The Tatmadaw True News Information Team’s secretary, Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun, has said that the military does not undertake offensive maneuvers using Mrauk-U’s ancient pagodas as bases of operation.

Zaw Min Tun was speaking during a press conference at the Defence Services Museum in Naypyidaw on January 23, in response to a question from a journalist who asked why Tatmadaw units established camps near centuries-old pagodas in Mrauk-U, the capital of the ancient Arakanese Kingdom.

“There are places in Mrauk-U where the Tatmadaw can set up camp safely. As an exception, we may set up a camp somewhere temporarily when we go out due to road or town security reasons,” he said. “But I would like to state that we don’t make any attack or lay landmines using pagodas as a target point.”

Maj-Gen Tun Tun Nyi, vice chairman of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team, noted that pagodas in Myanmar are often located on hills that offer a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding terrain.

“It can happen anywhere as we are working on [countering] terrorism attacks or [undertaking other] security operations by using those kinds of land,” he said.

U Hla Thein Aung, a Pyithu Hluttaw member representing Arakan State’s Minbya Township, submitted a proposal on September 23 last year during a session of the legislature, which urged armed groups to avoid using historical and religious sites as protective cover. He said the Tatmadaw had set up a camp on a hill that also hosted a pagoda in Pan Myaung village of Minbya Township.

A Tatmadaw MP supported the proposal, and it was approved on September 25.

The Arakan Army (AA) subsequently released a statement, on September 26, saying the ethnic armed group would not launch any attack using religious structures, schools, hospitals or villages as shields.