The military junta attacked Mrauk-U Cultural Zone, Rakhine State that has been submitted to the World Heritage Site with heavy weapons six times in a row on January 10 —according to the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
“The Military Junta has learned that the Mrauk-U Cultural Zone has been proposed to the World Heritage Site, the Mrauk-U Palace, which is considered the heart of the Arakan people, but they deliberately fired six times with heavy weapons,” said the press release of the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
Mya Tun, the director of the Arakan Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Association, said, “If the main purpose is to destroy a place with cultural heritage and destroy it, then it is a violation of the human rights of an ethnic group. Another thing is to say that it is done with the purpose of hurting the ethnic group. Normally, if there is a war, they will fight to the death against each other. Now, to damage the cultural heritage is to commit a war crime as well as ethnic oppression.”
The 540th Light Infantry Battalion, based in Mrauk-U, fired heavy weapons at the palace. It was a deliberate destruction of ancient cultural heritage and a war crime, according to the press release of the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
“Mrauk-U is something that is highly valued in the hearts of the Arakan people. It is a place that has been presented as having cultural heritage. Harming the heritage that is valued by the Arakan people is the same as insulting the entire Rakhine nation,” said a resident of Mrauk-U.
Some of the shells fired by the 540th Light Infantry Battalion exploded not only in the ancient palace but also caused damage to some houses. Similarly, the 377th Light Infantry Battalion fired again with heavy weapons at 4:00 p.m., resulting in the burning of two residential houses near the Wasi Bridge in Wasi Ward, Mrauk-U Town.
“The shells fell, and the houses caught fire. A pork sausage shop and a house next to it were also destroyed. People from the neighborhood extinguished the fire, so the rest of the houses did not go up in fire,” said a resident near Wasi Bridge.
The Mrauk-U Cultural Region in Rakhine State was launched to be a World Cultural Heritage Site in 2017, the draft proposal was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Center in 2019, and the final proposal was submitted in 2020, according to the ancient heritage conservators.