ALP accuses ULA/AA of assassinating three of its members

By Admin 02 Jul 2023

DMG Newsroom
2 July 2023, Sittwe

Gunmen who shot dead three members of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) in Sittwe’s Mingan Ward on Saturday were members of the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), the Sittwe-based ALP alleged in a statement on July 2.

The slain ALP officials have been identified as the group’s vice chairman, Khaing Ni Aung; battalion commander Khaing Kyaw Min; and Private Kyaw Kyaw Naing.

The three were assassinated by ULA/AA members in front of Sittwe University after a meeting on July 1 at the ALP office to discuss humanitarian relief issues related to Cyclone Mocha, the ALP said in its statement.

“We received a tip-off earlier that the ULA/AA were plotting to assassinate ALP members. We did not expect ULA/AA to do such a depraved act as we are carrying out relief work for people affected by Cyclone Mocha,” Major Khaing Thurein, secretary of the ALP, told DMG.

U Khaing Thukha, spokesman for the ULA/AA, refuted those allegations. “This is a baseless allegation. We have absolutely nothing to do with this matter,” he told DMG.

The three ALP members were killed and three others were wounded in the shooting near railroad tracks close to Sittwe University in Mingan Ward on Saturday afternoon, locals said.

Three ALP members were also shot dead by unknown gunmen in Sittwe’s Setyonsu Ward on January 4.

“The assassination had a lot to do with the disunity of the ALP. People’s support for the ALP has completely declined because the policy is so broken that it is not even possible to distinguish who is a member of the ALP, and many of these conspiracies have occurred because their weaknesses have been exposed,” said a social activist in Arakan State.

The ALP is a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, and an ALP delegation led by Daw Saw Mra Razar Linn has been involved in peace talks with Myanmar’s military regime.

The ALP announced through its Facebook page on March 20 that the group led by Daw Saw Mra Razar Linn had expelled those who disagreed and reorganised the ALP.

The ALP, led by Daw Saw Mra Razar Linn, is headquartered in Setyonesu Ward. A separate faction led by Khaing Ye Khaing is said to have settled on the India-Myanmar and Bangladesh-Myanmar borders.

The three men shot dead on Saturday are members of the ALP faction led by Daw Saw Mra Razar Linn.