Junta arrests Kyaukphyu man accused of funding AA

By Admin 07 Dec 2023

DMG Newsroom
7 December 2023, Kyaukphyu

Regime forces arrested a man from Taung Yin ward in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu town on Wednesday for allegedly funding the Arakan Army (AA).

U Naing Win, 38, was taken by more than 10 junta security personnel from his home on Wednesday night, according to a town resident close to him.

“We still don’t know where he is being detained. He has nothing to do with the AA. He is just an ordinary civilian,” the resident said.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA renewed in the second week of November. Fighting has not yet erupted in Kyaukphyu Township, but the regime has arrested several residents there nonetheless.

Night raids and arbitrary arrests by junta troops are a cause for concern among local people, said a Kyaukphyu town resident.

“The regime has been increasingly targeting and prosecuting civilians. Their arrests of civilians who have nothing to do with armed groups are nothing more than persecution of civilians,” he said.

At least nine Kyaukphyu residents have been arrested in Kyaukphyu Township during the latest fighting. They all face incitement charges under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

The regime has arrested at least 70 civilians since renewed fighting broke out in Arakan State on November 13. It has filed incitement charges against at least seven civilians from Sittwe town and nine from Kyaukphyu under the Penal Code, though the actual number of civilians facing prosecution is likely higher.