One year on, no justice for slain Ponnagyun Twsp villagers

By Admin 10 Nov 2023

DMG Newsroom
10 November 2023, Sittwe

Friday marked one year since the murder of nine civilians in Sin Inn Gyi Village in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township, with relatives of the victims lamenting that justice has thus far been denied in the mass murder of their loved ones.

The Arakan Army attacked a junta convoy near Sin Inn Gyi Village on the morning of November 10, 2022. That evening, junta soldiers raided the village, killing nine villagers and torching several houses.

“There is still no justice to this today,” said Daw Hlaing May Nu, whose husband U Maung Maung Thein was killed by junta soldiers. “I have lost both my husband and house, and I feel like there is nothing left to lose. I am struggling to support my three children.”

U Maung Maung Thein (41), U Maung San Hla (38), U Khin Maung (55), U Oo Kyaw Zan (65), U Maung Kyaw Thein (65), Daw May Nu (50), Daw Ma Gyi (90), U Hme Ni (56), and U Kyaw Naing (54), were killed that day.  Their bodies bore gunshot and knife wounds, according to witnesses.

The majority of the slain were breadwinners, and their families are suffering from financial hardship in their absence, in addition to the obvious emotional toll.

Daw Win Than Htay, the widow of U Maung San Hla, said: “I want to make donations for him on the anniversary of his death. But I have been struggling to feed my four children on my own, and I can’t afford to make a donation. I have been forced to withdraw my eldest daughter from school.”

The AA said on November 11 last year that junta troops from Ponnagyun-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 550 gunned down the nine civilians in Sin Inn Gyi Village. The regime has not yet offered a response to the accusations made against its troops.

“[The Myanmar military] still does not give us an explanation. There is still no justice,” said Daw Nu Sein, the widow of U Maung Kyaw Thein. “We are furious about the killings. We want fitting punishment to be handed down to the perpetrators.”

Two residents of neighbouring Diparyone Village were also killed when the junta carried out air and artillery strikes in response to the AA’s ambush on the junta convoy near Sin Inn Gyi Villages on November 10 of last year. Four residents were also injured in other nearby villages.

The Myanmar military and AA observed an unofficial ceasefire in late November 2022 after four months of fighting in which 26 civilians in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa were killed and 111 others were injured by junta artillery strikes, according to the AA.