Tatmadaw forces accused of threatening locals

By Aung Htein 16 Oct 2019

Aung Htein/ DMG

October 16, Mrauk U

A Tatmadaw unit of about 100 soldiers arrived in Pauktaw Pyin village, Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State at about 8 am on October 15, frightening the villagers and prompting them to flee their homes, locals said.

Ko Aung San Moe, a tri-wheel motorbike taxi-driver from Pauktaw Pyin village, said that he was ordered to go and buy food supplies in Mrauk-U town for the Tatmadaw soldiers.

“They asked me to go and buy food in Mrauk-U. I had to buy alcohol, dried fish, cooking oil, salt and chilies. It took a while for me to buy everything they asked for. At the same time they gathered all of women in the village to their place and threatened them, saying that if I didn’t come back to the village [with the food] they would be burned,” he said.

He added that a group of soldiers was still in the village and had searched all of the grocery shops in the village for food.

“They let the women go back home. They got drunk and broke into the shops in the village to get food. They killed the chickens for food as well – they are just doing whatever they please,” Ko Aung San Moe said.

Asked about the behavior of the Tatmadaw soldiers, Colonel Win Zaw Oo, head of the Western Command, said, “They [the villagers] should provide food to the Tatmadaw because the soldiers are working for Arakan State. But [the villagers] never complain when they have to provide rice, cooking oil, pigs and cows to the AA.”

Pauktaw Pyin village has around 400 houses, and its residents have fled to live with relatives in nearby villages or to IDP camps.

Other refugees who left their homes because of fighting between the Tatmadaw and AA have said that the Tatmadaw troops came to their villages and tried to take their food.