USDP campaigners pelt NLD supporter’s home with rocks in Meiktila

Campaigners from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) threw rocks at the home of a National League for Democracy (NLD) supporter during a clash in the central township of Meiktila on Sunday.

Khin Mar Lay, the owner of the single-storey house in Nyaung Kaing village, said the attack started when about 300 USDP campaigners were about to leave the village.

“We were playing the NLD victory theme song at home and set up an NLD flag,” she told Myanmar Now. “When they first came into the village, they didn’t do anything, but on their way back they started throwing rocks.” 

At least six of the USDP supporters have been arrested over the incident. 

The clash came shortly before a rights group warned the run-up to the November 8 election could bring “far worse violence in the near future targeting religious and ethnic minorities.”

Meiktila was the site of anti-Muslim riots in 2013 that claimed scores of lives. It also is one of the few areas of the country where the USDP won seats in 2015. 

The NLD has stepped up its campaign in USDP strongholds in a bid to push the party out on November 8 and “the opportunity for violence in these areas is high,” said the UK-based Burma Human Rights Network in a statement on Sunday.

On Saturday and Sunday police found two unexploded hand grenades at the home of an election official in Naypyitaw. The attack came soon after the Union Election Commission (UEC) rejected a request from the USDP and other opposition parties to postpone the election. 

Khin Mar Lay, the NLD supporter from Nyaung Kaing village, said two bamboo structures on her property were also damaged in the attack. USDP supporters destroyed an NLD flag, swore at her and threatened to burn down her house and kill its residents, she said. 

Dr Maung Thin, an incumbent USDP MP running to defend his seat in Meiktila, said he was not aware of the details of the incident. 

“NLD supporters filed a case and the USDP supporters are filing another case in return. I’m hearing that both are filing cases but I don’t know clearly,” he said.

Aung Thin Naing, a USDP committee member from Meiktila, said some USDP supporters were injured and that Khin Mar Lay “disrupted” the campaigners when they came to the village.

“Since they did that, this crowd of people couldn’t take it and started throwing rocks,” he said.

He added that the USDP supporters would be filing a case but the party would not be involved.

Nyein Chan Oo, a USDP campaigner and resident of Nyaung Kaing, was arrested on Sunday night and has not been heard from since, his wife, Lin Lin Pyae, told Myanmar Now.

USDP campaigners Than Htwe, Ko San, Par Gyi, Win Tun and Phoe Thautkyar were also arrested, she said, adding that they tried to stop the conflict. 

“The NLD supporters were playing their drums to spite the USDP supporters and wouldn’t move their motorbikes and cars off the road,” she said. 

She added: “One kid from the USDP side was trying to leave with his motorbike and their flag was in the way. So he removed it and they started punching him, claiming that this was a deliberate action to break their flag.”

Ashin Tayzaniya, a monk from the monastery in Nyaung Kaing, told Myanmar Now he witnessed the clash. 

“When the campaigners were leaving, the NLD supporters placed bamboo that was about 15 feet long and their flag right at the village entrance. The motorbike leading the USDP side picked up the flag and went underneath it. And that’s when it started,” he said.

An officer from Meiktila Township Police Station 2 declined to comment on the incident when contacted by Myanmar Now.

Shein Win, chair of the Mandalay Region Election Commission, said he had not heard of any complaints about the case.

“It’s up to the police… if it gets worse, the UEC will get involved,” he said.

On September 16 USDP campaigners waved Buddhist flags, drank alcohol, and harassed NLD supporters, NLD official Tin Ko Ko said in a complaint to the UEC.