Wednesday, 20 Mar 2019
YANGON: At least six people were wounded in firing as Myanmar soldiers hunted ethnic Rakhine insurgents in the western town of Mrauk U, residents said, while the military issued a statement saying a convoy was ambushed entering the historic temple town.
Soldiers moved into the town on Monday night, marking an intensification of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where for the past few weeks security forces have waged a campaign against a militant group called the Arakan Army.
While Rakhine State gained global attention after the army drove some 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh in late 2017, the ethnic Rakhine are largely Buddhist like the majority of Myanmar’s people.
The military said insurgents attacked a military convoy approaching Mrauk U before retreating into houses in the town.
There was “shooting back and forth”, it said in a statement.
Myo Oo Khaung Sayataw, a monk in the town, said he had taken six wounded people to the hospital on Monday night.
“I went out to the wounded people because no one dared to go out,” he said. “I saw six military cars, they were shooting everywhere.”
He said a seven-year-old girl with burn wounds was among the casualties.
A regional lawmaker, Tun Thar Sein, said he had visited the six wounded at the hospital.
Mrauk U, the former capital of an ancient kingdom, is popular with foreign travellers who come to see its hundreds of centuries-old pagodas, which Myanmar wants classified as a World Heritage Site.
Residents said the clashes had made them too frightened to leave their homes.
“I don’t dare go out because of the gunfire,” said Shwe Tun Aung, a Mrauk-U resident reached by phone.
“I closed my door and am still in the house until now. The situation is not good, civilians are in trouble.”Military spokesmen did not answer calls from Reuters seeking comment, but the statement posted to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s website portrayed the fighting as an ambush.
“AA terrorists attacked a military convoy while the convoy was marching into Mrauk U town for security,” the statement said.
“AA terrorists took cover in civilian houses.”
A spokesman for the insurgents did not answer phone calls.
Myanmar’s leaders have vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, and the violence has intensified since early January, when the Arakan Army launched attacks on police that killed 13.
Since then, clashes have spread, displacing several thousand people, and authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies. — Reuters
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