Rice Killing Day
| 1967 Sittwe rice killing day | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 13 August 1967 | ||
| Location | Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar | ||
| Caused by | Due to food shortages in Rakhine state | ||
| Result | Army crackdown and shooting at protestors | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
No centralized figure | |||
| Casualties | |||
| Deaths | 24 (government claim) 200-300 (claimed by eyewitnesses)[1] | ||
| Injuries | 100+[2] | ||
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On 13 August 1967, an incident occurred in Sittwe, Rakhine State, where Ne Win's military regime fired on Arakanese protestors, killing over 300 Arakanese people.[3][4] The protest erupted due to severe food shortages caused by government hoarding and forced rice exports, despite local starvation.
The day is annually commemorated by the Rakhine community on August 13 to remember the brutality of the military dictatorship.[5]
Names
The event is referred to as multiple names including "Rice Killing Day", "Rice Crisis Day"[6] and "Rice Massacre".[5]
Event
The event occurred during the rule of General Ne Win and the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). Earlier that year, a cyclone in May significantly reduced rice production which lead to widespread food shortages. At the same time, government policies prioritized rice exports to other parts of the country and domestic supply was limited. As a result, many people in Arakan faced serious difficulties obtaining food, regardless of their ability to pay. Some turned to alternative foods such as taro root and roselle, while others experienced severe hunger.[7][8]
In Sittwe, these conditions led to public unrest. On August 13, residents organized a protest, which was met with a military response. The military regime's security forces opened fire on the crowd, causing multiple casualties.[7][3]
Casualties
The government's statement said the death toll to be at 24, but eyewitness claimed that more than 300 people died.[1] Around 100 people were also injured.[2]
Legacy
The anniversary is held by Rakhine diaspora in several places including in Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and USA.[8][9]
References
- 1 2 "အတိတ်သည် ယနေ့အတွက် သမိုင်းဖြစ်သည်". Development Media Group (in Burmese). Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- 1 2 "စစ္ေတြ ဆန္ျပဿနာ ၄၄ နွစ္ျပည့္ အခမ္းအနားမ်ား က်င္းပ". burmese.dvb.no. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- 1 2 "Historic Sittwe rice killing day observed in Rakhine capital city". www.narinjara.com. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- ↑ "A Land in Conflict on Myanmar's Western Frontier" (PDF). tni.org. pp. 38–39.
- 1 2 "Sittwe activists remember Arakan rice massacre". DVB. 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- ↑ "Vox Pop: Remembering 'rice crisis day' in Arakan State". Burma News International. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- 1 2 "Vox Pop: Remembering 'rice crisis day' in Arakan State". Development Media Group. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- 1 2 "Arakanese Observe Day of the Rice Massacre". Burma News International. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- ↑ "၄၄ ႏွစ္ေျမာက္ ရခိုင္ျပည္ ဆန္ျပႆနာေန႔". Retrieved 2026-04-10.