Junta soldiers allegedly torch monastic school in Maungdaw Twsp village

By DMG 30 Aug 2022

DMG Newsroom
30 August 2022, Maungdaw

Some buildings within the compound of a Buddhist monastery in Khamaung Seik village, Maungdaw Township, were discovered on fire on Tuesday morning, according to local residents.
A witness told DMG he saw Myanmar junta soldiers from the Khamaung Seik border guard police outpost in the monastery compound.

A free monastic school, dormitory and dining hall were burning, said the witness, who drove to the monastery on Tuesday morning to deliver food for students at the monastic school.

“I saw fire and dense smoke. I also saw soldiers in the monastery compound,” he said.

While local residents have alleged that Myanmar military personnel set fire to the buildings, DMG could not independently verify those reports.

Another source told DMG: “They [Myanmar military soldiers] torched the dormitory and the kitchen. They turned the classroom and the larder upside down.”

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.

Many residents fled Khamaung Seik after the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army clashed near a border guard police outpost some 100 metres from the village on August 26.

After two years of fighting from late 2018 to November 2020, the Myanmar military and Arakan Army reached an unofficial ceasefire. But the peace pact has verged on total collapse for weeks amid months of escalating military tensions and a series of skirmishes between the two sides.