1 Sittwe villager killed, 4 injured in Burmese army shelling

Even though there is no gun fighting going on in rural areas of Sittwe township, the Burmese army personnel suddenly fired shells on Chi Hlaing Fun village that killed a resident and injured four others, including a young monk.

The deceased has been identified as U Nyi Nyi (over 50 years old) hailed from Chi Hlaing Fun village.

The injured individuals include a young monk along with his mother. They came to take shelter in the village following tension in the urban area.

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

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

The infantry battalions based in Sittwe and Ponna Kyunt were firing heavy weapons on residential areas regularly.

As the military council forces continued targeting the civilians without any provocation, a wave of criticisms surfaced. Under the guidelines of Rules of Engagement, the armed forces should not attack unarmed civilians.

On 3 December, the soldiers from LIB no (270) battalion entered Ray Yo Byint and Kha Mong Taw villages under Ponna Kyunt township. They continued firing and later set many houses on fire.

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

The Arakan Army (AA) has announced that the soldiers are committing war crimes against humanity in various locations.

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