Seven civilian, who have been killed in a police crackdown in the Rakhine (Arakan) State’s Mrauk U, have been buried at Minn-thar-kyun Cemetery on January 18.
“We have a crematorium, but we buried them in the tombs so that they can be exhumed in case of an investigation. We have tried to satisfy the relatives [of the deceased],” said U Maung Than, chair of Mrauk U Free Funeral Service Society.
The deceased men were buried one by one since 10 am and the funeral only ended at 1 PM. The funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, according to Ko Maung Win Chay, a local resident.
“We buried them one by one in order to have lesser mourners at the funeral, but many of them came. The number of mourners was over tens of thousands of people. More people came to the funeral more than the Shite-thaung Temple festival,” he said.
Seven men were killed and twelve men have been injured during the police crackdown against the protest in front of the district police force office on the night of January 16 after the police prohibited an event for commemorating the fall of the Rakhine kingdom.
The seven deceased men have been identified as Ko Nyi Nyi Kyaw (a) Nyi Pu (age 31), Maung Than Maung (age 18), Maung Naing San Chay (age 21), Maung Kyaw Naing Win (age 23), Maung Kyaw Thein Soe (age 23), Maung Min Kyaw Than (age 16), and U Aung Nay Lin (age 36).
Five youths protested in front of the Rakhine State government office for 20 minutes on January 17 to urge the government to take strong action against those who were responsible for the police shooting.
"The authorities fired at Mrauk U residents for staging a mass protest. We believe such kind of shooting was not in line with the law. That's why we are protesting to urge [the government] to investigate this incident immediately in line with the law," said Ko Than Hla, one of the protesters.
