BANGKOK (AP) — A spokesperson for Myanmar’s army govt denied accusations that navy troops and their native allies killed 76 other people once they entered a village final week within the western state of Rakhine, state-controlled media reported Wednesday.
Rakhine has change into a point of interest for Myanmar’s national civil warfare, through which pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority military combat the rustic’s army rulers, who took energy in 2021 after the military ousted the elected govt of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The combating there has additionally raised fears of a revival of arranged violence in opposition to participants of the Muslim Rohingya minority, very similar to that which drove no less than 740,000 participants in their group in 2017 to f lee to neighboring Bangladesh for protection.
The accusations of a bloodbath in Byine Phyu village in northern Rakhine had been made via the Arakan Military, an ethnic armed group that has been at the offensive in opposition to navy outposts in Rakhine since November final yr. They have got won keep an eye on of 9 of 17 townships in Rakhine and one within the adjoining Chin state.
Byine Phyu village is at the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, in a strategic location with simple get entry to to the Bay of Bengal.
The Arakan Military is the well-trained and well-armed army wing of the political motion of the Buddhist Rakhine minority, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central govt.
Alternatively, it has additionally been accused of primary human rights violations, maximum particularly in reference to its seize of the city of Buthidaung on Would possibly 18. It was once accused of forcing the city’s estimated 200,000 citizens, most commonly from the Rohinyga ethnic minority, to depart after which environment fireplace to lots of the constructions there.
It denies the fees, blaming the military for burning the city, however citizens interviewed via telephone for the reason that incident informed The Related Press that the Arakan Military was once accountable.
The competing claims may now not be verified independently, as tight restrictions on commute in that area make it just about unattainable to make sure main points of such incidents firsthand.
Main points of the incident in Byine Phyu village had been in a similar fashion disputed.
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the ruling army council, was once quoted Wednesday within the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper as pronouncing the military’s troops went to the village on Would possibly 29 to search for participants of the Arakan Military and detained about 20 other people for interrogation.
He mentioned the protection forces had been compelled to shoot 3 male suspects who weren’t village citizens as they attempted to clutch a gun from a military officer, however there had now not been any mass killing.
An Arakan Military observation launched Tuesday mentioned about 170 squaddies from the army regional command headquarters based totally in Sittwe, accompanied via armed participants of a pro-army Rakhine staff and native Muslims recruited via the military, arrested everybody in Byine Phyu village and killed 76 other people.
It claimed the military raiders handled their captives brutally and raped 3 ladies.
Simplest one in all 20 citizens from the world contacted via AP was once prepared to talk about the incident. A number of mentioned they wouldn’t communicate as a result of they had been eager about pals of members of the family who were taken into custody.
One lady mentioned her more youthful brother was once amongst the ones arrested, however she didn’t know what number of people were killed or despite the fact that her brother was once nonetheless alive. She spoke on situation on anonymity to safeguard her non-public safety.
The U.N. human rights workplace on Would possibly 24 warned of “horrifying and traumatic experiences” concerning the have an effect on of recent violence in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, pointing to new assaults on Rohingya civilians via the army and an ethnic armed staff combating in opposition to it.
The combating in Rakhine has evoked explicit worry as it means that the Rohingya minority might face new violent persecution.
The Rohingya had been the goals of a brutal counterinsurgency marketing campaign incorporating rape and homicide that noticed an estimated 740,000 flee to neighboring Bangladesh as their villages had been burned down via govt troops in 2017.
They have got lived in Myanmar for generations, however they’re extensively seemed via many within the nation’s Buddhist majority, together with particularly participants of the Rakhine minority, as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face a large amount of prejudice and are in most cases denied citizenship and different fundamental rights.
After the Arakan Military captured Buthidaung on Would possibly 18, Rohingya activists accused it of burning down the homes within the the city and forcing its citizens to escape. The Arakan Military rejected the allegations as baseless and blamed the destruction at the army govt’s troops and native Muslims it mentioned had been combating along them.
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