The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army apologized on Tuesday for damage done to a Buddhist Pagoda in Laukkai town by one of its troops, after a video showing him hitting a pagoda with a sledge hammer went viral.
The soldier will be punished, the ethnic army that recently seized the town in northern Shan State said.
The video went viral this week. It shows a young man wearing an MNDAA uniform hitting the pagoda with a hammer.
The junta has used the video to incite ethnic and religious tensions and hatred against the MNDAA as it continued to lose bases and control of towns to the armed group and its alliance partners in northern Shan State.
Junta propaganda channels, including the website of the Commander-in-Chief Office, circulated the video and screenshots from it, saying the MNDAA is targeting Buddhists and religious buildings. Junta supporters also shared the video and condemned the MNDAA.
On Tuesday, pro-junta monks and lay people held a protest against the MNDAA. They called the ethnic army a “terrorist group” and called for an end to “terrorist attacks” against pagodas and Buddhist religious buildings.
In its statement, the MNDAA said it was responding to the misunderstanding and condemnation of it sparked by the video. It also said it was issuing the statement to prevent malicious people from inciting religious and ethnic hatred and to prevent Buddhists from suffering emotional harm from the video.
The ethnic Kokang armed group has never ordered the destruction of religious buildings and respects freedom of religion, it said.
“Hitting the pagoda with a sledge hammer was not an order from the MNDAA, but a personal act. As an organization, we deeply apologize for the poor discipline and incompetence of our subordinates,” the statement said.
A department has been assigned to punish the perpetrator and instruct all officers and soldiers to respect religious freedom and protect religious buildings, it added.
The statement made no mention of the fact that the junta’s military has destroyed hundreds of religious buildings – including pagodas and churches – across the country with airstrikes and arson attacks and also uses places of worship as bases.
