Unnerved locals report regime troops’ entry into Ponnagyun Twsp villages

By DMG 26 Apr 2022

DMG Newsroom
26 April 2022, Ponnagyun 

A Myanmar military contingent entered the villages of Sabarhtar and Aungzeya in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, on Tuesday afternoon, according to uneasy local residents.

“Fifty-seven junta soldiers entered Aungzeya village from Sittwe’s Shwe Mingan on suspicion of there being some Arakan Army members in the village,” said a resident of Sabarhtar village, who did not want to be named for security reasons. “We don’t know what the junta soldiers will do. They have not yet questioned the locals. Regardless, we get worried when junta soldiers come.”

Another villager who asked for anonymity said locals were frightened by the junta soldiers’ movements, adding that some youths and the village administrator went into hiding.

“The junta soldiers also came to my home, as well as the village administrator’s residence. We don’t know what they came to the village to do,” the unnamed villager said.

Ma Htay Htay from Sabarhtar village said most of the men in the village had fled due to the arrival of the soldiers, and that only elderly women and children were left.

The junta troops remained in Sabarhtar village as of press time, according to locals. DMG repeatedly phoned the Sabarhtar village administrator, but he could not be reached.

The Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) reached an informal ceasefire agreement in November 2020, after some two years of conflict in Arakan State.

U Pe Than, a veteran Arakanese politician, said the junta troop movements into Arakan State villages at a time of relative stability and peace could jeopardise the détente that has been achieved.

“The locals are worried about the Myanmar military’s movements. They are worried that fighting will resume if military council troops enter villages. The junta soldiers should not move around villages to make arrests. It will not benefit them militarily, politically or economically,” the ex-lawmaker added.

DMG attempted to contact Colonel Kyaw Thura, the Arakan State minister for Security and Border Affairs, for comment on the matter, but he could not be reached.

At a press conference on April 5, AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha warned that fighting was likely to be an ongoing prospect if the military continued to disrupt efforts by the Arakan Army to administer Arakan State.

Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on April 22 invited Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups to engage in dialogue as the military regime endeavours to restart the country’s moribund peace process in the wake of its February 2021 coup.