgency waged by the AA, arbitrary arrests of prominent Rakhine politicians, the indiscriminate killings of protesters in Mrauk-U last year and the political grievances between Arakanese political parties and the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as encouraging both sides to restrain from further offensives in the region. Regarding the ICG’s advice, Yangon-based ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe said China has been playing a major role in facilitating the peace dialogue for the Northern Alliance group for several years, adding that a Chinese envoy even recently disused the ongoing violence in Rakhine with AA leaders in Kachin State’s Laiza, where the Kachin Independence Army and the AA headquarters are located. But any encouragement to the military to extend the ceasefire to cover Rakhine State should firstly involve negotiations between the actors, U Maung Maung Soe said. “Without having any negotiations between them, it’s really tough to discuss possibilities,” he said. As part of the solution, the ICG suggested the Myanmar government initiate dialogue with ethnic Rakhine representatives over key political, economic and social issues. It also recommended the authorities consider releasing Aye Maung and other ethnic Rakhine political prisoners. The report mentioned that political dialogue between the Union government and Arakanese stakeholders should cover the repatriation process for Rohingya refugees who have been sheltering for more than one year in Bangladeshi camps, the rebuilding of Rohingya communities, economic development and power sharing between the central and state governments...''