Arakan Army vows revenge for civilian killings in Ponnagyun Twsp village

By DMG 12 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
12 November 2022, Ponnagyun 

The United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) has vowed revenge for the Myanmar military regime’s alleged killing of several civilians in Sin Inn Gyi Village, part of Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township, this week. 

The ULA/AA issued its retaliatory threat on Friday, accusing the military’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 550, based in Ponnagyun Township, of shooting dead at least nine civilians including elderly people, and torching multiple homes in Sin Inn Gyi village on Thursday evening. 

The ethnic armed group called the killings war crimes, and pledged to hit back at the perpetrators in the strongest possible terms. 

Some villages were hit when junta troops fired artillery shells in response to an Arakan Army ambush of a junta convoy between Padetha and Sin Inn Gyi villages in Ponnagyun Township on Thursday morning. 

LIB No. 550 and at least two other junta outposts are accused of shelling multiple Ponnagyun Township villages on November 10, with the regime also carrying out helicopter and drone attacks targeting villages in Ponnagyun Township on Thursday and Friday. Two civilians were killed and at least five others including children and women were seriously injured in those attacks, with some even losing limbs, according to the ULA/AA statement. 

The ULA/AA statement called the regime’s attacks against the Ponnagyun Township civilian population cowardly and despicable. 

Veteran Arakanese politician U Pe Than said: “Why don’t they fight the ULA/AA outposts instead of killing villagers and torching houses? It is not what a government should do. 

“While there was no fighting, the Myanmar military raided Sin Inn Gyi, killed villagers, and torched houses. It is a war crime,” said U Myat Tun, executive director of the Arakan Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Association. 

DMG was unable to obtain comment from junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun and Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura. 

The regime has blocked access to the Sittwe-Ponnagyun stretch of the Yangon-Sittwe road since the fighting on Thursday, seriously disrupting the movement of people and commodity flows in the area.