Senior Buddhist monk shot dead in Myanmar

UCA News reporter

Members of Myanmar's security forces check cars on a road in Yangon on April 2. (Photo by AFP)

Soldiers of Myanmar's military junta shot and killed a senior Buddhist monk, claims a colleague of the murdered monk in a video circulating on social media.

Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, the abbot of Win Neinmitayon Monastery in the Bago region, was shot and killed on June 19, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on June 20.

Munindabhivamsa, a retired member of the State Sangha Nayaka Committee, which oversees the nation's Buddhist clergy, was shot while leaving the airport in a car with fellow monk Sayadaw Bhaddanta Gunikabhivamsa.

In a video circulating on social media since June 20, Gunikabhivamsa said that he and the car driver were both injured in the indiscriminate shooting unleashed by the military junta.

[I said] how can you soldiers be so cruel? They replied that they did not know monks were inside the car, Gunikabhivamsa said.

The soldiers said they believed the car was an enemy vehicle because the windows were closed, so they shot at it, Gunikabhivamsa added.

However, the junta-controlled media in the country has blamed the rebel fighters for Munindabhivamsa's death.

In a report of the incident, the Mandalay Region Religious Affairs Department chief justified the military action, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported.

The official report, citing local authorities, stated that the security patrol had opened fire after the monk did not pull over as instructed.

RFA said that junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun was yet to comment on the matter following a request for information.

RFA could not reach the Mandalay People's Defence Force (PDF) for comment, either.

Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa will be cremated on June 27.

Dozens of PDFs have sprung up since the 2021 coup and have surprised the military with their effectiveness, according to analysts.

Many civilians lost their lives due to rampant violence and clashes between the military junta and the rebels.

The number of displaced people in Myanmar has reached three million, the United Nations said, the vast majority forced to flee their homes by conflict unleashed by the military's 2021 coup.

Myanmar stands at the precipice in 2024 with a deepening humanitarian crisis, the UN's resident coordinator in the country said in a statement released on May 6.

Around 2.7 million have fled since the putsch that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's government after a short-lived experiment with democracy.