Man arrested for alleged Arakan Army links in Kyaukphyu Twsp

By Myo Thiri Kyaw 27 Jul 2020

Myo Thiri Kyaw | DMG
27 July, Kyaukphyu

A military battalion entered Leik Kha Maw village in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township and detained a 20-year-old man on July 26, according to local residents and an Arakan State lawmaker.

The detainee has been identified as Ko Soe Aung, who operates a poultry farm, according to U Maung Myint, a resident of Leik Kha Maw village.

“I don’t know where he was taken. I am worried about his fate because he could be killed,” he told DMG.

He added that the detainee’s mother went to Bawtu village, where security personnel were stationed temporarily, but did not find her son there.

A 60-strong military contingent arrived at Leik Kha Maw village at about noon on July 26 and checked the household registration cards and identity cards of locals and gathered them at the village’s monastery for questioning, said residents.

The troops interrogated six people in a storeroom of the monastery, said a villager who declined to be named.

“They threatened us with swords and kicked us because they wanted to know information about the Arakan Army,” he quoted one of the men questioned by the military as saying.

The military reportedly released five of the six men and took Ko Soe Aung into custody at about 7 p.m.

An Arakan State MP for Kyaukphyu Township, U Phoe San, said he had heard reports that the military interrogated some residents from Leik Kha Maw village and detained one of the them.

DMG phoned Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun and Maj-Gen Tun Tun Nyi of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team for comment on the incident, but they could not be reached.

Arrests of local residents of Kyaukphyu and Ramree townships on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army have been on the rise over the past month.