‘His name is Colonel Than Win Aung. He smeared and attacked the people at 11 pm on the 24th of May. He threatened that he would shoot the people with his gun. He came up with words related to his genitals’, reported a local from Myo Thit quarter, Man-aung, on the condition of anonymity.

It is also reported that this colonel is in love with a girl called Ma Htut Htut from Sipinthayar road, Man-aung. On the day of incident, he visited her house, followed by a group of his drunken colleagues who were on motorbikes, noisy and loud. Afterwards, they arrived at U Tin Maung Htay’s house, who is a township administrator and from there, he and his colleagues started shouting out rude words to all locals.

‘The locals are digusted with the fact that this colonel is trespassing in the village in the middle of the night while they are drunk and noisy. Accordingly, some locals complained it to the local administrator. Some locals witnessed this colonel when he crossed the village roads. Some were seen whispering and talking about him by the drunken colonel. This started him swearing the locals’, said the local.

As a colonel is a responsible figure who works in Tatmadaw, for the country; his misuse of the power in threatening the locals with his guns, followed by swearing words made the locals feel so intimidated that they went complaining of it to U Thar Nyunt, who is a state MP and also a deputy president of State Htut-taw.

‘We have complained it to U Thar Nyunt. We are also planning to complain of it to the Arakan state government. A Local administrator has also reported the case to the township administrator,’ the local said.

A teacher from Man-aung told Narinjara that Colonel Than Win Aung has done similar things to the locals before, and so the complaint and distribution of justice is necessary.

‘This is not his first time. He has done it before. One time he broke all the chairs in a Man-dat, a temporary shelter for playing water in Water Festival because he could not sing song with a girl he liked. He also insulted other people nearby’, said he.

It is said that in Man-aung, Water Festival is celebrated until the end of April according to the local tradition.

Other people reported that military soldiers in general are insulting the local Arakanese everywhere both verbally and physically and that they don’t even discriminate with the senior citizens. Some soldiers even used physical might in insulting, such as beatings as witnessed by some locals. A lot of Arakanese regard the insults from these soldiers as a systematic racist attack on the Arakanese people by the ruling majority people, which is not a healthy sign for peace.