Narinjara News

Akyab, May 22

 


Army Commander Detained and 20 Soldiers Dispelled After Inner Clash

 

An army commander has been detained and 20 soldiers have been dispelled in a northern town of Arakan since an inner clash on 14 April 2005, said a prominent person from the town of Kyauk Taw, 50 miles north of Arakan capital, Akyab.

 

The detained commander is major Tun Aung Zan, a commander in charge of Light Infantry battalion, LIB, 375, based in Nung Pun Hla village of Kyauktaw. The other 20 soldiers were from the same battalion. All soldiers are Arakanese nationals, he said.

 

“I heard that all soldiers including the major are Arakanese nationals and the detentions took place after an inner clash between the Arakanese major and a Burmese solider” he said.

 

On 14 April, a private Burmese soldier tried to assassinate major Tun Aung Zan when he visited a near-by village of his battalion with his family. In the assassination attempts, his wife, his mother in law and car driver were killed, but the major escaped the assassination.

 

After the assassination attempt, the assassin ran away to a village monastery to hide, but a platoon from LIB 375 surrounded the monastery and blocked all gates of the monastery in order to prevent the assassin from running away.

 

When the army surrounded up the monastery, Major Tun Aung Zan  shouted in the Arakanese language that you  would have to know how much red (brave) our Arakanese blood’. Eventually, the assassin solider killed himself with his gun.

 

After the incident, Major Tun Aung Zan was detained by authorities for his use of the Arakanese words “you would have to know how much red our Arakanese blood” while shouting at soldiers who surrounded in the monastery.

 

The other 20 Arakanese soldiers were dispelled by army authorities from LIB 375 and were told to avoid clashes between Arakanese and Burmese soldiers in the future.

 

Now Burmese authorities are propagating among the public that the assassin solider is not Burman, but a Shan national, according to several people from Kyauk Taw. #

 

 

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