#mrauk-u

러시아 침공으로 지연된 Mrauk-U 세계문화유산 등록 계획 재개

  [애드쇼파르] 미얀마 고고학 박물관 관계자는 러시아 침공으로 지연되고 있었던 Mrauk-U 유네스코 세계문화유산 등재를 위한 계획이 지연이 되었다고 밝혔다. 시찰단 선정 결정이 2022년 6월 러시아 카잔시에서 열리는 유네스코 세계유산위원회 회의에서 결정이 될 예정이었으나 러시아 침공으로 연기가 되고 있다고 한다. 이에 유네스코에서 2022년 9월부터 2023년 7월사이 Mrauk-U 지역에 대한 평가를 실시할 계획이었지만 현재로선 방문일이 미정이라고 한다. 이에 전문가들이 2022년에 미얀마를 방문하게 되면 2023년 유네스코 세계문화유산 후보에 올라갈 수 있어 이에 대한 준비를 재개할 것이라고 밝혔다.

The letter mentioned that the government troops stationed in the ancient pagoda compound namely the Thone Sat Ta Bone and their artillery shells had damaged Buddha images and religious buildings.

It requested the military to move troops from the ancient pagoda compound.

“There were no military troops on the platform of ancient Thone Sat Ta Bone Pagoda. But the Arakan Army (AA) came onto the Thone Sat Ta Bone Pagoda in March and made bunkers in the pagoda compound. That’s why there were clashes. There were no more fighting there later,” said Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun.

He also said that there were no government troops ever in pagoda compound in the past. No troops were allowed station on the platform of pagoda.Only the AA did so, building bunkers and ensuing battles with the AA had damaged religious buildings. In the past, the government troops and regiments had to renovate the Thone Sat Ta Bone pagoda from such damages.

The Myanmar military indiscriminately opened fire Monday night in the ancient Rakhine town of Mrauk-U, including at historical religious sites, injuring seven villagers in the latest shooting incident in war-torn Rakhine state, area residents said.

Local residents said government troops started shooting from military trucks as they passed by around 7 p.m., wounding the seven civilians, including women and children.

The Myanmar Army denied the random shootings.

“According to locals, government soldiers shot into the town from the hills, and it was not a battle,” said Tun Thar Sein, a lawmaker representing Mrauk-U in the Rakhine state parliament.

“They said it was a clearance operation by the government army,” he added.

Government soldiers fired their weapons in response to an attack by the Arakan Army (AA), a Buddhist Rakhine military fighting for autonomy in the state, said Colonel Win Zaw Oo, spokesman of the Myanmar military’s Western Command which is responsible for Rakhine, on Tuesday.

“We have a military headquarters in Mrauk-U,” he said. “The AA began shooting at us from the front as well as from the sides at about 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. last night.”

“They also shot at our security guards in town and on the streets, as well as from the historical site,” he said. “That’s why we had to shoot back. We shot back at them carefully. We didn’t shoot back without reason.”

The Myanmar Army has been fighting Arakan forces in several townships in the northern part of Rakhine state since late last year.

Other residents also reported that no AA troops were in the vicinity of the gunfire.

“Military trucks came into town, and soldiers were shooting around with small arms and heavy weapons from these trucks, said Ashin Wunna Thara, a monk from Myo-U Monastery. “There were no AA soldiers in town, and nobody said the AA did it.”

Now locals do not go out at night, and everyone goes to bed around 8 p.m., he added.

“We have heard that police and soldiers are checking houses in downtown Mrauk-U,” the monk said. “I visited downtown today, and it was like a ghost town.”

‘Army did it intentionally’

Kyaw Zan, a resident of Mrauk-U’s Pan Myaung village, said he believes that soldiers opened fire on purpose.

“The government army did it intentionally,” he said. “Because of their random firings, a 10-year-old child from Mro Chaung village was injured on her arm, and a woman from Pan Myaung village was injured on her leg.”

“The government soldiers are checking the monasteries in villages,” he added.

Many locals displaced by fighting in Mrauk-U and other Rakhine townships have sought shelter in monasteries.

A resident of Myaung Taung village confirmed that a child had been injured.

“A child from Mro Chaung village was injured by the government army’s shooting, and we saw some soldiers putting bandages on that child, said the villager who declined to give his name.

Some of those injured, including a husband and wife wounded by an exploding artillery shell, were being treated at the main hospital in Mrauk-U, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported.

RFA was later unable to reach Win Zaw Oo for further comment on the injured civilians.

On Tuesday, the Myanmar military’s information team said in a statement that the AA is carrying out sabotage actions intentionally by destroying civilian, government, and historical religious buildings.

On Monday, AA spokesman Khine Thukha accused the government army of damaging ancient monuments and temples in Mrauk-U, remnants of a powerful empire that existed there from the 15th century to the late 18th century.

More than 400 villagers fled their homes in the hills east of volatile Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township on Sunday when the Myanmar Army fired into their communities amid an increase in the number of government troops in the area, local residents said.

Altogether, 3,000-some people from Mrauk-U have fled from armed conflict between Myanmar soldiers and the Arakan Army (AA), a Buddhist Rakhine army fighting for autonomy in the state, since Feb. 19, 2019. They are staying temporarily in 13 camps in the township, according to locals providing assistance to the displaced residents.

SITTWE, Rakhine State — Authorities and conservationists in Rakhine State suspect local vandals for the damage of nearly a dozen Buddha images inside a 14th century temple Wednesday night in the ancient Arakanese royal capital of Mrauk-U.

Eleven of 28 Buddha images inside Sin Cha Seik Ward’s Lay Myat Hnar Temple were damaged, said Daw Khin Than, who chairs a government-supported conservation group in Mrauk-U.

From the 15th to 19th centuries Mrauk-U was the seat of a succession of Arakanese kings who at their height controlled much of modern-day western Myanmar, including Rakhine State, and eastern Bangladesh. Much of the ancient city remains well preserved and some 380 historic temples are scattered among the lush hills of northern Rakhine.

“There is a need to tighten security in Mrauk-U. I think people are drinking and abusing drugs inside pagodas. Some Buddha images had their heads broken off, some images had their arms damaged, and so on. Buddha images in an urban area have been destroyed because of lax security,” Daw Khin Than told The Irrawaddy.

U Than Htike, director of Mrauk-U Township’s Department of Archaeology, National Museums and Libraries, said he has filed a complaint police.

“We made a field inspection this morning, and residents in the neighborhood said they heard people fighting that night. They did not dare to go there to see what was happening until the next morning. Then they saw that the Buddha images were destroyed,” he told The Irrawaddy.

U Than Htike said his department lacks the personnel to assign security guards to the Lay Myat Hnar Temple. He said it has installed doors at the temple’s four entrances but added that some of them were now in poor condition.

Daw Khin Than said this was the first time that Buddha images in one of the township’s urban wards have been damaged.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture has been working to nominate Mrauk-U for UNESCO world heritage status.

Mrauk-U sits on the Kaladan River, about 60 km inland from the state capital, Sittwe, and is among Rakhine’s main tourist attractions along with Ngapali Beach. But communal violence between the state’s Arakanese Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities in mid-2012 has driven tourist numbers down.

Authorities forbid foreigners from visiting the old city in the wake of the violence. And although the ban was lifted within months, foreign visitors have remained few.

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