AA vows to retaliate against junta for Sittwe massacre

By Admin 03 Jun 2024

DMG Newsroom
3 June 2024, Sittwe

The Arakkha Army (AA) has vowed to retaliate against the regime for its massacre of 53 civilians including women in the Arakan State capital Sittwe’s Byaing Phyu Village last week.

In its statement on Sunday, the AA said the regime slaughtered 53 villagers, raped women, and burnt their bodies.

More than 100 troops including members of the Sittwe-based Regional Operations Command and 101st Light Infantry Division based in Pakokku, members of the Arakan Liberation Party/Arakan Liberation Army led by Saw Mra Razar Lin and Muslim conscripts entered Byaing Phyu on Wednesday, and arrested everyone they could find in the village, including elderly people and children.

They were tied up, denied food and water, tortured and shot dead. Some female detainees were raped.

The AA warned in its statement: “We will harshly retaliate against those who ordered to commit war crimes against innocent civilians in Byaing Phyu Village, and junta soldiers and all those involved in implementing that order.”

“The incident will go down in the history of the Arakanese people as the evil act of the fascist regime,” says the AA’s statement, condemning the junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.

One woman from Byaing Phyu said: “Some were told to make video calls to their parents. As they were shouting ‘mom’ they were shot dead. Parents saw them being killed. Soldiers told villagers that they flew from far away because they were too eager to kill them.”

The regime burned some bodies and took others away in cars. Some detained male villagers were also taken to Light Infantry Battalion No. 20 in Sittwe.

The University Student Unions-Yangon also released a statement on Sunday, vowing to work together with other revolutionary organisations to investigate the junta’s crimes against humanity and bring perpetrators to justice.

In its report on Sunday, the regime said security personnel took necessary security measures in Byaing Phyu Village for the stability of Byaing Phyu and surrounding villages.

The regime has increased patrols in Sittwe town following the massacre, according to residents. The regime has also forced residents, mostly women, out of Byaing Phyu Village.

During the fighting in 2019, seven residents of Kyauktan Village in Rathedaung Township were killed and seven others injured in junta custody.