One woman dead and nine others injured after bomb explodes in Minbya

The incident was the second in a week in northern Rakhine state, where conflict continues to kill despite a pause in clashes

Phadu Tun Aung

Published on Jan 12, 2021

A village in Minbya as seen in November 2017 (Zarni Win / Myanmar Now)

A woman was killed and nine others were injured on Sunday after an unexploded bomb was accidentally detonated by villagers in Rakhine state’s Minbya township.

The bomb was discovered less than half a kilometer from the village of Saparhtar by a 16-year-old boy. He took it back to the village, where a small group gathered to examine it.

When one of the villagers hit the bomb with a piece of wood, it exploded and killed 41-year-old Hla Than Wai and nine others, according to the son of the deceased woman.

“My mother was visiting her friend when the boy came back to the village with the bomb. An older man hit it with a piece of wood and it went off. And my mother died,” Hla Than Wai’s son, Hla Kyaw Win, told Myanmar Now.

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He said he was in the village with friends when he heard the explosion.

“The explosion was very loud and we saw the smoke. I ran home to look for my sister. I found her and then I went to find my mother,” he said. “I don’t feel good. I want to cry.”

The body of the dead woman was sent to Minbya hospital, while the injured villagers were taken to hospitals in Minbya and Mrauk-U for treatment, said local resident Kyaw Than.

“Five received heavy injuries to their chests and heads, while others had wounds on their legs,” he said.

Hla Than Wai is survived by her 23-year-old son Hla Kyaw Win and 18-year-old daughter. Her husband was one of six killed in an artillery-shelling incident in the village on June 4, 2019. Eight others were injured in that attack.

With both of his parents now dead because of the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, Hla Kyaw Win called on both sides to stop the fighting.

“It feels like my life has been ruined,” he said. “I want the clashes to stop. Please stop fighting so no one has to suffer from these atrocities.”

Saparhtar was the site of intense fighting in June 2019. Despite a recent pause in clashes, landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to menace local people—most of whom are farmers fearful of returning to their fields.

Last week, a similar incident in Kyauktaw township left a woman severely injured after she stepped on a landmine near her village.

And in August of last year, two youths were killed and four injured by an explosion in Kat Chaung, a village in southern Rathedaung township.

An estimated 215 civilians were killed in Rakhine state during an escalation of fighting in the first six months after Covid-19 restrictions were imposed last March, according to monitor groups.

Phadu Tun Aung

Phadu Tun Aung is Reporter with Myanmar Now. He is based in Sittwe, Rakhine State.

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Tanker carrying jet fuel due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

It is unclear who will take delivery of the fuel, but it can be used for military aircraft

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

The tanker is due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

A tanker ship carrying airplane fuel is scheduled to arrive in Yangon on Saturday after departing from Singapore’s Jurong Island on Tuesday, according to data from several marine tracking websites.

The Panama-registered tanker SANTYA is loaded with Jet A1 fuel, which can be used both for commercial aviation and military aircraft, documents seen by Myanmar Now showed.

Activists from Justice for Myanmar last month condemned a similar shipment of fuel made by PetroChina International Singapore and said the company was “complicit in atrocities.”

It is unclear which company is supplying the new shipment and how much fuel will be delivered. The PetroChina shipment was 13,300 tonnes.

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Since seizing power on February 1, the coup regime has launched numerous indiscriminate airstrikes in Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Karen states, displacing tens of thousands of civilians in its bid to crush armed resistance to its rule.

The tanker is likely to discharge its cargo at Yangon’s Thilawa Port, which has terminals for bulk carriers and oil tankers.

According to the marine tracking website FleetMon, the ship is operated by ENEOS Ocean Shipmanagement and previously called at Thilawa in April and May from Singapore.

A representative from ENEOS declined to comment on the shipment on Wednesday.

Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung called on ENEOS to “immediately halt the shipment.”

“It is reckless of ENEOS to ship jet fuel to Myanmar while the illegal military junta is in power, conducting indiscriminate airstrikes, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity,” Yadanar Maung told Myanmar Now.

The spokesperson for the activist group pointed out that ENEOS is largely owned by Japanese financial institutions who have a duty to stop the company “from contributing to grave human rights violations in Myanmar.”

Industry sources told Myanmar Now that the current shipment may have been arranged by Brighter Energy, a joint venture between Thailand’s PTT and Myanmar’s Kanbawza Group.

They speculated that it also could have been set up by either Myat Myittar Mon Company, which is owned by the chair of Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association, or Puma Energy Asia Sun, a subsidiary of Puma Energy, which is majority-owned by the global commodities giant Trafigura.

Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the sources’ suggestions.

Puma Energy, based in Singapore, started distributing aviation fuel under the name National Energy Puma Aviation Services as a joint venture with the state-owned Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise in 2015.

