ALP denies detaining and torturing Sittwe student

By Admin 05 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
5 May 2023, Sittwe

The Arakan Students’ Union released a statement on Friday strongly condemning the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) led by Saw Mra Razar Lin for detaining a student and forcing him to do forced labour.

Seven ALP members came to the house of a Grade 11 student in Sittwe on March 11, and took him from his home at gunpoint, alleging that they had received a complaint against him. The student was detained for 18 days, said the Arakan Students’ Union.

“It is against the law to have perpetrated such an act against a Grade 11 student who is younger than 18. It is a horrible act, and we condemn this,” said an official of the union.

The union accused the ALP of arresting the innocent student in public, and shackling and putting him in stocks as if he were a criminal. The student was also forced to do hard labour and dig the ground to make way for septic work, said the statement.

The act violates not only human rights, but also children’s rights, and was perpetrated through the barrel of a gun, said the official of the union.

The ALP denied the detention of a student, and said the statement is a baseless accusation.

ALP spokesman Kgaing Zaw Min Thein said: “We did not arrest that student. The truth was we asked his mother [to come to our office] to negotiate [a dispute] over inheritance. The student, who is her son, insisted that he accompanied his mother. We told them to go back. But he insisted that he stay with his mother. We didn’t arrest him.”

On the 18th day, a relative came and took the student, said the ALP official, who denied threatening, beating or forcing him to work.

DMG has reached out to the student and his parents, but they declined to comment.

The ALP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the U Thein Sein government in 2015.

Following frictions within party leadership, the camp led by Saw Mra Razar Lin announced on Facebook on March 20 that the party had been reorganised by expelling those holding different views.

The camp led by Saw Mra Razar Lin has its office in Sittwe’s Setyonesu Ward, and is engaged in peace talks with the current military regime.