About 300 residents of Ann Town in Arakan State, where the Burma Army’s western command is based, staged a protest calling for an end to fighting in Arakan State on 16 May.
Protestors in Ann Town call for peace in Arakan State
The protest leader, Ko Zaw Min, in an interview with the Narinjara News said: “We want peace. We are calling for the end of the civil war and fighting between the Arakan Army and the Burma Army. We demand that the Burma Army holds political dialogue with the Arakan Army, to solve politics [problems] through political [dialogue] and the release of people that have been arrested on suspicion [of having ties with the Arakan Army].”
The protest started at 10 am and protesters holding placards marched peacefully along Minbuu Road to Datpaungsu Pagoda, where the protest finished at noon.
Ko Zaw Min said: “We want peace and the right to have human rights. But, the Burma Army has said that it will annihilate the Arakan Army [AA] so this remark is quite far from peace. That’s why we are calling for [the Burma Army] to immediately implement peace in line with the desire of the Arakan people rather than annihilating [the AA].”
Protestors in Ann Town call for peace in Arakan State
Witnesses said that some protestors held placards which said things like: ‘Stop Discrimination Against the AA and the Arakan People’ and ‘the Burma Army needs to Stop Launching offensives Against the AA’.
Myatanzaung Sayadaw U Nanda Tharyaka, a monk from from Mrauk U also talked at the protest about the current political situation.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
