Citing risk of mines, junta orders closure of Mrauk-U market

By DMG 05 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
5 September 2022, Mrauk-U 

Shop owners at Mrauk-U’s central market have packed up their merchandise and moved to their homes after the township General Administration Department ordered them to close their shops, saying there are mines to be cleared at the market. 

Some shop owners had already shuttered their businesses after junta troops were deployed in public places in the town, including the central Myoma Market, on Sunday, according to residents. 

“The township administrator came and told shop owners that they would need to close their shops because the military would clear mines in the market. Shop owners have been moving expensive goods to their homes,” said a shopkeeper who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. 

Sellers from the outskirts of Mrauk-U did not come to the central market on Monday, while other shopkeepers only opened their shops in the morning and left before noon, said a shopkeeper. 

“We have to buy meat and vegetables daily because we run a restaurant. Only a few shopkeepers opened their shops. They only sold for a while, and left hastily. Streets were largely deserted today,” said one resident. 

In the early hours of September 4, junta soldiers reportedly opened fire indiscriminately as they entered the town, which hosts numerous archeological heritage buildings — some of which were hit by bullets, according to locals. 

At least one town resident was also detained by the military on Sunday morning. Junta soldiers arrested Ko Kyaw Zan Wai aka Ko Yin Hsot, a resident of Mrauk-U’s Taungyat ward, at about 7 a.m. on September 4, sources close to his family told DMG. 

A week earlier, on August 28, a clash occurred between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) near Lekka village in Mrauk-U Township. 

The military and AA reached an informal ceasefire agreement ahead of Myanmar’s November 2020 general election, after some two years of often-intense fighting in Arakan State and neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State. But the peace pact has verged on total collapse for weeks amid months of escalating military tensions and a series of clashes between the two sides across multiple Arakan State townships, and in Paletwa Township.