Narinjara News


Burmese Junta’s attempt to divert people’s attention from the Depeyin Massacre

Sittwe, 23rd July 03:  Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council junta has ordered formation of paramilitary Pyithu Seik to divert people’s attention from the Depeyin Massacre on 30^th May, said a political analyst. 

Sending messages of high alert of an ‘impending war’ among the defence forces and the general people, the Burmese junta has issued orders to give compulsory military training to the family members of all the defence personnel aged between eighteen and forty, irrespective of sexes, according to sources in the administration.

All the non-Rakhine members of the defence forces have also been directed to learn the local Rakhine language so that in case of war breaking out they can get mixed with the local population.  The existing forces in the army and navy have been brought under intensive and specialized training courses for facing a possible war.  

In Minbra Township, about 50 miles south of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Burma, the Light Infantry Battalions 345, 353, 536, 537, 541, 542, and 543, (under Tactical Command Sakakha15) have been conducting large scale special war training beginning June 11. 

Meanwhile, each village tract all over the seventeen townships of Rakhine State has been directed to recruit at least 30 Pyithu-seik paramilitary forces as a preparation for what the Burmese junta branded as ‘an imminent war’ though there is no mention of who the enemy is, said a village headman from Minbra.  He himself collected 23 members from his own village tract, and is trying hard to fulfil the quota.  But because of people moving out of villages for earning livelihood elsewhere in Burma proper or in the larger towns the village headman said that he failed to get the rest seven persons to fulfil the demand of the army.

At Buthidaung Township, nearly twenty miles from the Bangladesh border, the hill people including Khami, Mro and Daingnet living in the eastern part of the town, have been given military training and provided with arms and ammunitions.

The people of Rakhine have been passing days of high alert and concern due to the almost warlike situation prevailing.  In the border areas, especially close to India and Bangladesh new deployment of troops and fortification of existing battalions have been reported.  In Paletwa Township, under Chin State, the troops along the border with India have been put on high alert. 

“Since the Depeyin Massacre in which more than seventy National League for Democracy supporters were killed by the Burmese junta sponsored thugs, a big divide has been created inside the army as well as among the people.  The alert of impending war is a false signal by the SPDC junta meant to divert the attention of the people and bring unity among the dissenting soldiers,” a leader from the NLD in Sittwe said.  #