Narinjara News

_Narinjara_News_{Monastery is
Destroyed, and Villagers are Fined

Sittwe, March 12:}_{The Monastery
of Kan Pyan Rawr Haung, in}_Sittwe_Township_,_Arakan_State_{, has
been destroyed in accordance with the order of General Maung Oo, the President
of the Arakan State Peace and Development Council,
the State Level Junta, according to our correspondent.

Maung Oo ordered the local authority to charge the Village Peace and
Development Secretary Maung Sein Nyunt and Monastery
Treasurer Maung Ba Khin - both led the building of
the Monastery - with destroying the rice field.

The two were sentenced for a day of imprisonment and 2,000 kyat each in
accordance with the 1951 Rice Field Act.

The villagers had resisted the Commander’s order to destroy the Monastery
initially, but finally gave in to fear and pressure of official
sanctions.

The Monastery was built in 2003 in the rice field donated by a villager to the
village monk, U Thu Nanda, and it has the permission
of the Township Sangha Nayaka
(the Monk Order) and the Department of Religious Affairs.

Since his monastery is destroyed, the monk has to stay at a lay-house in the
village.

Maung Oo has ordered the destruction of a Muslim Mosque in Sittwe
before, but later had to rebuild that Mosque when the Muslim leaders complained
to General Khin Nyunt, one of the three most powerful Generals of the Junta. #

For further information, please contact Narinjara:

Phone: 880 18 255 018 (}_Mobile_{)

E-mail: [email protected]}