By MOE MYINT
21 June 2017
YANGON — Myanmar
military and border police raided a suspected militant camp in the forests of
Mayu mountain range of Rakhine State’s southern Maungdaw Township on Tuesday,
according to police, leaving three dead over two days.
Police Maj Zaw Zaw
Nay Hein of the three-mile border police checkpoint said the camp was empty but
authorities seized 20 dummy guns, two homemade guns and bags of corn seed and
rice.
Three police
sources, who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, reported that
one suspected militant was killed on Tuesday when he allegedly attacked
security forces. They said they had not received updated information from the
raid due to the camp’s remote location—a three-hour trek from the nearest
village of Kai Gyee.
In a Wednesday press
conference, President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said that two more
suspected militants had been killed by security forces, bringing the number of
casualties over two days to three.
Officers from Kyi
Kan Pyin border police headquarters rejected local media reports of clashes
between security forces and militants near Kin Chaung Phyar in southern
Maungdaw Township on Wednesday morning.
Border police officials
told The Irrawaddy they suspected Muslim militants were attempting to establish
militant training camps in the Mayu mountains. U Zaw Htay confirmed that the
border police and military were carrying out a clearance operation in the Mayu
range, and described Maungdaw as “vulnerable to attack” by militants, alleging
that they had been providing “terrorist training” in the area.
One source noted
that five militant trainees were reportedly
killed in an incident with an improvised explosive device in Thae Ne village in
Buthidaung in May near the mountains, and that border police had seized 40 walkie-talkies from an Iman’s house in Chaung Kala
(north) village.
“All these
activities are linked with Muslim militant movement and evidence that they are
trying to take foothold in the Mayu mountains,” said the police official.
According to the
State Counselor’s Office Information Committee, 33
Muslim residents were murdered and 19 people went missing between 2016
October to 2017 May. https://www.facebook.com/MyanmarSCOInfoCom/photos/pcb.741622659344176/741770155996093/?type=3&theater
In October last
year, nine border police were killed by
suspected Muslim attackers and more than 50 firearms and ammunition were
looted.
A months-long
clearance campaign by security forces—mired by allegations of extensive human
rights abuses—forced more 70,000 Muslim villagers to flee to neighboring
Bangladesh, and an unverified number of casualties.
This story has been
updated to include U Zaw Htay’s comments.
A new statement
issued from State Counselor’s Office Information Committee is here below in Burmese:
https://www.facebook.com/MyanmarSCOInfoCom/posts/750968381742937
But local villagers
denied and said, "we are
eye-witnesses, these all are newly fabrications as usual and the assailants are
also Rakhine Buddhist".