Eventhough there is no gun fighting going on in rural areas of Sittwe township, theBurmese army personnel suddenly fired shells on Chi Hlaing Fun village that killed a resident and injured fourothers, including a young monk.

Thedeceased has been identified as U Nyi Nyi (over 50 years old) hailed from ChiHlaing Fun village.

The injured individuals include a young monkalong with his mother. They came to take shelter in the village followingtension in the urban area.

“At the crack of dawn, a heavy weapon was fired. One villager sustainedan injury on his head. The gun fighting ended within a short time,” said avillager.

Heinformed that at about 4 am on Sunday, the Sittwe-based LIB no 232/344battalion fired with heavy weapons.

Theinfantry battalions based in Sittwe and Ponna Kyunt were firing heavy weaponson residential areas regularly.

Asthe military council forces continued targeting the civilians without anyprovocation, a wave of criticisms surfaced. Under the guidelines of Rules ofEngagement, the armed forces should not attack unarmed civilians.

On3 December, the soldiers from LIB no (270) battalion entered Ray Yo Byint andKha Mong Taw villages under Ponna Kyunt township. They continued firing andlater set many houses on fire.

While the junta forces are losing important places to ethnic armed groups acrossMyanmar, they are using air strikes on the villages and  also arresting civilians.

TheArakan Army (AA) has announced that the soldiers are committing war crimesagainst humanity in various locations.

General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman of the militarycouncil, has however denied the development. Even though there is evidence ofthe army’s involvement with heavy weapon firing almost every day in both urbanand rural areas, he denied such attack.