On February 11 the company said it had suspended its operations in Myanmar following the coup for safety reasons, leaving its local partner to take over.

The company also suspended petrol sales at Myitkyina airport in late May, saying its trucks were having difficulties reaching the area.

The airport has been used by the military to launch airstrikes against the Kachin Independence Army, which recently attacked several trucks it suspected of carrying jet fuel.

Myanmar Now

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At least 20 soldiers killed and 1,000 villagers displaced during clash near Sagaing capital

One resistance fighter was also killed in the clash near Monywa, the local People’s Defense Force said

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 24, 2021

The scene on Wednesday after eight homes were set on fire near the site of an ambush targeting a military truck (Supplied)

Local resistance fighters killed at least 20 soldiers and suffered one fatality during a clash at a village about 16 miles outside the Sagaing Region capital of Monywa on Tuesday.

The fighting started hours after about 50 regime troops arrived at Htayaw Kyin village in Yinmabin Township at around 8am and raided people’s homes, inspected their motorbikes and checked their phones.

The military flew surveillance drones over the area later in the afternoon. Then at around 3pm, members of the local People’s Defense Force launched an attack against the soldiers.

Regime troops retreated from the village during the attack but returned half an hour later when they encountered more resistance fighters outside, a PDF fighter told Myanmar Now.

“When the clash began, they went outside the village because they thought there would be fewer of us,” he said. “But when they saw there were a lot of us, they went inside and stationed themselves in the village.”

The resistance fighters held their fire while the soldiers took cover in the village, allowing residents to flee, he added. “Once we guessed that there was enough time for everyone to be out of the village, we surrounded it.”

The soldiers took cover in a high school, a monastery and a pagoda as the two sides exchanged fire for about three hours.

“The pagoda was damaged–some pieces fell off,” the PDF fighter said. “There were even holes in the roofs of buildings in the village.”

Two military trucks came from Monywa to bring reinforcements but PDF fighters attacked them with explosives, causing multiple casualties, the PDF said.

Survivors from among the reinforcements then went and set fire to eight houses near the site of the ambush, locals said.

At 6:30pm, PDF fighters retreated, allowing the military to also retreat to a site about two miles from the village.

“Our members who were involved in the fight say at least 20 soldiers were killed in two locations,” the PDF fighter said.

One PDF fighter was shot in the head and killed while two others suffered injuries to their hands and legs, he added.

The military deployed snipers and mortars during the clash.

“We’ll keep fighting until we succeed. We don’t accept the terrorist military at all, so we’ll just keep going,” the PDF fighter said.

On Wednesday morning, over 200 soldiers arrived at the village and took up posts at the school and the monastery.

“No one dares to go near the village. They’ve already destroyed a home along the road to the village,” a local resident said.

More than 1,000 people from Htayaw Kyin and nearby villages have been displaced by the occupying soldiers.

Villagers in Yinmabin Township were among the first to take up arms against the junta in April.

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Regime arrests military defector and former parliamentarian in Covid-19 isolation

Four people are arrested during a junta raid on a Mandalay civil society organisation where they had been undergoing temporary treatment for Covid-19

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 24, 2021

An overview of the Mandalay neighbourhood where the Kanaung Institute is located

Four people, including an army defector and a former parliamentarian, were arrested in Mandalay by the junta authorities on Monday night during a raid on a local civil society organisation.

The individuals had been staying at the Kanaung Institute, which observes elections and conducts analysis on parliamentary affairs, in an attempt to isolate themselves after being infected with Covid-19. They tested positive for the virus last week, according to a source at the institute.

“They couldn’t go to a hospital. So they were staying at the office for temporary treatment,” a Kanaung Institute representative told Myanmar Now.

Those arrested in the 11pm raid were two Kanaung Institute staff, a former National League for Democracy parliamentarian, and Maj Soe Wai Hlaing, an officer who had left the Myanmar military due to his opposition to the February 1 coup.

Following the arrests, there was speculation on social media that Maj Soe Wai Hlaing had provided training to the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (PDF), which was involved with a clash with the junta’s armed forces in the city on Tuesday morning. The Kanaung Institute official denied the allegations that any of those arrested were linked to the PDF.

“These people have no ties to the PDF, they’re not giving any training. They were just sheltering at our office because they had Covid-19 symptoms and they were arrested,” the Kanaung Institute member said.

At the time of reporting on Wednesday evening, the military council had not issued a statement on the arrests.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported that nearly 900 people have been killed and more than 6,000 have been detained by the military council since the coup. The military council maintains that those killed are around 300.

The regime-controlled health ministry recorded 680 new cases of Covid-19 nationwide on Wednesday. A new outbreak began in late May and Wednesday’s record was the highest number of infections documented within a 24-hour period since the coup.

Since March 2020, there have been nearly 150,000 recorded cases of Covid-19 with 3,269 deaths in the country, according to the health ministry now under the control of the military regime.