Critical Notes on Civilian Causalities

At least 28 civilians have been killed due to either direct or indirect impacts of the armed clashes during the previous three months in Rakhine and bordering areas of Paletwa township according to the CAS data entry. More than 90 percent of the civilian deaths are due after the artillery shelling by the junta military into the nearby villages.

Other forms of civilian deaths included gun fire at security gates and mine explosions. Differently from the intensity and frequency of the armed clashes, the highest civilian fatalities occurred in relatively stable townships such as six in KyaukTaw and four in Mrauk-U.

Apart from this, the two Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) members on August 13, a Nationwide ceasefire agreement signatory group, were killed in the rest huts of Gyim chaung village in Maungdaw township because of unknown gunshots.

On August 28, 2022, three civilians were also killed by the junta artillery shelling from Battalion 377 (Kha-MaRa-Mrauk U). A total of nine civilians were killed by junta shelling during August. Then, the civilian fatalities continued as the junta soldiers shot an innocent Rohingya civilian from Dar Paing village in front of Police Battalion 36, in Bu May village, Sittwe township on September 4. Other kinds of civilian deaths were mainly the results of random artillery shelling by the junta forces in the nearby villages and six civilians were killed in September.

However, October marked the highest rate of civilian fatalities with 13 compared to the former two months. Again, more than 90 percent of civilian deaths were due to the junta artillery sheelings into the surrounding areas. For instance, on October 17, three civilians from Palaung Pyin Village of Minbya township were killed due to artillery shelling of Minbya-based junta forces. And a similar event happened on the same day in Kyauk-Taw township’s Paikthel village killing at least one Rohingya.

Regarding civilian fatalities during the previous three months, 39 per cent (11) of all deaths are female and 32 percent (nice) are minority people including Rohingya and Chin ethnicities. At least seven out of 28 civilians are under 18-year-old. Others killed include students, teachers and pregnant women.

When it comes to civilian injuries, a total of 48 people including one Bangladeshi citizen was wounded by the negative impacts of armed clashes in the previous three months.

On September 16, a person named Aoung Gya Thowai Tanchangya was severely wounded in a landmine explosion on the Myanmar side in the Bangladesh border along Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban when he crossed the border to bring his cattle. One of his legs was blown off from the knee down in the explosion.

Apart from this number, two civilians were wounded and hospitalized due to the gunshots of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) members on October 9.

The key causes of the injury are artillery shelling, airstrike, a landmine explosion, and gunshot. Data also shows that most of the injury population are not from highly conflict-sensitive areas such as Paletwa and Maungdaw but from the townships such as Minbya, Kyauktaw, Buthedaung and Ponnagyun.

The civilian injuries in September and October are similarly higher in 19 and 18 respectively than in August listed with 11.

Apart from these two lists: death and injury, the collected data also shows on August 12 that there are at least 6 disappeared civilians in two different events on the same day from the same village of Khamaung Seik village in Maungdaw township.

The first incident occurred when the auto-rickshaw drivers from Khamaung Seik village were disappeared at milepost No. 43, about six miles northwest of Khamaung Seik village on their way back from sending food supplies to a border guard police outpost.

In the second story, three villagers were missed at a place, about one-mile western part of Khamaung Seik village.

In the previous three months, at least 217 people were arrested by both sides of armed conflict but mostly by the junta military and authority. Out of this number, at least 13 persons are members of either armed party. Thus, the total number of arrests of civilians is around 200 and more than 90 per cent of arrests by the junta.

The key reasons for arresting the civilians are mostly ‘to investigate’ without any judicial process. The backgrounds of the arrested persons vary and very often, are schoolteachers, students, doctors, government staff from the ‘General Administration Department’ (GAD), leaders from social and charity organizations, and businessmen. The three townships such as Kyauk-Phyu, Rambree and Taungup in the central parts of the state experience as the highest number of civilians arrested in 37, 25 and 21 respectively.

The other three key townships include Buthdaung (20), Maungdaw (17) and Sittwe (13). By month, the civilian arrest was highest in October than in the other two months.

As far as it can be reported, most of the arrested populations are sued by the clauses under Section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Association Act and Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code. To date, the ULA spokesperson said that only 80 people out of around 200 arrested civilians have been released.