Criticism mounts over junta handling of missing Maungdaw Twsp teachers

By DMG 21 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 June 2022, Sittwe

Arakanese politicians and teachers have criticised the way the Arakan State Administration Council is handling the kidnapping of a school principal and female teacher last week.

Headmaster U Bo Win and teacher Daw Ohmar Kyaw of a primary school in Thinbaw Hla village were travelling to Maungdaw town when they were reportedly kidnapped by a group of men on June 16. Five days after their kidnapping, their whereabouts and who they are being held by are still unknown. The most recently available information about their fates is only that they are still alive.

The chairman of the Arakan National Party (ANP), U Tha Tun Hla, called on authorities to make public what they know about the kidnapping.

“People have no knowledge about what authorities are doing in response. Authorities are not transparent in the way they are handling the case, which has only fueled public concerns,” he said.

A search operation was halted after those who were searching for the duo were shot at by a group of men. It remains unclear who has abducted the two educators.

The kidnappers phoned the chief of Maungdaw Township education office on June 17 and asked for a ransom of 5 million Bangladeshi taka ($54,000), according to Nantha Taung Sayadaw, a Buddhist monk who led the search operation.

When asked by DMG, spokesman U Hla Thein of the regime’s Arakan State Administration Council said he knew only that the duo were detained, and nothing more.

“I have heard about it. But I don’t know who kidnapped the two teachers. I don’t know about the ransom. If the township office chief said so, why don’t you ask him? He will know. However, I don’t,” he said.

A teacher from Maungdaw who asked for anonymity criticised the spokesman’s failure to provide more information.

“They are public servants. And the government is responsible for [the missing educators]. But far from taking responsibility, he said he has no knowledge about the case,” the teacher said, adding that all education staff in Maungdaw plan to resign if the regime does not take action to rescue the pair.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Arakan Front Party (AFP) called on the regime to fully utilise its security services, including soldiers and police, to ensure the release of the two educators.

“The state governments barely have authority to command security services. So, the responsibility lies mainly on the central government that exercises sovereignty,” said AFP vice chair U Kyaw Zaw Oo.

In a statement of its own on Monday, the ANP called on the Union-level military government and the Arakan State government under the regime to take full responsibility for the release of the two detained educators, saying the kidnapping seriously affects the security of Arakanese people.

Director U Khaing Kan San of the Wan Lark Foundation urged the regime to handle the kidnapping subtly, as it happened near the border with Bangladesh.

Employees of the education system in Maungdaw have expressed concern for their safety following the kidnapping of two of their colleagues.