The local authorities are now conducting people militia training for the native minorities who include the nationalities of Arakanese, Mro, Dainak and Thet, etc, in Maungdaw, a border township in Arakan State, aiming to empower the people to safeguard their own villages in the area.
300 villagers from 30 villages in northern Maungdaw Township are said to be attending the militia training being conducted in the Burmese border security force Nasaka Area (04).
While speaking to Narinjara, a Buddhist monk from nearby Village said, “The training was started on September 8 in the station of Nasaka Area (04) and is still going on. 300 villagers—10 people from each village in our area—are now taking the training. But I don’t know exactly about the training period.”
A trainee from Nanthartaung Village also said they are trained by the officers of Army and Nasaka.
“We are taking military combat training everyday from 9 am to 4 pm with an hour break for lunch. We are taking this training so that we can safeguard the security of our own villages by ourselves”, said the trainee.
He said he and other trainees from Nanthartaung Village are also serving for their village sentry along with their fellow villagers every night after coming back from the training.
He added that the military officers have told them in the training that 10 guns will be provided for a village after completing their training.
A villager from Mawrawady Village in southern Maungdaw also said the training is being conducted for the villagers in their area as well.
“The training here started on 17th of September. 10 villagers from each village have to attend the training everyday from 7 am to 4 pm with a break of one and half hours. The trainers are from the LIB (352) and the police force. The training period here is one month”, said the villager who is also taking the training.
He said the people militia trainings are now being conducted not only for the Arakanese villagers but also for other minority villagers in their township.
