Western Commander orders villagers to move out
==============================================
Maungdaw, October 14: Kaladan Press Network
The commander of the Western Command in
villagers to move out of their
village in western
officers could not find the lost
gun of a dead soldier who raped a 13-
year-old girl, a village elder here
said.
The Thet Khine
Nyar villagers received the order after a group of
high
military and border security forces
visiting
on Oct. 14 inquired about the
circumstances of the death of a junior
military officer in the area.
The team members also asked the
whereabouts of the gun possessed by
the dead soldier, Ran Aung. The
western commander, Major General Maung
Oo, in a heated speech, ordered
the villagers either to hand over
the missing gun or face being forced
out of the village, he added.
According to the villagers, the drunken officer Ran Aung was
chased
and when he jumped into the nearby
stream to escape the wrath of
villagers after he raped the young
girl, he got swept away and met his
death. Two days later his
body was found in the creek. It is
believed that the gun sank and was
lost while the soldier drowned
On Sept. 13, Col. Aung Naing Tun, the Tactical Operation commander
(TOC), Lieutenant Colonel Myint
Oo, director of Nasaka in Maungdaw
Township, across from
Intelligence-18 came to the village and made a detailed
enquiry about
the death of the soldier. It
is alleged that the officer Ran Aung
drowned when he fled for his life
after being chased by villagers, a
villager said, quoting Nasaka sources.
Since the incident, villagers have left the village to avoid
arbitrary
arrest and harassment by law
enforcement agencies
According to Nasaka sources, 172
of the 250 families who fled the
village to escape repression had
come back by Sept. 19. Some
villagers are still away and
believed to be fleeing from place to
place in the border areas. On
Oct. 10 the ruling SPDC junta ordered
two sections of defense forces
deployed to hunt for the fleeing
villagers, another villager said,
quoting Nasaka orders.
The high level military team was comprised of Western
Commander Major
General Maung Oo; Tactical Operations Commander Col. Aung Naing Tun
(Buthidaung);
Director of Nasaka (Border Security Force)
Myint Oo; Col. Aye Thite of Military Operation Command (MOC-15); Major
Than Sein of the Military
Intelligence (MI-18) and other military
officers who visited the village on
Oct. 6.
.................................................................
Burma News International is a network of nine exiled media
groups
such as Mizzima
News, Shan Herald Agency for News, Kao Wao News Group,
Khonumthung News Group, Narinjara News, Kaladan Press
Network,
Independent Mon News Agency, Karenni Information
Network Group and Network Media Group.
.........................
Contact: Duty Editor
+66 9 54 94
296