One detained Arakan Front Party leader released

By DMG 07 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
7 October 2022, Kyaukphyu

One of the Arakan Front Party (AFP) senior members who went missing on Tuesday evening was freed on Thursday night.

U Kyaw Lwin, an advisor to the party and U Maung Kaung, who is on the party’s central executive committee, went missing after they had departed for the former’s farmhouse in Kone Bwe Village, Kyaukphyu Township, on October 4.

U Maung Kaung, 70, was released near his home by a group of unknown men at around 11 p.m. on Thursday. Party advisor U Kyaw Lwin, 56, who is a former Arakan State lawmaker, remains under detention, according to family members.

“U Maung Kaung was released last night. He said he was blindfolded and dropped off near his house. U Kyaw Lwin has not yet been released. They were detained together. But U Maung Kaung said they were kept separately,” said a family member of U Kyaw Lwin.

At time of publication, U Maung Kaung had reportedly declined to say by whom he was abducted and what he experienced during two days of detention. But family members say they believe the duo were seized by Arakan Army (AA) personnel.

AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha said he had no knowledge of the arrests.

Arakan Front Party (AFP) chairman Dr. Aye Maung called for the immediate release of U Kyaw Lwin.

“I am grateful that U Maung Kaung was released as he is in his advanced years and not in good health. I would like to call for the release of Ko Kyaw Lwin. I want any organisation to accept constructive criticism,” he said.

The duo’s arrest came after U Kyaw Lwin wrote a post on the murder of the head of the Maungdaw District Education Department, Daw Myint Myint San, who was stabbed to death on October 2 in the compound of her office in Maungdaw. She died while being taken to the township hospital.

In the wake of the killing, a post from U Kyaw Lwin’s Facebook account read: “I never support targeting monks, health [care workers], and education staff. Or [was Daw Myint Myint San murdered] because of personal grudge? It is, however, unlikely. She is a Bamar ethnic teacher. I hope that she was killed not because of racial hatred.”

Myanmar’s military regime has alleged that Daw Myint Myint San was killed by the People’s Defence Force (PDF), but there is no such organised iteration of that armed anti-junta group in Arakan State.