Detained by military, two Buthidaung Twsp village administrators held incommunicado for one week

By DMG 10 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
10 September 2022, Buthidaung

Family members have not been in contact with two village administrators from Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, who were arrested by the Myanmar military a week ago.

The detainees have been identified as U Armihusaung, administrator of Mee Kyaung Zay Village and U Kyaw Hla, the administrator of Tatminchaung Village.

U Kyaw Hla was detained on September 3 when he, along with 11 other administrators, went to the military’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 234 in Buthidaung for a meeting, a family member told DMG.

“Twelve village administrators were summoned for a meeting, but 10 of them were released the following day. They [the other two village administrators] were arrested and family members were not allowed to meet them. I don’t know the reason why they were arrested,” the family member added.

“Military officials told us at the meeting that the village administrators must attend meetings to which they are summoned by either the military or Arakan Army. They checked our mobile phones and photos, and we had to spend one night there,” an unnamed village administrator told DMG.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Arakan State Minister for Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura regarding the military’s detention of the two village administrators.

When DMG contacted Buthidaung Township Administrator U Kyan Aye, he hung up the phone after saying that the two village administrators had been arrested.

Local administrators have expressed concerns about the junta’s recent arrests of some of their peers, and are worried for their own safety.

U Phone Ko Naing, the administrator of Kyeinchaung village, was detained along with Ko Tun Chay, Ko Tun Kyaing and U Ba Thein, a village in-charge for Thayargon village, on July 19 and 20, when they were taken into custody by military and Border Guard Force (BGF) personnel.

Some junta-appointed ward and village administrators in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, where junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) have exchanged fire in recent weeks, reportedly tendered their resignation letters amid rising military-AA tensions.